i love paris in the rain (part I)

 my second trip to paris!! it was so much colder than poitiers, and drizzled lightly during three days we were there. we took the 8:15am train and arrived quite early in paris. we had a lovely time, and most importantly, on the first day, found the best pain au chocolat and best chocolat chaud! both are found on rue saint-honoré, which is a little convenient for us. the best pain au chocolat can be found at no.75 rue saint-honoré in a small, quite humble boulangerie called julien. the croissants have layers and layers of delicious thin pastry that crumble when you bite into it. the ratio of pastry to chocolate was perfect too! 

 the best hot chocolate is found at no. 231 on the same road at jean-paul hévin. compared to the super famous angelique, the hot chocolate at hévin's is less dense and much more drinkable. the chocolate doesn't seperate from the oils either, which looks more appetising too! apart from the classic hot chocolate, hévin offers a range of other flavours. i tried a chocolate with matcha thé which was delicious. the matcha matched the chocolate quite well and made the drink more bitter. both chocolate and matcha were quite strong and neither over powered the other. unusual flavour, but very good!

 i also enjoyed a delicious chocolate cake (whose name i cannot pronounce and thus have forgotten) with my hot chocolate. it was probably called: "i'm the most delicious cake you'll ever eat"! soft sponge with layers of chocolate cream. the top was dusted with cocoa powder. the cake was chocolatey but not overly sweet which is a super plus for me!

for takeaway, my friend and i decided to get a tin of macarons to share back at the hotel. she chose praliné and vanille and i chose framboise and chocolat~ they were delicious, especially the chocolate one, and i got to keep the pretty blue tin too!

 we wandered around the first arrondissement and found the beautiful place vendôme where the fancy names display priceless jewels on the window displays for us to stare at wishing we could one day afford them. at the doors of each shop stood an imposing security figure who was probably wondering what we were doing there. we didn't dare enter them, we certainly did faire du lèche-vitrine, literally~