A Florida expat with spitfire spunk and a Southern drawl as thick as molasses, Wendy Lyn is not your typical Parisienne (hallelujah to that!). What she is, however, is every foodie’s fantasy come true. For an inside taste of Paris, join this culinary go-to-gal on one of her fabulous food walks.

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When Wendy Lyn moved to Paris twenty years ago she found herself living out a foodie version of the book series, Eloise. Instead of the Plaza hotel, she had the famous Paris bakery Poilâne as her delectable dominion. With the luscious scent of buttery pastries as her alarm clock, she’d run down from her chambre de bonne on the top floor of the bakery to pick up apple turnovers or sourdough country bread fresh out of the wood-burning ovens.

Often she’d be invited to join the owners and staff in the adorable dining room behind the shop for breakfast under a bread chandelier. Call it crazy, call it fate, call it freaking unfair, this mouthwatering set-up sparked Wendy’s incurable passion for food—its origins, its producers, its purveyors and its best Paris addresses.

Today, Wendy’s got the city’s culinary circuitry running through her veins. With the speed of a 1920s switchboard operator she can plug you in to the latest hotspot, make an impossible reservation, or have your sipping Champagne with a three-star Michelin chef. When she’s not doing all of the above for her international clientele of gastronomic journalists, professional chefs, and restaurant owners, she’s leading lip-smacking food safaris and wine crawls through Paris.

So on one of the coldest days of the year, I bundle up to meet Wendy and a family from Chicago (I blamed them for the weather) for a winter wonderland tasting tour through St. Germain des Près. Leading us on a side street passed a bagel stand that I, the New York native, had never heard of (!!), we arrive in front of Wendy’s first apartment above the Poilâne bakery. Standing there, she gives us a primer on the history of the site, explaining that it was originally a 17th century monastery before it was purchased by the Poilâne family in 1932, and that during WWII hungry artists nearby would barter paintings, many of which are on display in the secret dining room inside, in exchange for a steady supply of fresh bread.

Once inside, we’re led down a stone staircase to the ancient wood-burning ovens to see how the famous miche bread is made. “Every time you eat piece of Poilâne bread, you’re tasting a part of history,” says Wendy, explaining that not only the recipe, but also the starter is the same as the first batch of Poilâne loaves from 1932.

Light dusted with flour, we take our appetites upstairs to pick up some shortbread punitions before heading down the street to another benchmark in edible history: Debauve & Gallais, the first chocolate shop in Paris. There, Wendy tells a brilliant behind-the-scenes story about how Dr. Debauve, the royal pharmacist to Marie Antoinette, was asked by her doctor to hide the Queen’s meds in something sweet (she did marry at fourteen, remember).

He “started goofing around, putting medicine in chocolate along with rose petals, earl grey tea, honey, orange blossoms and rolled them into shapes,” says Wendy. They were such a hit at Versailles that they had to be hidden in hollowed out books in the library to keep the staff from stealing them. Which lead to another problem: them melting together. So, the chocolate box as we know it today is actually the pillbox of yesteryear: a way to keep the Queen’s gout and flu medication separate. Go figure!

Skipping ahead two centuries in chocolate history, we enter the cutting-edge kingdom of master chocolatier Pascal Caffet with his hot pink eclairs, single origin, single bean, single plantation Venezuelan bars, and salted caramel, chocolate-covered crispy treats that Wendy appropriates declares “as good as sex!”

After a quick stop into the Ladurée’s secret gift shop, we’re ready for a savory salve to all those sweets. Within minutes we’ve got the most delicious mulled-wine I’ve ever tasted warming our insides while we speak with the purveyors at the delectable oyster and Champagne stand at the annual St. Sulpice Christmas fair.

We’re told to save our appetites for something that’s going to knock our socks off: a fresh stack of Ibaïona ham croquettes made-to-order by Wendy’s friends at Yves Cambdeborde’s hot new wine bar, L’Avant Comptoir. Crispy, gooey, sinful and addictive, they’re the perfect finish to our expertly-led edible escapade.

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Tour length: 3 hours
Prices: 80E/person, 300E for 4 people, 460E for 6 people (tastings along the way included)
Reservations: Through Wendy’s online food-magazine, The Paris Kitchen™

The man who recreated Marie Antoinette’s favorite fragrance opens his first shop in Paris this month. You can go there to pick up off-beat gems like fragrant bubbles and paper, or, better yet, make an appointment to have this prince of perfume design your signature scent.

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While on a red eye flight home to Paris in 2001, the young, talented French perfumer Francis Kurkdjian was enjoying small talk with the woman beside him about their respective lines of work. It was a lovely tête-à-tête, full of funny coincidences and friends in common, but the conversation, however casual, was about to change his life!

Having already designed top-selling fragrances for big name brands (Le Mâle for Jean Paul Gaultier; Miracle Homme for Lancôme; Green Tea for Elizabeth Arden) and won prestigious industry prizes (the Francois Coty Perfumer Award in 2001, at the ripe age of 32!) Kurkdjian was itching for an exciting new career twist.

His words didn’t fall on deaf ears. By the time we walked off the plane he had his most thrilling order yet: a private commission to design a made-to-measure scent for his well-heeled neighbor, Terry de Gunzburg, founder of the luxurious beauty brand by Terry and former creative director of YSL Beauté. (Note to self: Start talking to people on planes.)

De Gunzburg naturally fell head over heals for the one-of-a-kind Fleur d’Oranger that Kurkdjian crafted specifically for her, and before he knew it le tout Paris was buzzing about his original olfactory works of art.  It didn’t take long before overseas beauties sniffed him out and he was back on those red eyes following his clients around the globe with his “labomobile,” a Pinel et Pinel custom steamer truck filled with over 200 scent samples.

“For me, it’s all about the de-dramatization of luxury and finding that perfect balance between tradition and modernity,” says Kurkdjian, while playing with the compartments of his nifty nomad lab.

Before each appointment he fills his magic box with a new range of raw materials to best suit his client’s taste. After the meeting (akin to a therapy session with perfumed memory triggers) Kurkdjian spends the next three months tweaking his formula, sending samples back and forth until he gets two thumbs up. From there, the juice is bottled in two gorgeous hand-engraved dark green glass flacons, packed into handmade Italian fabric boxes and shipped off to the lucky client. The secret formula is stored away for future flacons, never to be shared with anyone else.

“My style is about having no style. Other fragrance houses tailor their creations, even the customized scents, to fit their brand’s identity. I don’t have those limitations.”

So, just how far can he go? “It’s just a question of time and budget,” says the wild child of perfume, who in addition to bespoke fragrance also does on-site olfactory installations like perfumed fountains (at the Château de Versailles, no less) and edible collaborations with pastry chefs such as Christophe Michalak of the Plaza Athénée.

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Call or email well in advance to schedule an appointment:
E-mail: surmesure@franciskurkdjian.com
Phone: + 33 (0)1 42 77 40 22
Price: €8,000 and up for made-to-measure; €2,500-5,000 for demi-couture (an adaptation of an existing scent)
Boutique: 5 rue d’Alger 75001 Paris