France: Jacques Genin

Guess who's baaaaaaaack?

Me.  In case you couldn't figure it out.  Yea.

Two weeks in Europe went by all too quickly and now I'm back at home, going to work, organizing my photos, catching up on my TV shows...and picking up my blog again.

Speaking of photos, I have devastating news. My camera was stolen from my pocket on the metro in Paris, so I don't have any of my photos from London or from most of my first full day in Paris.  Ugh.  I still get angry thinking about it.  I'll have to go through my friend's photos to see if I can scrounge together any food posts from that part of the trip.  Until then, I'm just going to move on with what I do have (thanks to my lovely little sister who let me borrow her camera for the rest of the trip).

After I found out that my camera was gone, the four of us toyed with the idea of loitering around the metro station until that jerwad (we totally know who he is, my sister pointed out how sketchy he was the moment he stepped onto the metro and stood really close to us) showed up again.  We planned on tackling him and pummeling him until he gave me back my camera.  Or at the very least my memory stick.

Instead, we did the more sensible thing and went in search of Jacques Genin for some hot chocolate.  It took a bit of work because the shop was rather nondescript:

The inside, however, was quite glam:

Rows and rows of chocolates galore.  Holy moly.

The four of us felt kind of out of place.  Then again, it's Paris.  Everyone else looked so put together and posh.  We just looked like...we were on vacation.

Anyway, after a super nice young lady (who spoke perfect English with the cutest French accent) took our order, we sat there and proceeded to plot in gory detail all the ways we would make my camera thief suffer (and never be able to procreate).  We had to put our discussion on pause when the super nice young lady brought us our sweets.

First she gave us caramels on the house:

It's like she knew we needed a pick me up after the day we had.  Did I mention that she was super nice?  (Somewhat of an anomaly in the Parisian waitstaff world.)  She gave us two regular caramels and two mango passionfruit.  I preferred the regular myself.

I'm not a fan of fruit gummies (unless it comes in sour patch kid or gummy worm form), but my friends are and what is friendship without compromise? We got a tray of the assorted pates de fruits (7 €):

The super nice young lady rattled off a chain of fruit flavors.  I caught strawberry and pear and pineapple and  blood orange and that was about it.  Sorry.  I took a nibble out of one and reaffirmed my dislike of fruit gummies.  Something about that sandy sugar texture just turns me off.

We also ordered the assorted chocolates or chocolats in French (7 €):

Again, the super nice young lady listed all the flavors.  I blanked halfway through.  I distinctly remember a ginger one that was quite yummy.  The mint one was also a favorite of mine, though the other girls thought it tasted like grass.  Ha!  Peasants.

The whole purpose of going to Jacques Genin was to try their hot chocolate (7 € a serving):

When she found out that the four of us intended to share one serving of hot chocolate, the super nice young lady was well, nice enough not to throw a hissy fit (like the garcon from Chez Chartier did...apparently French people don't like sharing food), but instead brought us four cups.

Thank goodness we shared.  The chocolate was so thick and rich that there was no way I could have finished one by myself.  It's unsweetened, so you can thunk in sugar cubes to your own tastes.

Jacques Genin was a nice little escape from reality.  Also seems like a great date spot for all your lovebirds out there.  And if you haven't clued in by now, the staff is un-Parisian-ly nice.

Plus the sweets are just ridiculously decadent.  Spoil yourself a bit and stop by the next time you're in Paris.


Jacques Genin
133, rue de Turenne
75003 Paris, France
+33(0)1 45 77 29 01
http://jacquesgenin.fr/