julia child tour paris

In The Footsteps of The French Chef Food Tour

Walk in the footsteps of julia child.

Daily 11:45 am

Embark on a delightful half-day culinary adventure in the heart of Paris’ Latin Quarter, inspired by Julia Child. Wander through the historic streets where Julia once walked, discovering her favorite culinary and cultural spots. Discover the flavors and history of Saint Germain and the Left Bank through the eyes of   The French Chef on this unique Paris culinary tour.

This was fantastic. Great food, great sites, great story telling. A wonderful way to spend an afternoon retracing the steps of Julia through Paris. My wife and I loved it.

Private tours are available in French, English, Italian, and Spanish.

Explore St Germain like a VIP. Discover the cooking school that shaped the culinary landscape of Paris.

Eat the best quiches and crepes in Paris..and much more!

Visit a 210 years old chocolaterie and find true happiness.

Taste amazing French cheeses at Brasserie Le Bourbon , one of Julia Child favorites.

Sip on delicious French wines and learn all about them.

Vegetarian-Friendly Tours but vegan, gluten-free, or kosher options may be limited. Please share dietary restrictions upon booking for best accommodation. Note that tastings outside those catered for your needs are at your own risk. The company assumes no responsibility for any food allergies or intolerances.

• Expert Local Guides : Fun, knowledgeable, and English-fluent Paris locals.
• Paris’ Hidden Gems : Enjoy exclusive access to local favorites where you’re treated like family.
• Culinary Diversity : Taste a variety of delicious dishes, and hear the stories behind the food.
• Cultural Immersion : See Paris through the eyes of a local.
• Established Expertise : Since 2011 simply the best food tours in Paris!

Adult (From 18) from €129

Adolescent (13-17 years) from €99, child (4-12 years) from €89.

Meeting Point

37 Rue de la Bûcherie Paris 75005

Your guide will be waiting for you and wearing our purple Eating Europe bag In front of the Wallace fountain.

If you have any questions, please email us

We really enjoyed this food tour and learning about Julia Child. Benoit did an amazing job leading us and sharing the history. There was so much food on this tour, we certainly did not go hungry! - Ann Bush – Google Review

Lulu was great! She was very informative, gave us good history regarding the stomping grounds of Julia Child. We walked through beautiful neighborhoods and ate at various places which all had great food (crepes, Perisian sandwiches, chocolate, eclaires, quiche, patisserie, wine and cheese). This was a decent amount of walking but not too much. At the end of the tour, including a walk to the Metro, including a quick stop to the Louvre, we were only at 10K steps. - Neil McGown – Google Review

Private tours

Any of our tours can be made into a private experience just for your group.

Meet Your Local Paris Tour Guides

Experience the city with a Paris food tour guide and feel like a local.

EATING EUROPE INC. CANCELLATION POLICY

Small Group Tours

A tour can be cancelled with a full refund up to 24 hours before tour departure.

Private Tours

A private tour can be cancelled and fully refunded up to 7 days before tour departure

Gift Cards, Travel Vouchers & Flexi-Pass™

Gift cards, travel vouchers and Flexi-Pass™ are non-refundable.

LATE ARRIVALS AND NO SHOWS

Due to extremely strict time slots for entry into attractions and for food preparation, both in-person & virtual/online, we recommend you show up 15 minutes before the scheduled starting time of the tour or experience. Our group tours begin & depart precisely at the scheduled tour or experience start time. If you show up late or cannot find the meeting point, for any reason, refund requests are not honored per policy. If you are having a hard time arriving on time we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible so we can do everything in our power to assist you with arriving at the meeting point at the scheduled time or reschedule to the next available tour.

CANCELLATION DUE TO PLANES, TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES OR ILLNESS

Inside of 24 hours, your spot on the tour has been reserved exclusively for you. Since we are unable to fill your spot if you’re unable to attend for any reason (including transportation or illness), we do not offer refunds after that time. Please plan ahead so that you are able to join us and don’t miss out!

DISCOUNT CODES

Discount codes are valid for new bookings only. They are not eligible for pre-existing bookings and can not be applied retrospectively.

AMENDMENT POLICY

We would be happy to assist you with rescheduling your tour, free of charge, with any requests made more than 24 hours of 8am CET on the date of the tour. We reserve the right to charge an amendment fee should you request to reschedule within 24 hours of 8am CET on the date of your tour . Once again, this is subject to availability and price changes. In general, we only charge you for any additional costs that we incur such as tickets. We have no intention of profiting from disruptions to your vacation and will work with providers and suppliers to get this cost reduced to a minimum.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

From time to time, the terms of this policy may change at the Company’s discretion.

If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, you can contact us using the information below:

E-mail: [email protected]

Adult from €129 from €

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Retracing Julia Child’s Footsteps Through Paris, 75 Years Later

By Layla Khoury-Hanold

All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

As our boat glided along the Seine , the Eiffel Tower came into view, glittering against a piercing blue September sky. The captain popped a bottle of Champagne and handed me a generous pour. I leaned back against the leather seat, letting my skin drink in the sunshine before taking a sip and letting the bubbles fizz and flit across my tongue. The captain waved me toward the front of the boat, gesturing for me to pose for a photo. I raised my glass and grinned, thinking there couldn’t be a more fitting first snapshot for an American food writer visiting Paris to retrace Julia Child’s footsteps.

The Iron Lady swings into view from across the Seine.

Much like Julia, I had some of my most formative food memories while living in Paris. We moved there when I was three, and as a kid, I remember looking forward to buying baguettes after school with my mother at a neighborhood boulangerie —sometimes, she’d let me have a pain au chocolat for my goûter. We’d always tear into the fresh baguette as soon as we stepped outside, the crust giving way with a crackly snap. We’d sneak in bites while walking the short distance back to our apartment; she favored the crusty end while I preferred the fluffy middle. Living and eating in Paris made me appreciate not just food, but how feeding ourselves and others nurtures our appetites beyond the plate. Each time my family moved, first to Scotland and then Indonesia before returning to the US, I discovered that my ticket to belonging was through tasting new dishes. However, it was writing about my memories of living in Paris that helped me discover my voice as a writer.

Julia Child’s own Paris chapter spurred her to write the timeless Mastering the Art of French Cooking and eventually even return to film T he French Chef, a televised cooking show. Could Julia ever have dreamed she’d one day have a dedicated display at Shakespeare & Co. , the Left Bank bookstore where she once pursued French culinary resources? Could she have predicted that she’d inspire generations of home cooks, food lovers, and writers to express themselves in their kitchens—and embark on their own food-inspired pilgrimages to the City of Light? In retracing Julia’s footsteps, alongside two fellow travelers and a charming local host, I sought not only to eat and cook like her, but to understand her enduring legacy on a deeper level.

Les Deux Magots, where Julia Child had her first breakfast in Paris.

She also favored the café’s rich Chocolat des Deux Magots à l’ancienne.

When they first arrived in Paris 75 years ago, Julia and her husband Paul had stayed at the historic Hôtel Pont Royal in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, but I think she would approve of my fancy quarters at the nearby Hotel d’Aubusson , still within walking distance of several of her favorite haunts. On the outdoor terrace at Les Deux Magots , where Julia famously had her first breakfast in Paris, I perched on a wicker chair and sipped a café crème while watching parents usher children with overloaded backpacks to school on the first day of la rentrée. Julia’s go-to was a café complet with coffee, a viennoiserie, baguette, and butter, but I honored Julia by upgrading to The Hemingway to sample a perfectly rolled French omelet.

Café de Flore remains another stalwart of the sixth arrondissement for locals and tourists alike. Under the wide cream awning with dark green lettering, a setting that typified Parisian restaurants for Julia unfolded: small round tables crowding the terrace with just enough room for two, woven chairs, and a red-and-green-woven stool on the side where one might place extra baskets of bread or one's purse. Inside, I sat in the company of the spirits of literary greats and intellectuals and a salade Niçoise with a side of perfectly crisp salt-and-pepper potato chips.

Each day’s itinerary on my trip was anchored by a cooking adventure, and my traveling companions and I were giddy to visit Le Cordon Bleu , where Julia received her formal training. Under the supervision of chef Williams Caussimon, we learned how to make tomatoes and burrata with smoked octopus and pomegranate-raspberry dressing and a parsley-crusted rack of lamb with zucchini marmalade. On another day at Paroles de Fromagers , we made fresh, hand-churned butter and Tomme Fraîche, a fresh cow’s milk cheese.

Despite having inherited my Lebanese grandmother’s love of cooking and my experience as a recipe developer and product tester, I found myself nervous when we rolled up to Pâtisserie à la Carte to learn how to make one of Julia’s favorite pastries: éclairs. I took a soupçon of Julia’s fearlessness and followed the instructor’s cues, which echoed Julia’s trills from her pâte à choux episode of The French Chef . I was reminded that one can only learn by doing, but first, one must dare to take the first step and embrace failure as a friend. Happily, my chocolate-dipped, salted-caramel filled éclair turned out to be one of the best bites of my trip.

Marché Maubert is one of the oldest open air markets in Paris and offers a complete cultural immersion into life in Paris.

In her memoir, My Life in France , Julia describes shopping for food in Paris as a life-changing experience, so I had been looking forward to Chef Philippe de Clisson’s cooking class at La Cuisine Paris , which included a market tour at the charming Marché Maubert in the Latin Quarter. As we tucked into award-winning croissants from La Masion d’Isabelle, he introduced us to his favorite vendors, pointing out the famous foie gras from Maison Lafitte and exchanging pleasantries with the fishmonger, scoring us samples of salicorne, a seaweed-esque plant that popped pleasantly in the mouth with earthy salinity. He explained that one cheesemaker was an “MOF," a lifelong distinction as Meilleur Ouvrier de France, or best craftsman. I later sought out the designation when shopping for edible souvenirs, like the best macarons in the city from Arnaud Larher , who has three pastry shops in some of Paris's most vibrant neighborhoods.

Julia and Paul spent many an evening under the opulent mirrored ceiling of Le Grand Véfour.

