Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)

by Amy Thomas

Overview

"From the New York cupcake wars to the perfect
Parisian macaron, Thomas's passion is palpable,
her sweet tooth, unstoppable."—Elizabeth Bard, bestselling author of Lunch in Paris

Forever a girl obsessed with all things French, sweet freak Amy
Thomas landed a gig as rich as the purest dark chocolate: leave
Manhattan for Paris to write ad copy for Louis Vuitton. Working on the Champs-Élysées, strolling the charming streets, and exploring the best patisseries and boulangeries, Amy marveled at the magnificence of the City of Light.

But does falling in love with one city mean turning your back on another? As much as
Amy adored Paris, there was part of her that felt like a humble chocolate chip cookie in a sea of pristine macarons. PARIS,
MY SWEET explores how the search for happiness can be as fleeting as a salted caramel souffle's rise, as intensely satisfying as molten chocolate cake, and about how the life you're meant to live doesn't always taste like the one you envisioned.

Part love letter to Paris, part love letter to New York, and total devotion to all things sweet, PARIS, MY SWEET is a treasure map for anyone with a hunger for life.

"Like a tasty Parisian bonbon, this book is filled with sweet surprises."—David Lebovitz, New York Times bestselling author of The Sweet Life in Paris

"Amy Thomas seduces us in the same manner that Paris seduced her —one exquisite morsel at a time."—Nichole Robertson, author of Paris in Color

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402264115
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	265,590
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Amy Thomas is a New York—based writer who, for two lucky years, got to call Paris home. In addition to working as a copywriter in advertising, she writes about food, travel, design, and fashion for various publications such as the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Town & Country, and Every Day with Rachael Ray. She is slightly obsessed with sweets.

Read an Excerpt

I guess you could say my story began with a bicycle and some bonbons. At the time, it just seemed like a fun summer vacation: it was 2008, and I did an apartment swap with someone in Paris. I had already visited earlier that year, but what can I say? When the invitation to spend time in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) comes knocking, my first response is "pourquoi pas?"

I've just always been one of those girls. I spent a college semester in Paris, and it was then I fell in love with the city's beauty and grace—and Nutella street crepes. When I returned to the States, I wore silk scarves and a black beret; the only thing missing from my clichéd uniform were the Gauloises cigarettes.

I binged on French films, schooling myself in nouvelle vague directors, falling especially hard for Eric Rohmer, before contemporary movies like The City of Lost Children and Amélie seduced me. I studied the Lost Generation, reading Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Janet Flanner, and built a mini-library so I'd never be far from Paris. I had books about cats in Paris, dogs in Paris, expats in Paris; Parisian interiors, Parisian gardens, and Parisian cuisine, organized by neighborhood; bistros of Paris, pâtisseries of Paris, and shopping in Paris. I became a regular at a café in my neighborhood in San Francisco simply because it served café au lait in little bowls instead of mugs, and I had more Eiffel Tower tchotchkes than I am comfortable admitting.

I was just another Francophile, like you. Until that summer of 2008.

That trip was the first time I was in Paris during the summer, and it was absolutely amazing. I loved that it was light out until after 10:00 p.m., giving me several extra hours to roam back-alley streets and sit by the Seine. I was excited to discover new neighborhoods like Bercy and Canal Saint-Martin and new "bistronomy" restaurants like Le Verre Volé and Le Comptoir du Relais. I got sucked into the semi-annual sales, les soldes, and hooked on Vélib's, the public bike-sharing system.

And then there were all the chocolatiers.

By that time, I was just as obsessed with sweets as I was Paris. I had a column in Metro newspaper called "Sweet Freak" and a blog by the same name. I knew every bakery, dessert bar, gelateria, tea salon, and chocolatier in New York City. When I traveled, I built my itinerary around a town's must-visit sweet spots.

So naturally during that week in Paris, I researched the city's best chocolatiers, mapped out a circuit, and then Vélib'ed between eight of them. It was exhilarating and exhausting, not to mention decadent. It was a chocoholic's dream ride. I wrote about my Tour du Chocolat for the New York Times, and it went on to become a top-ten travel story for the year. As I was secretly plotting a way to spend more time eating chocolate in Paris, the in-house recruiter of the ad agency where I worked casually walked into my office one day and asked if I wanted to move to Paris. I was getting transferred to write copy for the iconic fashion label Louis Vuitton. It all happened so suddenly, and seemed so magical, that I had to ask: was Paris my destiny or sheer force of will?

I guess it goes to show that you just never know where life will take you. You search for answers. You wonder what it all means. You stumble, and you soar. And, if you're lucky, you make it to Paris for a while. Here's what happened when I did.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Like a tasty Parisian bonbon, this book is filled with sweet surprises." —-David Lebovitz, author of The Sweet Life in Paris

Editorial Reviews

Traveling foodies of the world, rejoice-Thomas provides the sweet scoop on Paris and New York in this mouth-watering memoir. While an associate creative director at ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, Thomas was offered a position as copywriter on the Louis Vuitton account in Paris. So she left her life in New York-where an insatiable sweet tooth had made her a veritable expert on the city's bakeries and chocolatiers-to live in the foodie mecca of the Second Arrondissement and work in a gorgeous building on the Champs-Élysées. During her quest to find the best breads, desserts, and cheeses at the myriad pâtisseries, boulangeries, and bistros, Thomas revels in the historic and cultural joys of Paris-the parks, markets, and of course the gorgeous Canal Saint-Martin. Thankfully, her vivid descriptions of baguettes, macaroons, and baba au rhum do more than merely tempt-supplemented with an extensive list of Thomas' favorite bakeries in Paris and New York, readers can get their own taste of two cities, though Thomas' is the tale to beat. Maps.
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Publishers Weekly

"Like a tasty Parisian bonbon, this book is filled with sweet surprises." ---David Lebovitz, author of The Sweet Life in Paris

From the Publisher