The OPMOM Blog

Montmartre District

Montmartre bustles at the pinnacle of Parisian life.

A city within The City, it is an amalgamation of tourists, artists, musicians, vrais Parisiens, and everybody who caters to anybody in between.  Here you can be served French Chardonnay by a hippy, 70’s-throwback, American-looking frat-boy mec (dude) in a bar where the local coven gathers to smoke cigarettes and brew magic. 

Indian import shops and flamenco shoe stores line up next to postcard stands and street bands out to entertain the crowds and make a euro or two.

For not much more than that, delicacies can be had in a charming little shop on a delightful street nestled on the hill between Sacre Coeur and the Lapin Agile. 

In this hundred-year old establishment, www.epicerie-lion.fr you can buy organic olive oil in bulk, fresh herbs and flowers for your terrace garden, and native sweets for the sweet.  Almond macaroons are sold by the cent grammes. You can sample fresh butter cake, more butter than cake.  And if that’s not enough butter, you can buy a box of butter and salt caramels for the subway ride home.  List of ingredients:  sugar, milk, butter, and salt.

The most curious things in this little shop of wonders, next to the crystallized violet and rose petals that looked more like jewels than food, were the flavored rice puddings:  almond and raspberry, cherry chocolate, apricot.  I bought the cinnamon tea and apple one to remind me of this lovely place where I first discovered them. This little video clip of Epicerie Lion will give you a peek at what’s inside!