When Julia wasn’t shopping for produce or testing dishes on Paul at home, they dined out. Strolling through the Palais Royal gardens on one dusk-kissed evening reminded me that they first discovered Le Grand Véfour , one of Paris’ oldest and most opulent restaurants, just by happening upon it after a midday walk. They celebrated monthly date nights under Le Grand Véfour’s mirrored ceiling and rubbed elbows with Paris’ elite eaters, like the famous novelist Colette and celebrated gastronome Curnonsky. Equally, they patronized establishments like La Tour Montlhéry-Chez Denise, a well-priced brasserie that still doles out the kind of classic French cooking that Julia fell in love with and wrote about. My steak tartare was expertly prepared and sampling a tender snail coaxed from its herb-flecked shell delivered a buttery hit of nostalgia. But it was a spoonful of plush chocolate mousse that transported me to my childhood kitchen in Paris, the memory of my father making me mousse a match for the cocoa’s bittersweet tinge.

By Jessica Puckett

By Olivia Morelli

By Steph Koyfman

Call me a cliché, but the highlight restaurant meal of the trip was at Le Jules Verne . Scurrying around the base of the Eiffel Tower looking for the restaurant's entrance, I recalled our boat captain casually mentioning that his grandfather worked on the historic landmark with Gustave Eiffel. It’s one thing to glimpse The Iron Lady in landscape from afar, and quite another to take in aerial views of Paris through its intricate wrought iron lattice work on a private elevator ride to the top. What would Julia have made of dining at the top of it, I wondered? Surely she would’ve sighed with pleasure throughout the five-course tasting menu as I did, especially over chef Frédéric Anton’s langoustine ravioli draped with a beet gelée set adrift in a Parmesan foam. At that moment, I think I finally understood what Julia meant when she wrote about falling in love with French food: “...the tastes, the processes, the history, the endless variations, the rigorous discipline, the creativity, the wonderful people...” À bientôt, Paris.

To experience a similar itinerary, check out Art in Voyage ’s curated trip “ On the Footsteps of Juila Child , in collaboration with local host Isabelle Pochat, owner of food tour company Paris A Dream .

Other stops to add to your itinerary for Julia Child’s Paris

• Lapérouse , a storied Belle Epoque restaurant where Julia celebrated her 40th birthday.
• Brasserie Lipp where Julia went for dessert. It’s best to make a full dinner reservation, though: the sole meunière with an île flottante to finish is a winning combination.
• “Rue de Loo”: Julia and Paul’s residence at 81 Rue de l’Université is a two-floor apartment in an old four-story hôtel particulier. (You’ll have to wait for a resident to open the door if you want to step into the courtyard. Ask nicely and someone might oblige.)
• E. Dehillerin , where Julia shopped for cookware and developed her famous affinity for copper pots.
• Le BHV , a multi-story department store that sells home goods and kitchenwares, and where Julia shopped for all kinds of bric-a-brac for her Paris apartment.

All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission .

Julia , the television series based on Julia Child's life, is now in its second season and currently streaming on HBO Max.

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A Guide to Julia Child’s Paris

By Keaton Bell

When Julia Child moved to Paris in 1948, she didn’t know a lick of French. For the then-36-year-old expat wasn’t yet the Julia Child—the one who would go on to single-handedly bring French cuisine to the masses with her seminal cookbooks and cooking shows. The Pasadena native grew up with a family chef and barely knew how to scramble an egg. But when her husband Paul accepted a government job promoting French-American relations through the arts, Child packed her bags for Paris and never looked back. 

“Surrounded by gorgeous food, wonderful restaurants, a kitchen at home—and an appreciative audience in my husband—I began to cook more and more,” Child wrote in her posthumously-released 2006 memoir, My Life in France . “I fell in love with French food—the tastes, the processes, the history, the endless variations, the rigorous discipline, the creativity, the wonderful people, the equipment, the rituals…” 

Child shopping for produce, date unknown. 

Those years in Paris marked a crucial period of transformation for Child. She discovered a deep admiration for French cuisine, found her true calling as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu, and met future collaborators like the legendary cooking teacher Simone Beck. She may not have initially spoken the language or known any Parisians, but it didn’t take long for the city to imprint on her as it has so many others. 

“Those early years in France were among the best of my life,” Child wrote. “I had such fun that I could hardly stop moving long enough to catch my breath—I loved the people, the food, the lay of the land, the civilized atmosphere, and the generous pace of life.” 

Child remains an indelible figure in the public’s imagination, continuing to inspire a new generation of aspiring chefs and wannabe Francophiles. Meryl Streep earned an Oscar nom playing Child in 2009’s Julie & Julia , an adaptation of My Life in France centered around her pre-fame years in Paris. The English actress Sarah Lancashire currently plays Child in the Max original series Julia , which picks up where Julie & Julia left off with the publication of 1961’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Child’s wildly influential first cookbook. Regardless of how you first encountered Child—via Streep and Lancashire’s interpretations, reruns of The French Chef, or that infamous Saturday Night Live sketch —it’s impossible not to fall for her charms.

By Margaux Anbouba

By Marie Bladt

By Alexandra Macon

I was 14 years old when I first watched Julie & Julia and discovered the magic of Child. I begged my mother to pick up the ingredients for boeuf bourguignon on our way home from the theater, and ran to my local bookstore the next day to buy a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking . Living about as far from Paris as one can get—the Oklahoma suburbs—Child’s words and recipes instilled a sense of worldly wonder that’s stayed with me ever since. She taught me that it was okay to fail as long as I took the utmost pleasure in what I was doing, and to never let that failure discourage one from trying again. I may have over-cooked and under-seasoned my first batch of boeuf bourguignon, but that only made my first successful attempt at the dish all the more exceptional. 

“You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made,” Child wrote. “Even after you eat it, it stays with you—always!”

So when, after fifteen years of daydreaming, the time came for me to visit Paris for the first time this past winter, I figured there was no better tour guide for my trip than Child herself. While the Paris of today may not be identical to the Paris that Child encountered in 1948, many of her old haunts remain untouched by modernity. With my battered copy of My Life in France , the first season of Julia queued up, and a sense of joie de vivre , I set out to explore Paris through Julia’s eyes.

Hotel Pont Royal

Julia and Paul Child arrived in Paris on November 3, 1948, and immediately set up (temporary) residence at the famed Pont Royal. Located in the 7th arrondissement, the luxury hotel instantly immerses guests in the history of its storied past. The mahogany-lined Bar Signature became the first cocktail bar to open in Paris between the two World Wars, becoming a hub for some of the foremost cultural icons of the twentieth century: Ernest Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Simone de Beauvoir, and Child. Order an Upside-Down martini—Child’s favorite—and settle into one of the leather club chairs for the full experience. 

Address: 5-7 rue de Montalembert, 75007 Paris, France 

Les Deux Magots

One of the first meals the Childs had in Paris was at this famed café, where they each ordered a cafe complete—a classic French breakfast of coffee and a baguette served with butter, jam, and honey. “Paul was amused to see nothing had changed since his last visit back in 1928,” Child wrote of Les Deux Magots. “The seats inside were still covered with orange plush, the brass light fixtures were still unpolished, and the waiters – and probably the dust balls in the corner – were the same.” The upholstery and waitstaff may have been updated, but the café still retains many of its classical flourishes—including those unpolished brass fixtures. As one of the more tourist-heavy cafés in Paris thanks to its history—Pablo Picasso and Albert Camus were regulars—you can probably expect a lengthy wait at peak hours. But if you can manage to sneak a table outside, you’ll be treated to a classic Parisian cafe experience. 

Address: 6 Place Saint-Germain des Prés, 75006 Paris, France 

Julia and Paul Child’s longtime home

After residing at the Pont Royal for a little over a month, the Childs relocated to a classic Parisian building just a few blocks away. “It had a gray cement facade, a grand front door about eight feet high, a small interior courtyard, and an open-topped cage elevator,” Child wrote. “It was large, centrally located, and a bit weird.” Saying “81 Rue de l’Universite” proved to be a bit of a mouthful for Child, and so her beloved “Roo de Loo” was born. The couple resided on the second and third floors of the hotel-turned-residence, and it was here that Child first nurtured her love of cooking, perfected dishes that she learned at Le Cordon Bleu, and tested out many of the recipes that would end up in her first cookbook. “Roo de Loo” has become something of a pilgrimage site for Child devotees over the years, with many paying their respects by leaving a stick of butter on the front stoop. Afterwards, you can stroll the boulevard where Child used to buy pastries and produce, with many storefronts from her time in the neighborhood still in operation. 

Address: 81 Rue de l’Université, 75007 Paris, France

Le B.H.V Marais

When the Childs settled into “Roo de Loo,” they set about redecorating with trips to Le Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville—known then simply as “Le B.H.V.” Filled with “aisle upon aisle of cheaply made merchandise,” Child stocked up on household essentials like dishpans, brooms, light bulbs, and a stove. The department store has been supplying Parisians with a variety of beauty and household goods for over 160 years, but Le B.H.V. Marais has fancied itself up a bit since Child’s day. It now boasts over 2,000 brands, including storefronts for luxury stalwarts like Gucci, Givenchy, and Moncler. 

Address: 52 Rue de Rivoli, 75004 Paris, France

Le Grand Véfour

Dining at Le Grand Véfour is like stepping back in time. Discreetly tucked into an arcade of the Palais-Royal, the Michelin-starred restaurant is one of the oldest in Paris, having first opened its doors when Marie Antoinette was still queen. Under the régime of current head chef Guy Martin, the restaurant recently updated its menu from high gastronomy to more elegant bistro fare. But never fear: the crystal chandeliers, gilded glass mirrors, and quality of cooking are all very much intact. It’s easy to see why Child cites the restaurant as her favorite in all of Paris in her memoir, recounting her and Paul’s first meal there with mouth-watering detail. “The meal began with little shells made with sea scallops and mushrooms robed in a classically beautiful winy cream sauce, and then we had a wonderful duck dish, and cheeses, and a rich dessert, followed by coffee,” she writes. “It was expensive but, as Paul said, ‘You are so hypnotized by everything there that you feel grateful as you pay the bill.’” 

