Gluten Free in Paris

We stayed at the Hilton Arc d’Trimophe and the smartest thing I did was let the concierge know of my situation and asked for recommendations. To say they went above and beyond would be an understatement. Every day, the hotel would find a place for us to eat that would accommodate my sans gluten requirement and upon our arrival, the staff already knew I was “that” girl. This made our lives SO easy.

And before I get in to the restaurants, I must tell you what I did for breakfast, knowing that bread was the common morning ritual for the French. I brought the individual packets of Glutenfreeda gluten free oatmeal and requested hot water from our hotels every morning. It worked perfectly. (I also stashed some Splenda because I didn’t know if I could find good artificial sweeteners for coffee in the morning HAHA)

Our first night in Paris, we were sent to a place called Casse Noix near the Eiffel Tower. A very quaint, hidden gem, this place set the bar very high for the rest of our trip. They had a fixed menu (or menu du jour as do most places in France) and they offered me their gluten-free recommendations from their kitchen. I had a salad, fish and the absolute best rice pudding with caramel drizzle I have ever had... and it will be hard to ever top that! I would go back just for this rice pudding. The staff was incredibly sweet and wanted to make sure everything was perfect - and it was.

I won’t go through all of the dining we had in Paris because our lunches were mostly on the fly and ended up being a salad with goat cheese and olive oil or omelets with french fries (I always made sure they were safe first).

Our second night in Paris we started our evening off at O’Chateau for a wining tasting. I highly recommend this to anyone who has an interest in wine. We tasted 6 wines and 1 champagne from different regions of France and snacked on some fresh cheese. There were 4 other couples in our group and funnily enough, the woman to my left had  brought her own rice crackers which only led us to believe she was Celiac, which she indeed was!! So we shared her gluten-free crackers, noshed and cheese and drank a lot of wine. Small world, right?

After wine tasting, our hotel sent us to a restaurant nearby (we were near the Louvre). This was opposite of the restaurant we went the night before, this was very hip and cool and was clearly a hang out for the local crowd. Another prix fixed menu brought us some “mystery” poissoin (aka fish) and other dishes that I couldn’t tell you what they were but they were all naturally gluten-free and suggested by the chef. Again, before our arrival, the restaurant knew I was coming and had already set aside a list of things I could eat. One thing the French worry about is how you like your food and we learned very quickly they will try their darndest to please you and they do not see allergies or eating adversements as a problem, the French just want you to have a good meal the way you like it. Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot find where I wrote down the name of this restaurant. I'll update you all when I find it.

On our third day in Paris, we went all out on the sugar front. First to Briezh Café, a creperie well-known around the world for their 100% buckwheat (naturally gluten-free) crepes. HOLY BANANAS. So delicious. We had dinner AND dessert crepes. SO good.

After dinner, we walked down the Champ Elysees to Laduree , the famous bakery known for their naturally gluten-free almond macaroons. After waiting in line, we got a sampling of flavors to take with us. Everything from rose, to chocolate to mint raspberry... we tried them all. (After a 30 minute wait in this gorgeous building we weren’t going home empty-handed!) While they were a bit expensive for little cookies essentially, they were well worth it as we snacked on them for 2 days, excitedly trying new flavors.

These were pretty much the highlights of the Paris dining scene. I will add more restaurants from Paris in a follow-up post - and I'll find the name of the place we ate the second night. Bon Appetit!