The Tourist Knows Best

Clay and I had a discussion a little while back about tourist hot-spots. We were debating on whether or not places become "known" because they are better than the others, or because at one point there was group of people, and so more people came and were seen there, and eventually it became the place to be. For example, there is a Patisserie here in Paris called Ladurée. Its a high end tourist trap, and sells Macarons for about 2, 2 1/2 dollars a piece (im talking about the mini macarons)

Anyway, I had been told by numerous people that it was a "must" and so off we went to ladurée. To make a long story short, we spent way too much on macarons that didn't taste awesome, and a few days later we bought some at the grocery store for a third of the price, and they were better... So the point of my rambling is that we decided together that just because lots of people go there, doesn't mean that the place is better than the others, though we have to remind ourselves of this when we see loads of people in a restaurant, and no one at the one next door.

Now that I have set up my story, I will proceed to tell you about our day today. It was a holiday, so no work for us. We decided to be tourists, and planned out a busy day of sight-seeing, etc. And just like the France that we have come to know and love, everything was closed. Appartenly holidays are not good days to be tourists. So, I pulled a back up plan out of my back pocket, and decided to hit up the famous ice-cream place "Berthillon" that I had been told by several people to go to. So off we went. When we arrived, true to any other tourist trap, there was a huge line of people waiting to get their gelato, or 'glace italienne' as we say here in france. So we joined in the line, and waited a good 30-45 minutes for our ice-cream cones. I might add that it was 1 million degrees outside, and we had little to no shade while in line, but that really isnt a necessary detail for my story. When we finally arrived at the freezer, we requested three scoops. White chocolate, raspberry à la rose, and mango. We paid, walked down to the river and sat down. I took the first lick, and just about dropped the cone I was so shocked. It was absolutely the BEST ice-cream I have EVER tasted. Seriously! Clay had a lick, and agreed with me. It was well worth the 45 minute wait. In fact, I would do it again tomorrow, or even again today (except for the fact that its midnight, and its no longer open). So, in this particular situaion, the tourist was right. Berthillon is not a tourist trap. It is an absolute gem, and I am so glad that we decided to play tourist today and try it out.

Me waiting in line

All the people in front of me

Before the first lick

Before the first lick #2

Love at first lick