Address: 17 Rue de Beaujolais, 75001 Paris, France

E. Dehillerin

Child was “thunderstruck” when she first encountered this 200-year-old restaurant-supply store—located near the Louvre—and always made a point to stop by whenever she found herself in the neighborhood. “Now our kitchen had enough knives to fill a pirate ship,” Child wrote of her frequent “raiding trips” to E. Dehillerin. “I had become a knife freak, a frying pan freak, a gadget freak—and especially a copper freak!” You could waste an entire afternoon just admiring the gleaming copper vessels on display: sauciers, saute pans, stew pots, and so much more. There was no way the gorgeous turbot kettle I had my eye on would fit in my carry-on back home, but I did manage to snag some more practically-sized doodads, including a wooden fish spatula and some cannelle molds. 

Address: 18-20 Rue Coquillière, 75001 Paris, France 

Le Cordon Bleu

Tinkering in the kitchen and eating her way through Paris wasn’t enough for Child. “Something was missing,” she wrote. “I wanted to roll up my sleeves and dive into French cuisine. But how?” Enter Le Cordon Bleu, the oldest and most famous cooking school in Paris. Child attended an afternoon demonstration that turned into a year-long intensive study, changing the course of her life forever. As the sole woman studying alongside 11 American GIs, Child learned not just recipes, but the French tradition of extracting the full, essential flavors from food. “I was in pure, flavorful heaven,” she wrote. “Because I had already established a good basic knowledge on my own, the classes acted as a catalyst for new ideas, and almost immediately my cooking improved.”

Child learned all manner of dishes during her time at Le Cordon Bleu, including roasted partridges, ratatouille, chocolate ice cream, and her beloved boeuf bourguignon. Alongside more advanced programs like the one Child completed, the school offers a range of demonstrations and workshops for curious chefs. On a rainy day in November, I stopped by the campus for a cooking demonstration from Executive Chef Éric Briffard, who has been the Culinary Arts Director at Le Cordon Bleu Paris Institute since 2016 and Head of the Institute since 2018. Flanked by several students who whisked and mixed with furor, the chef prepared loup farci en croûte —a freshly-caught sea bass that’s been deboned, stuffed with a creamy pistachio paste, baked in pastry dough, and served with a tangy Choron sauce. It was, to put it mildly, the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. 

The second-best thing was at a cooking workshop the following day. Under the guidance of Chef Instructor Alexandra Didier, I prepared a fig leaf-roasted duck breast, pears, and figs with cassia bark. Even putting aside the sheer wonder of cooking at the same institute that uplifted Child, it was an enlightening and exhilarating experience in the kitchen. I wouldn’t call myself a particularly daring cook, or even a good one at that. But somewhere between chopping up duck carcasses for the jus and pan-frying figs in honey and butter, I had convinced myself that all my problems would be solved if I moved to Paris and enrolled as a student. Julia said you never forget something beautiful you’ve made, and I can still taste this dish: the rich and flavorful jus, the duck seared to perfection. Spend two hours with a trained professional guiding you every minute step of the way, and you too may convince yourself you could be the next Julia Child. 

Address: 15 Quai André Citroën, 75015 Paris, France

The first two seasons of Julia are streaming on Max now.

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Excellent walking tour in the footsteps... - Paris Food Tours by Eating Europe

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Excellent walking tour in the footsteps of the French Chef, Julia Child

This tour started at the Shakespeare & Co bookstore, which is a great meeting place since the bookstore itself is an attraction. The guide, food, wine and apple cider were all first-rate, with lots of explanations of what we were eating and drinking and the history behind these items. We ended looking up at the windows of Julia and Paul Child's apartment building. Comfortable shoes are a must as there is a lot of walking especially near the end of the tour. The guide was very helpful in giving us directions for the nearest Metro station.

My husband and I took a short trip to Paris to celebrate our birthdays. We’d been before and wanted to do something a little different this time around. We booked this food tour of Monmartre with PJ and were not disappointed! We enjoyed every minute of the tour! PJ is so charismatic and an expert when it comes to food and wine. His passion for great cuisine and for the Montmartre area is so evident throughout the tour. He speaks from a wealth of knowledge and experience! He is funny and engaging so we were entertained throughout. He took us to his own little restaurant during the tour and cooked us lunch which was delicious. We even tried snails for the first time! I would highly recommend this tour to anyone who wants to learn more about French food and wine or simply wants a great, relaxed day out. 5 stars!

Book now and thank later. The best tour ever!! PJ is a fantastic guide and creates a personal experience of Paris that is wonderful and unique. Tour runs long so don't book anything immediately following ( we cancelled another activity because this was so fabulous)

This might have been the most unique tour I have ever been on. PJ (celebrity local chef) took you on a tour to local vendors to talk about quality of local meets, cheese, bread, wine (lots) and desserts. You got little samples while visiting the merchants. Then he took the group to his restaurant and prepared an authentic four course meal with wine pairings for the group. He shared stories and talked about the importance of food, wine and fellowship to provide joy to our lives. The tour lasted 6.5 hours and it was listed as 3 hours when we booked it. When we finished eating, he started pouring champagne and taking us to local merchants for desserts. This guy is smart and full of life and when you leave him you will feel the same way. This day made us feel like we really were living like Parisians for the day and we were still smiling the next day.

Isabella was charming, engaging, full of interesting information and energy. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with her visiting all the wonderful food places and the amazing lunch. We are still talking about what an amazing tour this was.

The delicious food! The walking tour guide was knowledgeable, fun and experienced. Despite having given this tour countless times, she was enthusiastic, ensuring that everyone on the walk had a most enjoyable food/wine/cider experience. She also gave us explicit instructions on where the right metro stop was so that we could get the train back the stop closest to our hotel, which was most welcome. The meeting place was the Shakespeare and Company bookstore and it was a perfect, easy place to meet up for the tour.

Julia Child in Paris

Though the American chef popularized French cuisine, she hasn’t yet received her due in the city she loved

Susan Spano

It’s hard to take two steps in Paris without running into an historic plaque marking Delacroix’s studio or Marie Curie’s coldwater flat .

Now if a group of American expats get their way, another one will be posted on the Left Bank apartment building where Julia Child lived with her husband Paul in their post World War II frisée salad days.

Among the exponents are Walter Wells, a former executive editor of the International Herald Tribune , and his wife Patricia, who teaches and writes about cooking in France. In 1984, just after the publication of her first book The Food Lover’s Guide to Paris , Patricia got a fan letter from JC and the women quickly became friends. On the way from Paris to their country house near Cannes, the Childs often stopped at the Wells’ place in Provence, where Patricia and Julia gossiped while shelling fava beans in the courtyard.

Like other friends and admirers of the inimitable JC, the Wells think her passage through Paris ought to be noted with a plaque at 81 rue de l’Université, where Julia began testing recipes for Mastering the Art of French Cooking , the two-volume compendium she co-authored with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle that helped introduce the bland palate of Betty Crocker‘s America to the transcendent pleasures of French cuisine.

To Americans Child is a pop culture icon, famous for ground-breaking PBS cooking shows, a long chain of bestselling cookbooks, the 2009 film Julie and Julia , and her posthumous memoir My Life in France . In 2001 her Cambridge, Mass., kitchen was moved almost intact to the Smithsonian Museum of American History ; next year marks the 100th anniversary of her birth.

But our beloved French Chef is no celebrity in France, never mind that she was inducted into the French Legion d’Honneur shortly before she died in 2004. “In France the ordinary person has no idea who she is,” said her grand-nephew Alex Prud’homme , who helped her write My Life in France .

Moreover, in a city with 1,300 commemorative plaques, getting one installed at 81 rue de l’Universite— Roo de Loo , as the Childs called it—is no easy matter. Approvals are required from the building’s owners, the arrondissement and the city council; other than exceptional cases, those honored must have been dead for a least ten years. Recent recipients include the film director Francois Truffaut and the writer Marguerite Duras.

“This project is important because France has never had a better ambassador to America‘s heartland, or a better loved one,” Walter Wells told me in an email. “The goal is not to establish a shrine to Julia. It is an homage long overdue.”

Meanwhile, Roo de Loo has become something of a pilgrimage site for American foodies embarked one of the growing number of French cooking programs dedicated to JC. If you pass that way you might see some of them on the doorstep trying to hear Julia whistle as she puts a capon in the oven.

Here are a few tours and classes dedicated to Julia in France:

Tour de Forks , a small New York-based tour company, offers “A Taste of Julia Child’s Paris and Provence.” The seven-day itinerary (priced from $2,450) begins, as did Julia and Paul, at the Hotel Pont Royal in the 7th Arrondissement.

Le Cordon Bleu in Paris added “In Honor of Julia Child“ to its schedule, a three-hour lecture demonstration (about $60 per person) producing a JC meal you get to eat.

At Home with Patricia Wells has five-day courses  (from $5,000) in Paris and Provence taught by the author of The Food Lover’s Guide to France . In Provence, Wells uses a La Cornue stove given to her by JC.

Cooking with Friends in France is American chef Kathie Alex’s school at La Pitchoune, JC’s beloved retreat in Provence. Four and five-night courses (from $2,450) include cooking classes, marketing and meals in Michelin-starred restaurants.

On Rue Tatin is headquartered in the Norman village of Louvier. JC friend and cookbook writer Susan Herrmann Loomis presides over three and five day courses there, as well as one-day classes in Paris ($350).

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Susan Spano | | READ MORE

The travel writer Susan Spano is the author of French Ghosts, Russian Nights, and American Outlaws: Souvenirs of a Professional Vagabond , to be published in May by Roaring Forties Press.

Small-Group Half-Day Paris Julia Child Tour With Food and Wine

Step into the flavorful world of Parisian cuisine with the Small-Group Half-Day Paris Julia Child Tour. This culinary escapade promises to tantalize your taste buds and ignite your senses as you traverse the culinary landmarks of the Left Bank.

From savory galettes to delicate eclairs , each bite tells a story of tradition and innovation. But there’s more to this tour than just food – it’s a journey that unravels the culinary tapestry of Paris, inviting you to savor the essence of French gastronomy.

Let the allure of Julia Child’s legacy beckon you towards a gastronomic adventure like no other.

