St Louis

Life began in Paris in about 300BC, on an island which is now in the middle of the
city.

Ile de la Cite has many of Paris' oldest monuments, like Notre Dame, Saint
Chapelle and Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in the city.

The island just next to it, Ile Saint Louis, is just delightful. Thanks to a good
friend of mine, we have been spending our days getting around with the help of a
little cheat method... a cute box of maps with the secrets of each arrondisment
and directions on the back! We explored these two islands with the help of these
little tour guides and discovered an amazing little community. The streets are
quiet, the buildings are all 17th century and almost each one has a gold plaque
outlining exactly which famous and/or influential person lived there and when.

More importantly Ile saint Louis is home to the BEST ICECREAM IN THE WORLD.
I know that this is a big claim to make (the map told me so!) but we tested it,
and for real, it is! Berthillion ice cream serves small expensive portions, but it is
so worth it. We tried chocolcate (of course) blood orange, caramel, honey
nougat, and mandarin. Each flavour was better than the next! I couldn't even
handle it. If you come to visit us.. our first stop is Berthillion.

Luckily for us, the walk to our favourite cafe goes straight across the island and
straight past the shop. I am officially taking up the "try a new flavour a day"
challenge. I'll get back to you with the results.

Chocolate and Blood Orange (in separate cups, so as not to contaminate each other!)

The other thing I noticed on the island was the authenticity of the little food
shops. Despite the number of tourists who flock here (myself included) the island
has managed to keep many of it's un-compromised boutiques and shops,
serving fresh products to the rich, permenant inhabitants of St Louis.

Award Winning Fromager (Cheese..er?)

I would love to come here for my regular shopping. Although I would probably
just return home with an abundance of dairy products and not much else.