So if you’re a real foodie and do a bit of research on stuff to eat in Paris, you’ll already know that the family-run Berthillion ice cream (31 Rue St Louis en l’ile, 75004 Paris, France) is famous in Paris and lauded by many as “the best ice cream in the world”. According to their Wiki page, “Berthillon’s fame derives in part from its use of natural ingredients, with no chemical preservatives, artificial sweeteners or stabilizers. Its ice creams are made from only milk, sugar, cream and eggs. Flavourings derive from natural sources (cocoa, vanilla, fruit, etc.)”

Of course, we just HAD to go 😉

Situated just south of the Notre Dame cathedral, we were surprised that not only is Berthillon a stand-alone store (opened in 1954) selling their ice cream, but they also wholesale their ice cream to the entire street of shops there! Almost all the shopfronts had “Berthillon ice cream” labelled in their windows and had an array of their ice creams for sale.

I had a scoop of their Chocolate ice cream, and Noisette (hazelnut) ice cream. Verdict? Well, it certainly is up there with one of the best ice creams we’ve had, but I think there’s no such thing as THE best! The ice cream was exceedingly creamy, with no icy bits. And the main thing is that their flavours are really rich and strong – the creaminess and richness of the flavours really come through, not like a lot of ‘standard’ ice cream brands that taste like regular ice cream. Kind of like the difference between cheap supermarket ice cream and Haagen Dazs, I suppose!

You have to pay an extra 0.50 euro for the almond biscuit that comes jauntily stuck into the whipped cream, but it’s totally worth it. It’s crisp yet dense enough to be a cross between a cracker and a biscuit, slightly sweetened and studded with lots of sliced roasted almonds. It’s DELICIOUS dunked into the ice cream and used as a spoon, heheheh.

If Berthillon shipped their ice cream to Shanghai, we’d buy it for sure!

Sitting and enjoying the view over the Seine river, people-watching (a Parisien pasttime!)

The famous Berthillon ice cream!!!!! YEs it was absolutely incredible. Want mooooore…

On the bridge

A side street in Paris

A little ‘secret’ place in Paris, for some spectacular views around the city, is the top floor cafe at Printemps mall. It has a HUGE outdoor patio with nearly 360-degree views of Paris. We stumbled upon it by accident and went there at around 2PM, so not much food was left.

The food itself is just so-so, certainly nothing to shout about – just standard cafeteria style food. That said, it’s relatively cheap for that reason and yet has spectacular views of the city.. so it’s worth it! A lovely place to chill out, especially if you’ve just shopped til you dropped downstairs 😉

On the top floor of Printemps shopping mall

My ‘lil Eiffel Tower 😉

Relaxing at Jardin de Luxomberg

Pretty flowers!