Here's a few more food tours and experiences bookable nearby

• Eating Paris: Montmartre Food & Wine Tour
• Montmartre Private Food Walking Tour With Locals: The 10 Tastings
• Paris Le Marais District Original Food and Wine Tasting Tour
• Food Tour Belleville off the Beaten Path 10:30 Am
• Paris Chocolate and Pastry Private Tour With Secret Food Tours

• Explore Paris with a small group for a personalized experience.
• Indulge in French delicacies like galettes, crepes , and wine.
• Learn about Julia Child’s favorite Left Bank spots and Parisian cuisine.
• Enjoy insightful food and wine tastings with a knowledgeable guide.

More great tours and experiences nearby.

• Louvre Museum Must-Sees Private or Semi-Private Guided Tour
• French Wine and Champagne Tasting in Paris
• Paris Vintage Private City Tour on a Sidecar Motorcycle
• Famous Graves of Père Lachaise Cemetery Guided Tour

Tour Highlights

Set out on a flavorful journey through the charming Left Bank of Paris with the Paris Julia Child Tour, where you’ll indulge in delectable French delights and explore iconic landmarks favored by Julia Child.

This tour is a celebration of Julia Child’s legacy and her love for Parisian cuisine. Visitors will have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of this culinary icon, discovering the essence of Paris through its gastronomic treasures.

From quaint bakeries to bustling brasseries, you will sample an array of Parisian delicacies, including galettes , crepes , baguettes , eclairs , and chocolates. Enjoy the flavors and aromas of Paris while learning about the rich culinary heritage that Julia Child cherished.

Culinary Delights

Indulge in a delightful array of French culinary treasures on the Paris Julia Child Tour, savoring the essence of Paris through its gastronomic delights.

Taste traditional French baguettes , freshly baked and crispy on the outside with a soft interior.

Sample savory quiches , filled with creamy custard, cheese , and various ingredients like ham or vegetables.

Enjoy delicate crepes, thin pancakes filled with sweet or savory fillings, a classic French treat.

Experience fine French wine tastings , sipping on exquisite wines that perfectly complement the flavors of the food.

Set out on a journey through the heart of French cuisine , enjoying a gastronomic experience that celebrates the rich flavors and culinary traditions of Paris.

Expert Guidance

Explore the Paris Julia Child Tour with expert guidance from Chef Tris, who offers a unique blend of culinary expertise and historical insights, enriching your experience of the city’s gastronomic delights. Chef Tris, a classically trained chef, provides in-depth knowledge on French cuisine , ensuring a memorable and educational journey through Paris’s culinary scene.

With a focus on wine pairing , you’ll discover the art of matching fine French wines with delectable dishes, enhancing your overall tasting experience. Tris’s guidance goes beyond just food; you’ll also explore the cultural significance of each culinary stop, gaining a deeper appreciation for the culinary traditions of Paris.

Enjoy the world of Julia Child with Chef Tris leading the way, offering unparalleled expertise throughout this half-day culinary adventure.

Logistics and Meeting Point

Upon arrival at the meeting point for the Paris Julia Child Tour, located at 37 Rue de la Bûcherie in Paris, travelers will gather at the Wallace Fountain situated in front of the iconic Shakespeare and Company bookstore.

• The meeting point exudes charm with the Wallace Fountain’s intricate design.
• Participants can easily spot the gathering spot in front of the well-known Shakespeare and Company bookstore.
• As travelers assemble, they can admire the historical surroundings of the Left Bank.
• The central location sets the stage for a delightful half-day tour filled with culinary delights and exploration.

The tour duration will provide a comprehensive experience of Julia Child’s Parisian favorites while immersing guests in the rich gastronomic and cultural tapestry of the city.

Booking and Cancellation Policy

As travelers gather at the Wallace Fountain in front of the iconic Shakespeare and Company bookstore for the Paris Julia Child Tour, it is essential to familiarize oneself with the booking and cancellation policy for this culinary exploration. The tour offers booking flexibility with a full refund available if canceled 24 hours in advance. However, cancellations made less than 24 hours before the tour will not be refunded, and changes within this timeframe are not accepted. It’s important to note that the tour duration is half-day, ensuring an immersive experience exploring Left Bank landmarks favored by Julia Child. Participants can enjoy a variety of French delicacies, wine tastings, and insightful commentary from the knowledgeable guide, making it a delightful culinary adventure.

Customer Reviews and Recommendations

Customers rave about the Paris Julia Child Tour, praising the knowledgeable guide and delectable French delicacies experienced during the half-day exploration of Left Bank landmarks. Here are some insights into what makes this tour a standout experience:

• Chef Tris shared history, culture , and food insights.
• Recommended doing the tour early in Paris visit for insider tips.
• Helped in choosing great restaurants and bakeries for a deeper culture .
• Answered questions and shared enjoyable stories, enhancing the overall experience.

With Tris leading the way, participants not only indulge in delicious French cuisine but also gain valuable knowledge about Julia Child and the vibrant culinary scene of Paris. The tour is highly recommended for those seeking both gastronomic delights and an immersive cultural experience.

Food and Wine Experience

The Paris Julia Child Tour not only offers a delightful exploration of Left Bank landmarks but also provides a captivating food and wine experience that immerses participants in the culinary delights of Paris. Led by the skilled Chef Tris, this half-day small-group tour includes fine French wine tastings and delectable food pairings that showcase the essence of French cuisine.

Participants can indulge in wine pairings that complement the local dishes, enhancing the culture experience. From savoring traditional baguettes, quiches , and crepes to enjoying French wine in a charming brasserie setting, this tour offers a perfect blend of gastronomic delights and historical insights.

The tour not only satisfies the taste buds but also educates on the art of wine pairing and the rich culinary heritage of Paris.

Ratings and Reviews

Enjoy the exceptional culinary journey through Paris with the Paris Julia Child Tour as described by delighted travelers in their glowing reviews and top ratings. The rating breakdown and customer satisfaction are evident in the feedback received:

• 5-star ratings from 78 travelers
• Detailed breakdown showcasing exceptional service
• Positive reviews highlighting knowledgeable guide and delicious food
• Overall satisfaction with the tour’s focus on Julia Child’s Parisian culinary experiences.

These reviews emphasize the tour’s high-quality experience, informative insights , and delicious food offerings. Customers have praised the tour for exceeding expectations, providing a personalized and engaging exploration of Parisian cuisine through the lens of Julia Child’s favorite spots.

We've also reviewed these nearby activities

• Closing Time at the Louvre: the Mona Lisa at Her Most Peaceful
• Private Transfer From CDG or ORY Airport to PARIS City
• Private Guided Professional Photoshoot by the Eiffel Tower
• Paris Catacombs Skip the Line Guided Tour
• Versailles Palace and Gardens Tour by Train From Paris With Skip-The-Line
• Paris Hat-Making Workshop at a Famous Atelier

Common questions

Is transportation provided between the various stops on the tour, or do participants need to arrange their own transportation.

Transportation is provided between tour stops. Group dynamics enhance the culinary experience. Participants don’t need to arrange their own transportation. Logistics are handled by the tour. Enjoy the food and wine without worrying about getting around.

Are There Any Vegetarian or Vegan Options Available for Those With Dietary Restrictions on the Tour?

For those with dietary restrictions, the tour offers vegetarian and vegan options to accommodate various culinary preferences . These choices ensure that all participants can enjoy the gastronomic delights while exploring Paris with a knowledgeable guide.

Can Participants Purchase Additional Food or Drinks at the Establishments Visited During the Tour, or Is Everything Pre-Arranged?

Participants on the tour cannot make spontaneous purchases at visited establishments as all food and drinks are pre-arranged. However, dietary preferences like vegetarian or vegan options are accommodated. The tour ensures a curated culinary experience for participants.

Are There Any Age Restrictions for Participants on the Tour, Such as a Minimum Age Requirement?

Minimum age requirements vary by tour, typically ranging from 6 to 12 years old. Tour logistics and safety considerations determine age limits. Check specific tour details for age restrictions. Enjoy a memorable experience exploring Paris with Julia Child’s favorite spots.

Is There a Dress Code or Recommended Attire for the Tour, Especially Considering the Walking Involved and Potential Weather Conditions in Paris?

When preparing for the tour, guests are advised to dress comfortably and consider the weather conditions in Paris. Recommended attire includes comfortable shoes for walking on the charming streets and dressing in layers for possible changes in weather.

Not for you? Here's a few more great experiences in the region

• Dinosaurs Family Tour in the Natural History Museum of Paris
• Backpackers Private Tour of Paris – Experience Best of Everything With a Local
• Paris: 4-Course Dinner Cruise on Seine River With Live Music
• Paris: VIP Minibus Tour With Champagne & French Specialities
• Private Second-Hand Luxury Shopping Tour in Paris
• Mixed Private Historic Tour of Paris
• Proposal Private Rooftop Photographer 1h
• Private Tour From Paris to Loire Castles & Michelin Lunch
• All Inclusive Paris: Full-Day Walking Tour With the Eiffel Tower
• Private 3-Hour Walking Tour of Orsay Museum
• 1.5-Hour Paris Segway Night Tour

Final Words

Indulge in the flavors of Paris and discover the culinary legacy of Julia Child on the Small-Group Half-Day Paris Julia Child Tour.

With expert guidance from Tris, a seasoned chef , and immersive experiences at iconic Parisian landmarks, this tour offers a personalized and intimate exploration of French cuisine.

Savor delectable delicacies, fine wines , and create lasting memories on this exceptional food and wine adventure in the heart of Paris.

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THEFRANCOFLY

an illustrated journey of an american in paris

Julia Child’s Paris: Following in Her Footsteps & An Illustrated Map of Her Favorite Places

Whenever I get asked about must-go places in my hometown of Chicago, I have to preface my list stating that all my recommendations are at least a century old. No poké bowl recommendations here! I like directing friends to the haunts that my family has been flocking to for generations so they can enjoy (occasionally) musty old school charm that I think of when I think of “home”. When I was researching Julia Child’s favorite Parisian haunts for the most recent Julia Child issue of Cherry Bombe Magazine , I was reassured that there were still many similarly eternal institutions in my adopted city. These are equally as loved by true Parisians and tourists alike. Enjoy.

Originally published in The Julia C hild Issue of Cherry Bombe Magazine , which celebrates women in food.

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Julia Child, the exuberant home cook with a charming curiosity about the food of her adopted home, opened up new epicurean paths for Anglophones around the world. She lived in Paris for four years from 1948-1952. For Julia, the City of Light wasn’t “lite,” it was full-on, full-fat, unconcerned with waistbands and budgets. She reveled in the food and friendships Paris had to offer.

With her husband Paul at her side and size-12s on her feet, Julia unraveled the snail of Paris arrondissements. Restaurants topped her list, but she found useful addresses and hidden corners too. Sometimes the duo darkened surprising doorways as they stayed up till dawn. Some of her favorite haunts still remain open, more than 70 years later.

By the time Julia Child arrived in Paris, she was suffering the pleasant shock of a culture different from her middle-of-the-road American one. The French were not “dark and dirty” as her father had foretold; conversely French women were not “icky-picky” or dainty, and the men didn’t archly twirl their moustaches. She had experienced the distinct character of each town they passed through between Le Havre and Paris and by the time they arrived at the Hotel Pont-Royal in Saint-Germain-des-Prés , Julia was already a little in love with France.

Hôtel Pont Royal, 7 Rue de Montalembert in the 7th. © Norio Nakayama, Wikimedia Commons

From her hotel at 7 rue Montalembert in the 7th arrondissement, she “wandered the city, got lost and found herself again.” Her husband Paul on the other hand was very familiar with the city and took Julia on their first Paris Saturday to Les Deux Magots where the two ordered a café-complet .

Les Deux Magots, photo by Robyn Lee/ Public domain

They then wended their way across the Seine, through the Tuileries and up to Sacré-Coeur to take in the full effect of the whole city. All the way up and all the way down again to the restaurant called Michaud at 29 rue des Saints-Pères. Using the red Michelin guide as their handbook, they decided that what suited them best were meals at a medium quality and expense which were rated by two-crossed forks. Michaud was a two-forker which turned into their favorite place for a time. It is now Le Comptoir des Saints-Pères , where Rue Jacob turns into Rue de l’Université.

Rue de l’Université would figure prominently in Julia’s French adventure. After a month at the Hotel Pont-Royal, Julia and Paul rented 81 rue de l’Université , their cold and quirky apartment. Nicknamed the Roo de Loo, or simply 81, they had the top two floors of a classic grey Parisian building. Behind the grand front door was a small interior courtyard and a cage elevator which opened onto a large dark salon on the second floor. Cold and damp as “Lazarus’s tomb,” the walls were covered in so many plates and plaques that it looked like the inside of a “freshly sliced plum-cake.”

Julia and Paul Child

The kitchen was on the third floor (fourth in North America) and was connected to the salon by a temperamental dumb-waiter. The large, airy, less- than-adequate kitchen came with a monstrous, coal-guzzling stove. At Le Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville aka BHV , Julia bought the necessities to make her kitchen livable, including a frying pan, casseroles and a new stove for $90. Here Julia would try out all her recipes on her willing husband who took the good with the bad. It’s the kitchen at Roo de Loo where Julia operated her intimate L’École des Trois Gourmandes with her friends Simca and Louisette and it’s here that the idea of a cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking , came into fruition.

Les Trois Gourmands © Schlesinger Library; Harvard Radcliffe Institute

Shopping in Paris was a life-changing experience for Julia. She bought daily supplies around the corner from 81 at the neighborhood market place on rue Bourgogne . Her favorite vendor there was Marie de Quatre Saisons who had the freshest produce. Boasting mushrooms, turnips, and zucchini, she told Julia how to pick a good potato from a bad one and schooled Julia on shallots – upon arriving in France, Julia had needed to ask what the small onions were. At a popular, yet tiny, crèmerie found on the Place du Palais Bourbon there was a queue of customers anticipating cheese cut from wheels or sweet churned butter waiting to be carved. Neither Madame nor the creamery remains, however there are lovely flower shops, brasseries, cafes and salons de thé to soak up – Café des Ministères , the Casa Germain and le Bourbon – all in the shadow of the Palais Bourbon and the National Assembly of France.

Julia found Paris wonderfully walkable. She readily hiked from the Place de la Concorde to the top of Montmartre in half an hour. But she took the wide strides of a 6’2” woman! Forty-five minutes is more like it. She carried with her a pocket map book called Paris Par Arrondissement and would intentionally wander off the beaten path.

When she and Paul explored the city they made a point of trying every kind of cuisine “from fancy to hole-in-the-wall.” One of the restaurants they discovered together was La Truite, a cozy place off the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, behind the American embassy which Julia said specialized in “really chickeny-chicken.”

Julia Child Portrait © Lynn Gilbert, 1978 Wikimedia Commons

She peeked in the windows of Le Grande Véfour , a famous old Parisian staple of a restaurant in the park of the Palais Royal and the pair was welcomed. The gracious and beautiful restaurant had been in operation since 1784. One day the writer Colette , a Palais-Royal resident, passed the couple on the way to her special banquette. Colette avoided everyone’s eyes, but checked out what was on everyone’s plate. Julia and Paul revisited Le Grand Véfour once a month. The restaurant remains.

In the fall of 1949 Julia enrolled at the École Cordon Bleu , mistakenly signing up for the year-long certificate instead of the six-week intensive course she had originally hoped for. Back in those days its address was 129 rue Faubourg Sainte-Honoré.

courtesy of Le Grande Véfour

With her teacher Chef Bugnard and the 11 G.I.s she was lumped in with, they’d head to Les Halles , the famous marketplace, for provisions for upcoming classes. Chef Bugnard also introduced Julia to Monsieur Dehillerin, the proprietor of a cornucopia of a store with “an infinite number of wondrous gadgets” for the kitchen. We know that the open-air Les Halles with its brimming fruit and vegetable baskets is long gone but the 200-year-old Dehillerin exists today at 18 et 20 rue Coquillière. So does the Marché aux Puces , the sprawling market at the north edge of town where Julia bought the largest mortar and pestle she had ever come across.

Dehillerin Rooster © Hazel Smith

Alas, Julia’s favorite olive-oilery has recently closed. Once at 23 rue de Rivoli, the shop established in 1822 almost made it to its 200th birthday.

Also gone is Chez la Mère Michel at 5 rue Rennequin. It was a small restaurant, big on flavor, where  with great success Julia learned to make beurre blanc . It’s since been replaced by a curry resto.

Restaurants des Artistes on rue Lepic is unfortunately gone. Its head chef was Pierre Mangelatte, a chef Julia knew from Le Cordon Bleu. On November 7, 1950 Paul and Julia celebrated their second anniversary at Restaurant des Artistes. Located near the top of the hill toward Sacré-Cœur, Les Artistes was a small, neat place with no more than 10 tables but stashed away in its cave were 50,000 bottles of wine. Gone it may be but rue Lepic is always worth a stroll with its proximity to Le Moulin de la Galette and Amélie’s Les Deux Moulins.

Moulin de la Galette © Hazel Smith

In 1952 the duo hit the town, visiting the Tour Argent with their friends from their old OSS days. The excellent restaurant was so expensive in the aftermath of World War II that every guest was American. Later that evening they drove up to the Place du Tertre in their monstrously big car – that must have been fun. They wedged themselves into some stools at the back of the Montmartre landmark Lapine Agile . Despite the boogie-woogie and old French folk songs their brandied cherries never made it to their table.

Lapine Agile, Wikimedia Commons

In style, they pulled an all-nighter with their friends, making their way down to 1 Place Pigalle and stopping into Les Naturistes where the club’s near-naked performers, despite their well-placed rhinestone triangles, gave a lacklustre show. They crossed to the Left Bank and enjoyed themselves at a jolly club. At 3 a.m. they retraced their steps back to the 1st arrondissement and wandered around Les Halles, admiring the barrel-chested men preparing for the morning market. At dawn they found themselves at Au Pied du Cochon – a brasserie where they had more wine, and slurped bowls of onion soup and restorative cups of coffee. At 5:15 a.m. they straggled home. After all these year Au Pied du Cochon is still open 24 hours a day at 6 rue Coquillère.

Au Pied de Cochon, 6 Rue Coquillièr © xiquinhosilva, Wikimedia Commons

For Julia’s 40th birthday, they celebrated at Lapérouse . The gorgeous Belle Époque restaurant is found at 51, Quai des Grands Augustins. This 18th-century establishment was the first restaurant to be awarded three Michelin stars back in 1933. It’s been updated since then but this corner location simply drips with charm.

After four years in Paris, the duo of Julia and Paul Child left Paris for a new French adventure. Their home base would now be Marseille, but they would often return to Paris for new adventures in eating. Julia’s foray into “cookery-bookery,” Mastering the Art of French Cooking, would finally be published in 1961. She was the “French Chef” on American public television throughout the years 1963-73. She and Paul had a house called La Pitchoune in the Provençal village of Placassier that they visited yearly until 1992. La Pitchoune is now a B&B .

Julia Child portrait, courtesy of the Julia Child Foundation

Lead photo credit : Julia Child in her kitchen in Provence

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A freelance writer and amateur historian, Hazel knew she wanted to focus on the lives of French artists and femme fatales after an epiphany at the Musée d'Orsay. A life-long learner, she is a recent graduate of Art History from the University of Toronto. Now she is searching for a real-life art history mystery to solve.

Exhibitions / Julia Child: A Recipe for Life

Julia Child: A Recipe for Life

This traveling exhibition explores pivotal moments in julia’s life, beyond her fame as a tv personality and author, through immersive experiences..

Julia Child: A Recipe for Life invites visitors to immerse themselves in key ingredients of her personal journey – from her early days in Paris to her groundbreaking cookbook and TV show.

Discover the passion and perseverance that made Julia a culinary icon and be inspired by her legacy, one that continues to influence and inspire generations of food enthusiasts and trailblazers.

Highlights:

• Interactive The French Chef studio kitchen
•   La Couronne restaurant immersive experience
• Larger-than-life Mastering the Art of French Cooking
• “Dear Julia” interactive
• Photo Ops throughout the exhibition

Specifications

Space required:.

3,000 - 5,000 sq. ft.

Production Time:

Ten (10) days for installation; seven (7) for deinstallation

Two (2) 53 ft. trailers

Exhibition provided in American English

Tour Availability

July – Sept 2026 February 2027 and beyond Inquire for availability

Produced By

Julia Child: A Recipe for Life is a traveling exhibition produced and managed by Flying Fish, developed in collaboration with Napa Valley Museum , supported by The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, The Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University , and generously sponsored by Oceania Cruises .

Testimonials

My family and I saw the Julia Child exhibition at The Henry Ford and it was superb! You made me fall in love with her all over again and I learned new fascinating details. My daughter loved the interactive aspects -smelling the bouillabaisse in a heavy copper pot and recreating the bathtime Valentine's Day card, and debuting her own cooking show! It really was such a fun time and I can't wait to take my mom to see it. Congratulations on a fantastic and delightful exhibition! Sincerely,

Leslie Flowers

360 degree exhibition preview, presenting partner:, supporting partners:, exhibition images, tour history and itinerary, the henry ford.

Dearborn, MI, USA view map

May 19, 2023 – September 10, 2023

The Durham Museum

Omaha, NE, USA view map

October 7, 2023 – February 11, 2024

Virginia Museum of History & Culture

Richmond, VA, USA view map

March 16, 2024 – September 2, 2024

Ella Sharp Museum

Jackson, MI, USA view map

October 16, 2024 – January 12, 2025

Cincinnati, OH, USA view map

January 31, 2025 – May 18, 2025

Muskegon, MI, USA view map

June 4, 2025 – September 1, 2023

Saint Paul, MN, USA view map

September 20, 2025 – May 31, 2026

Charlotte, NC, USA view map

October 21, 2026 – January 17, 2027

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A Guide To Julia Child’s Paris

By Keaton Bell

When Julia Child moved to Paris in 1948, she didn’t know a lick of French. For the then-36-year-old expat wasn’t yet the Julia Child – the one who would go on to single-handedly bring French cuisine to the masses with her seminal cookbooks and cooking shows. The Pasadena native grew up with a family chef and barely knew how to scramble an egg. But when her husband Paul accepted a government job promoting French-American relations through the arts, Child packed her bags for Paris and never looked back.

“Surrounded by gorgeous food, wonderful restaurants, a kitchen at home – and an appreciative audience in my husband – I began to cook more and more,” Child wrote in her posthumously-released 2006 memoir, My Life in France . “I fell in love with French food – the tastes, the processes, the history, the endless variations, the rigorous discipline, the creativity, the wonderful people, the equipment, the rituals…”

Child shopping for produce, date unknown.

Those years in Paris marked a crucial period of transformation for Child. She discovered a deep admiration for French cuisine, found her true calling as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu, and met future collaborators like the legendary cooking teacher Simone Beck. She may not have initially spoken the language or known any Parisians, but it didn’t take long for the city to imprint on her as it has so many others.

“Those early years in France were among the best of my life,” Child wrote. “I had such fun that I could hardly stop moving long enough to catch my breath – I loved the people, the food, the lay of the land, the civilised atmosphere, and the generous pace of life.”

Child remains an indelible figure in the public’s imagination, continuing to inspire a new generation of aspiring chefs and wannabe Francophiles. Meryl Streep earned an Oscar nom playing Child in 2009’s Julie & Julia , an adaptation of My Life in France centred around her pre-fame years in Paris. The English actress Sarah Lancashire currently plays Child in the Max original series Julia , which picks up where Julie & Julia left off with the publication of 1961’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Child’s wildly influential first cookbook. Regardless of how you first encountered Child – via Streep and Lancashire’s interpretations, reruns of The French Chef, or that infamous Saturday Night Live sketch – it’s impossible not to fall for her charms.

By Jeanne Ballion

By Marie Bladt

By Daniel Rodgers

I was 14 years old when I first watched Julie & Julia and discovered the magic of Child. I begged my mother to pick up the ingredients for boeuf bourguignon on our way home from the theatre, and ran to my local bookstore the next day to buy a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking . Living about as far from Paris as one can get – the Oklahoma suburbs – Child’s words and recipes instilled a sense of worldly wonder that’s stayed with me ever since. She taught me that it was okay to fail as long as I took the utmost pleasure in what I was doing, and to never let that failure discourage one from trying again. I may have over-cooked and under-seasoned my first batch of boeuf bourguignon, but that only made my first successful attempt at the dish all the more exceptional.

“You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made,” Child wrote. “Even after you eat it, it stays with you – always!”

So when, after fifteen years of daydreaming, the time came for me to visit Paris for the first time this past winter, I figured there was no better tour guide for my trip than Child herself. While the Paris of today may not be identical to the Paris that Child encountered in 1948, many of her old haunts remain untouched by modernity. With my battered copy of My Life in France , the first season of Julia queued up, and a sense of joie de vivre , I set out to explore Paris through Julia’s eyes.

Hotel Pont Royal

Julia and Paul Child arrived in Paris on 3 November 1948, and immediately set up (temporary) residence at the famed Pont Royal. Located in the 7th arrondissement, the luxury hotel instantly immerses guests in the history of its storied past. The mahogany-lined Bar Signature became the first cocktail bar to open in Paris between the two World Wars, becoming a hub for some of the foremost cultural icons of the twentieth century: Ernest Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Simone de Beauvoir, and Child. Order an Upside-Down martini – Child’s favourite – and settle into one of the leather club chairs for the full experience.

Address: 5-7 rue de Montalembert, 75007 Paris, France

Les Deux Magots

One of the first meals the Childs had in Paris was at this famed café, where they each ordered a cafe complete – a classic French breakfast of coffee and a baguette served with butter, jam and honey. “Paul was amused to see nothing had changed since his last visit back in 1928,” Child wrote of Les Deux Magots. “The seats inside were still covered with orange plush, the brass light fixtures were still unpolished, and the waiters – and probably the dust balls in the corner – were the same.” The upholstery and waitstaff may have been updated, but the café still retains many of its classical flourishes – including those unpolished brass fixtures. As one of the more tourist-heavy cafés in Paris thanks to its history – Pablo Picasso and Albert Camus were regulars – you can probably expect a lengthy wait at peak hours. But if you manage to sneak a table outside, you’ll be treated to a classic Parisian cafe experience.

Address: 6 Place Saint-Germain des Prés, 75006 Paris, France

Julia and Paul Child’s longtime home

After residing at the Pont Royal for a little over a month, the Childs relocated to a classic Parisian building just a few blocks away. “It had a grey cement facade, a grand front door about eight feet high, a small interior courtyard, and an open-topped cage elevator,” Child wrote. “It was large, centrally located, and a bit weird.” Saying “81 Rue de l’Universite” proved to be a bit of a mouthful for Child, and so her beloved “Roo de Loo” was born. The couple resided on the second and third floors of the hotel-turned-residence, and it was here that Child first nurtured her love of cooking, perfected dishes that she learned at Le Cordon Bleu, and tested out many of the recipes that would end up in her first cookbook. “Roo de Loo” has become something of a pilgrimage site for Child devotees over the years, with many paying their respects by leaving a stick of butter on the front stoop. Afterwards, you can stroll the boulevard where Child used to buy pastries and produce, with many storefronts from her time in the neighbourhood still in operation.

Address: 81 Rue de l’Université, 75007 Paris, France

Le BHV Marais

When the Childs settled into “Roo de Loo”, they set about redecorating with trips to Le Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville – known then simply as “Le BHV”. Filled with “aisle upon aisle of cheaply made merchandise”, Child stocked up on household essentials like dishpans, brooms, light bulbs, and a stove. The department store has been supplying Parisians with a variety of beauty and household goods for over 160 years, but Le BHV Marais has fancied itself up a bit since Child’s day. It now boasts over 2,000 brands, including storefronts for luxury stalwarts like Gucci, Givenchy, and Moncler.

Address: 52 Rue de Rivoli, 75004 Paris, France

Le Grand Véfour

Dining at Le Grand Véfour is like stepping back in time. Discreetly tucked into an arcade of the Palais-Royal, the Michelin-starred restaurant is one of the oldest in Paris, having first opened its doors when Marie Antoinette was still queen. Under the régime of current head chef Guy Martin, the restaurant recently updated its menu from high gastronomy to more elegant bistro fare. But never fear: the crystal chandeliers, gilded glass mirrors, and quality of cooking are all very much intact. It’s easy to see why Child cites the restaurant as her favourite in all of Paris in her memoir, recounting her and Paul’s first meal there with mouth-watering detail. “The meal began with little shells made with sea scallops and mushrooms robed in a classically beautiful winy cream sauce, and then we had a wonderful duck dish, and cheeses, and a rich dessert, followed by coffee,” she writes. “It was expensive but, as Paul said, ‘You are so hypnotised by everything there that you feel grateful as you pay the bill.’”

Address: 17 Rue de Beaujolais, 75001 Paris, France

E Dehillerin

Child was “thunderstruck” when she first encountered this 200-year-old restaurant-supply store – located near the Louvre – and always made a point to stop by whenever she found herself in the neighbourhood. “Now our kitchen had enough knives to fill a pirate ship,” Child wrote of her frequent “raiding trips” to E Dehillerin. “I had become a knife freak, a frying pan freak, a gadget freak – and especially a copper freak!” You could waste an entire afternoon just admiring the gleaming copper vessels on display: sauciers, sauté pans, stew pots, and so much more. There was no way the gorgeous turbot kettle I had my eye on would fit in my carry-on back home, but I did manage to snag some more practically-sized doodads, including a wooden fish spatula and some cannelle molds.

Address: 18-20 Rue Coquillière, 75001 Paris, France

Le Cordon Bleu

Tinkering in the kitchen and eating her way through Paris wasn’t enough for Child. “Something was missing,” she wrote. “I wanted to roll up my sleeves and dive into French cuisine. But how?” Enter Le Cordon Bleu, the oldest and most famous cooking school in Paris. Child attended an afternoon demonstration that turned into a year-long intensive study, changing the course of her life forever. As the sole woman studying alongside 11 American GIs, Child learned not just recipes, but the French tradition of extracting the full, essential flavours from food. “I was in pure, flavourful heaven,” she wrote. “Because I had already established a good basic knowledge on my own, the classes acted as a catalyst for new ideas, and almost immediately my cooking improved.”

Child learned all manner of dishes during her time at Le Cordon Bleu, including roasted partridges, ratatouille, chocolate ice cream, and her beloved boeuf bourguignon. Alongside more advanced programs like the one Child completed, the school offers a range of demonstrations and workshops for curious chefs. On a rainy day in November, I stopped by the campus for a cooking demonstration from Executive Chef Éric Briffard, who has been the Culinary Arts Director at Le Cordon Bleu Paris Institute since 2016 and Head of the Institute since 2018. Flanked by several students who whisked and mixed with furore, the chef prepared loup farci en croûte – a freshly-caught sea bass that’s been deboned, stuffed with a creamy pistachio paste, baked in pastry dough, and served with a tangy Choron sauce. It was, to put it mildly, the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted.

The second-best thing was at a cooking workshop the following day. Under the guidance of Chef Instructor Alexandra Didier, I prepared a fig leaf-roasted duck breast, pears, and figs with cassia bark. Even putting aside the sheer wonder of cooking at the same institute that uplifted Child, it was an enlightening and exhilarating experience in the kitchen. I wouldn’t call myself a particularly daring cook, or even a good one at that. But somewhere between chopping up duck carcasses for the jus and pan-frying figs in honey and butter, I had convinced myself that all my problems would be solved if I moved to Paris and enrolled as a student. Julia said you never forget something beautiful you’ve made, and I can still taste this dish: the rich and flavourful jus, the duck seared to perfection. Spend two hours with a trained professional guiding you every minute step of the way, and you too may convince yourself you could be the next Julia Child.

Address: 15 Quai André Citroën, 75015 Paris, France

By Elise Taylor

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My Lifelong Love of Julia Child Led Me to Her Favorite Restaurant, Chez Georges In Paris

I'd always had a thing for Julia Child—and then I finally got to meet her.

I’ve always had a thing for Julia Child. Although most of our encounters took place via the Sony Trinitron in the library of the house I grew up in, in West Hartford, Connecticut, I did actually get to meet her under the most unlikely circumstances.

In the years immediately following my graduation from Parsons School of Design, like so many other aspiring fashion designers, I had a string of Seventh Avenue worker-bee jobs ranging from picking up pins for the legendary Pauline Trigère to designing a Valentino diffusion collection made in Korea to working for a company that made cloying cabbage rose chintz party dresses for Lord & Taylor.

I was a horrible employee, and many times found myself “in-between engagements.” It was during one of those “in-between” periods that I sublet my Upper West Side apartment and hightailed it back to my parents’ house to figure out my next step. It was summer, so no one was hiring.

My mom had a subscription to Connecticut Magazine , and they were running a recipe contest. First prize: a group lesson with Julia Child. Now, even though I have written cookbooks, I’m not a great cook and I was an even worse one back then. But I knew that Julia was a big cheerleader for new, artisanal American food products.

A unique American Golden Whitefish caviar, one that could be frozen, had just come to market under the Tsar Nicoulai brand. I thought that Julia would love this, so I concocted an appetizer using Pepperidge Farm frozen puff pastry, a “mousse” of whipped cream, cream cheese and chives that looked more like Grasshopper Pie filling, and heaps of that glistening golden caviar topped with a sprig of fresh dill. And wouldn’t you know, I won!

Prior to baking, as she cut open a steam hole and painted on an egg wash, she said, “It really looks like a disembodied something, doesn’t it?

I never saw her again in person, but our relationship continued over the airwaves and later through books, video tapes and, ultimately, YouTube. Of course I loved the film Julie and Julia , especially the depiction of the collaboration with Judith Jones, the legendary Knopf editor. In retrospect, that’s probably what inspired me to write cookbooks myself.

I have dined several times at Harvest, Child’s favorite Cambridge, Massachusetts restaurant, a bazillion years ago, and openly wept when I saw Julia’s kitchen reassembled at the Smithsonian. But I had never been to her “Ground Zero” restaurant in Paris—Chez Georges—until a few years ago. Supposedly, this is where she had one of her early encounters with sole meunière, and the rest is history.

So on a frigid, dark January night, a group of us met there for dinner. Slightly shabby, even a little grimy, the room regardless had the most marvelous golden glow—from decades of nicotine, I assumed. I had heard that Chez Georges had become a sort of tourist trap, but that night, while filled with Americans, there was also a great deal of French being spoken.

I also would not have called the Americans there your typical tourists. At the next table: filmmaker Wes Anderson and actress Tilda Swinton. We loaded up on escargots, céleri rémoulade, piles of pommes frites and, of course, sole meunière, along with an awful lot of inexpensive but good Bordeaux and the best towering mille-feuille imaginable.

Subsequent visits have been equally memorable. And while there may be a few more burned out light bulbs and cobwebs each time, the food continues to impress. The waitresses, classically clad in black uniforms with black tights, range from brusque to charming, depending on the night. But each one is generally unflappable and expert at tossing a salade frisée aux lardons.

I asked Brigitte, who has now become our favorite waitress, “Is it really all Americans? Do any Parisians dine here?”

“Fifty-fifty,” she responded. “And now, many Japanese and Chinese.”

Still, there is no “English menu”—only the handwritten French one that looks like hieroglyphics to me, with deliberately ruled lines drawn through unavailable dishes. Prices remain modest, while portions are surprisingly large by French standards. It’s practically impossible to be a member of the clean plate club at Chez Georges, no matter how delectable and airy the sauce béarnaise is or how irresistible the pommes frites may be.

True to form, Chez Georges still attracts its share of Americans. We’ve been chatted up by a cute couple from Memphis and were fascinated to see a large table of Mormon missionaries chow down with gusto. But in the same night, there were also tables of French diners of varying ages. One particularly friendly bunch saw me taking photos for this piece, and offered to take one with me in it, which I declined. While all three were French, one of them was living in London.

“Do you come here often?” I asked the expat.

“Every time I’m in Paris, at least monthly,” he replied. “I used to live around the corner. I wouldn’t have dinner anywhere else.”

Chez Georges depuis 1964

1, Rue du Mail, 75002, Paris

[email protected]

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Julia Child’s Paris

You don’t have to be a Le Cordon Bleu-level chef to appreciate Julia Child’s Paris. The bonne vivante , who taught the world how to cook French cuisine (or at least just appreciate it more), loved all aspects of her years in Paris, a city that showed her how to savour life in full.

Much of the post-war Paris that Julia knew has disappeared, but some of her favourite destinations remain, and are classic must-visits for anyone wanting to take their Parisian holiday to a satisfying new level.

Hôtel Pont Royal

This is where Julia and Paul Child holed up on arriving in Paris in November 1948. Treat yourself to a night, or just to a cocktail in the cosy, wood-lined bar that once attracted the likes of Albert Camus and Françoise Sagan, and where you can very much imagine Julia relishing a martini.

The Childs stayed at the hotel for about a month, before moving into a nearby apartment; it’s at 81 Rue de l’Université (Julia’s famous ‘Roo de Loo’) if you feel like making a pilgrimage.

5-7, Rue Montalembert 75007

Les Deux Magots

The Childs came to this legendary café for one of their first Parisian breakfasts; they sat en terrasse enjoying a ‘Complet,’ served with a satisfying side of people-watching. You can still order the breakfast package (albeit in Euros not Francs), and while the clothes and hairstyles of passers-by have changed, the voyeurism to be had here is as fun as ever.

6, Place Saint-Germain des Prés 75006

Le BHV Marais

This department store, known in Julia’s day as Le Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville, was where she went to stock up on ‘pails, dishpans, soap rack, funnel, light plugs, wire, bulbs and garbage cans,’ as well as numerous other home essentials, such as a stove. It’s still the go-to for all sorts of random odds and ends — and ovens, too. The store might have fancied itself up somewhat these days, with chic homeware and fashion offerings in the mix, but the trusty bricolage department lives on, for all your home DIY needs.

52, Rue de Rivoli 75004

À l’Olivier 

The ‘olive-oilery,’ as Julia called it, has lived here since 1822, and has long been a favourite of gourmand Parisians, who adore the aromatic selection of extra virgin oils. Recently renovated, the store is no longer the olde-worlde boutique that Julia once admired — but its oils would surely still win her nod of approval.  

23, Rue de Rivoli 75004

Update: Sadly, À l’Olivier has closed its Paris store. For a great selection of olive oils, head to La Grande Épicerie at Le Bon Marché.

Les Puces de Saint-Ouen

Julia Child journeyed to the famous fleamarkets to track down her ultimate mortar and pestle, with which to make quenelles de brochet . Whether you’re looking for something for the kitchen, for the living room, or for your wardrobe, you’ll find it at this wonderfully sprawling market, just north of the Porte de Clignancourt métro station. Go on a weekend, devoting at least half a day to the adventure, and make sure not to miss Marché Vernaison and Marché Paul Bert Serpette, both of which you can enter along Rue des Rosiers.

Julia and her fellow Cordon Bleu students often traipsed to Les Halles for lessons in ingredients. The inner city markets were sadly demolished in 1971 (making way for a large shopping centre and entertainment complex), but one of the most popular market restaurants, Au Pied de Cochon (6, Rue Coquillière 75001) is as lively as ever.

This is where Julia, Paul and friends found themselves at three o’clock one morning, after a night out on the town; as the market workers set up in the dawning light, Julia and co sat down to a traditional onion soup, which you can still order, and at any time of the day or night.

If you’re at Les Halles during the daytime, you can visit another much-loved address of Julia’s: E. Dehillerin (18-20, Rue Coquillière 75001), the cult cookware boutique that had Julia ‘thunderstruck’ by the ‘infinite number of wondrous gadgets, tools, implements and gewgaws,’ and soon a committed ‘copper freak.’ 

Julia and Paul wined and dined all over town. They were big fans of mid-priced bistrots and brasseries, but also loved to splash out at such storied institutions as La Tour d’Argent and Le Grand Véfour.

For Julia’s fortieth birthday, they celebrated at Lapérouse, a Belle Époque restaurant nestled in a glittering jewel box of a seventeenth-century townhouse; the restaurant has recently been renovated but the ambience remains gloriously hedonistic, and a perfect choice for special nights out.

51, Quai des Grands Augustins 75006

• August 12, 2019
• by Katrina Lawrence

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Paris History of our Streets

A Modern Translation of Historical Paris

Julia Child’s Paris Home

81 rue de l’Université Paris 75007

Ernest Hemingway once said, “Paris is so very beautiful that it satisfies something in you that is always hungry in America” and no one can attest to that in a more literal sense than Culinary TV personality Julia Child.

Before Rachel Ray and Martha Steward, there was the OG American Celebrity Chef whose high pitched, resonating voice filled the kitchens of America in the 60’s and 70’s. Not only was she responsible for introducing French cuisine to American housewives who lacked the culinary expertise and confidence to cook à la française, she wrote the first English cookbook that made French recipes accessible to American kitchens.

No one had ever attempted to translate French classics like Boeuf Bourguignon and Coq au Vin until Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published in 1961. Her TV show, The French Chef, came about soon after and America loved the goofy and always cheery Julia who would make her raw chickens dance and laugh about her frequent kitchen blunders which were broadcasted live on TV. Her approachable personality made chic French cuisine less intimidating in a time when meat and potatoes dominated the dinner table.

I’m no chef and I avoid spending any longer in my tiny Parisian kitchen than I have to, but after reading her book, My Life in France; I was inspired to learn more about Julia and the life she lived in post WWII Paris with her husband Paul, whose job at the US Embassy brought them to Rue de l’Université.

At 34, Julia had never been interested in cuisine, but after a meal of Chablis, Oysters, and Sole Meunière her first evening in France, she was blown away by what she would always refer to as a life changing experience. She enrolled in the famous Le Cordon Bleu culinary school as the only woman amongst American GIs and the rest is history. Interestingly enough, Le Cordon Bleu would turn out to be a bit of a disappointment for Julia, but I’ll let you read about her experience there and decide for yourself.

While reading her book, I came across a beautiful picture of Julia leaning out of her window at Rue de Loo, and I was determined to see if this same building was still around. I found the address online and came across numerous photos of other (less motivated if I may dare say..) bloggers and aspiring chefs who also wanted to walk amongst the steps of Julia. But I was curious to see that the picture I had seen, was clearly not the same building where Julia had taken the photo, although it was labeled with correct address. I determined that it must have been taken from the interior courtyard and so I went to investigate.

Because you can’t enter apartment buildings without the code, (or in general, but I follow the ideology that nothing is forbidden until I am told otherwise) I had to wait about 10 minutes for someone to come out. As soon as the door opened and someone walked out, (I wondered if they even knew of Julia and that she lived there. She was never very popular in France; although she did receive the French Legion of Honor for her culinary contributions) I slipped inside and went to the courtyard. Et voila!

I found the window to Julia’s Paris apartment, where she lived for about 4 years, located in that vast, dull area of the 7th arrondissement between the Eiffel Tower and Saint Germain des Pres. I don’t know if anyone else experiences this same bizarre phenomenon as me, but sometimes I’ll read something that touches me on such a deep personal level that I feel like I genuinely know the writer or character. Along with Laura Ingalls Wilder,

Despite my disinterest in cuisine, Julia Child just really connected to me through the pages of her book. I don’t know if it’s because we are both tall and loud, or that we embraced our quirkiness in Paris rather than try to blend in like everyone else, but there was something magic about her that goes beyond her culinary skills.

I’ll end my Julia Child report here, but I highly suggest you read her book My Life in France to learn more about this fascinating woman. Bon Appétit!

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2 thoughts on “Julia Child’s Paris Home”

You have convinced me. I just ordered the book!

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Awesome! I always knew who she was, but had no idea how big of a personality she had until I read this. She was really an incredible woman.

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Getting to know Julia Child’s France

With the success of her television cooking program, The French Chef , Julia Child not only paved the way for the star chefs of today, but forever changed the face of food in America. Read on to find out more about this inspirational gourmet and how you can visit some her favorite spots on our France tours .

Explore our tours to France

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She Was More Than the Woman Who Made Julia Child Famous

In “The Editor,” Sara B. Franklin argues that Judith Jones was a “publishing legend,” transcending industry sexism to champion cookbooks — and Anne Frank.

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By Alexandra Jacobs

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THE EDITOR: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America, by Sara B. Franklin

People outside the publishing industry often wonder what it is, exactly, that editors do . “Most of them do nothing,” one of the most storied, Robert Gottlieb , told the author Sara B. Franklin. Nothing is as bad as too much, and yet I’ve long thought the profession — not for nothing does it include “book doctors” — should have its own version of the Hippocratic oath.

Judith Jones, the subject of Franklin’s essential if adulatory new biography, “The Editor,” was the rare text surgeon who also had an excellent bedside manner. Jones, who died in 2017 — six years before Gottlieb , who came in over her head to run Knopf — was widely memorialized as a culinary editor, and rightly so. A passionate home cook, she introduced Julia Child to America and published books on a wide range of cuisines by Edna Lewis , Madhur Jaffrey , Claudia Roden and many others. She fended off Big Agriculture with small, local asparagus spears and reawakened a national palate lulled by midcentury convenience foods.

But as “The Editor” makes painfully apparent, Jones’s contribution to the history of regular old literature has often been minimized or outright erased. A certain recessiveness is part of the job, of course, and yet mention of her name can draw blank stares even among the best-connected in “the biz.”

We owe to her nothing less than “The Diary of Anne Frank” reaching these shores and, after she met him in a hallway, almost the entirety of John Updike’s oeuvre. Ditto Anne Tyler’s. Jones was also a gravitational force, for better and worse, in Sylvia Plath’s brilliant and shortened arc . Working with dozens of other authors, helpfully listed in a coda, she burnished and sustained Knopf’s reputation as the most prestigious publishing house in the country while also earning it piles of money.

Franklin, who has a Ph.D. in food studies, met Jones for an oral-history project toward the end of her life, when “she wore her age like a fact,” as she nicely writes. Cooking and confiding, they became friends. At the funeral, a family member pulled her aside and offered turnkey access to two rooms filled with personal papers. It isn’t so often you flip to the acknowledgments page of a biography and read valedictory lines to the subject like “I loved you so much; I love you still.” But perhaps this is in keeping with Jones’s own defiance of patriarchal convention.

She was born Judith Fifield Bailey, the younger of two daughters, and raised Christian — we’re not told what denomination — with extended family in a solid but second-tier building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Prone to invalidism, she read a lot. Her father was a lawyer from Vermont, where they spent summers, and her mother a chilly social climber; for college, Judith chose not a Seven Sister but Bennington, where, as a founder said, “a girl could hang upside down in her bloomers if she felt like it.”

Her first big affair was with one of her teachers, the poet Theodore Roethke, who urged his students to “listen, listen, listen.” Later on, as a junior staffer at Doubleday, she would work with him.

With a letter of introduction from the Hungarian-born intellectual Arthur Koestler, young Judith traveled to postwar Paris, where authors were thicker than pigeons on the sidewalk. There she also discovered the market and kitchen, horrifying her mother, who considered such pursuits low-class. Working for a short-lived glossy called Weekend, she fell in love with the editor Richard Evan Jones , a married father of two with whom she’d eventually elope to Vienna and enjoy a long, loving and professionally fruitful union. (I highly recommend their 1982 gluten salute, “The Book of Bread.”)

Afflicted with painful endometriosis, which doctors infuriatingly used to call “the career women’s disease” — Franklin recounts Jones bleeding profusely in her assistant’s cubicle, then going back to her desk — she was unable to conceive children, which she wanted badly. But the couple adopted two of a relative’s teenagers, including them in adventuresome dinners. “That was mean of me,” she admitted, of serving tripe.

Franklin revels in all the food stuff, but does not skimp on general publishing history, like Jones’s apprenticeship to the colorful Blanche Knopf . (We’ll need more time to contextualize recent upheaval at the house.) Plath’s suicide came distressingly soon after Jones, who’d published her “ The Colossus and Other Poems” in the States, had rejected her novel, “The Bell Jar.”

Lionized in recent years, especially after release of the documentary “ Turn Every Page ,” Gottlieb comes off here as dismissive of Jones’s talents. He called her a “lady” with a “rich husband,” suggested her authors didn’t need much input, and was defensive about underpaying her. She was not a “marcher,” as a colleague put it, but firmly feminist in her achievements, and remarkably tenacious in mind and body, surviving a flash flood with dog in arms months after her widowhood.

I don’t mind that “The Editor” is a valentine. But surprisingly, given the richness of the material, I closed it feeling slightly underfed, wanting more butter between the slices of this big life. We learn about Tyler’s development as an author, for example, but there’s nothing about her ’80s blockbuster, “The Accidental Tourist.” Jacqueline Susann would probably dispute that Child’s then-publicist invented the modern book tour. Jones’s failure to see the talent of Alice Munro — twice — is alluded to in the introduction, but never explained.

And the editor herself would probably have excised a few of her biographer’s clichés, the striking of gold and going over the moon and firing on all cylinders. But with the utmost tact, bien sûr .

THE EDITOR : How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America | By Sara B. Franklin | Atria | 336 pp. | $29.99

Alexandra Jacobs is a Times book critic and occasional features writer. She joined The Times in 2010. More about Alexandra Jacobs

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Don DeLillo’s fascination with terrorism, cults and mass culture’s weirder turns has given his work a prophetic air. Here are his essential books .

Jenny Erpenbeck’s “ Kairos ,” a novel about a torrid love affair in the final years of East Germany, won the International Booker Prize , the renowned award for fiction translated into English.

Kevin Kwan, the author of “Crazy Rich Asians,” left Singapore’s opulent, status-obsessed, upper crust when he was 11. He’s still writing about it .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .