Wondering about a really special Mother’s or Father’s Day gift? Ready to break the mold and take a magical trip to Paris to taste great food and wine for a week this spring? The Zingerman’s Food Tour to Paris could well be just the ticket. It may well be one of the most memorable gifts you ever give. As the artist Vincent van Gogh once said, “There is but one Paris.”

Like all the Zingerman’s Food Tours, this one is built around an abundant itinerary of amazing meals, in-depth, behind-the-scenes visits with artisan food producers, market walks, wine tastings and tours, and a ton more! Everyone who goes on these trips heads home feeling fulfilled emotionally, intellectually, and culinarily, with a wealth of wonderful memories and more often than not, a new friend or two to boot!

Rebecca Solnit, whose books and anarchist-oriented outlook have been brightening my life for 15 years now, is a big fan of the city:

More than any other city, [Paris] has entered the paintings and the novels of those under its sway, so that representation and reality reflect each other like a pair of facing mirrors, and walking Paris is often described as reading, as though the city itself were a huge anthology of tales. It exerts a magnetic attraction over its citizens and its visitors.

Paris is probably one of the premier spots to see third places in action—the café culture of the capital city has been famous for centuries. This trip includes a whole lot more than I’ll list here – see the weblink for all the wonderful details. A few—and I really mean, just a few—of the plethora of highlights on the Paris trip include:

– a formal cheese lesson with one of the city’s most famous fromagers
– a tasting tour through my favorite part of the city, the old Jewish quarter of the Marais
– a visit to the mind-boggling Rungis food market
– a side trip for two days of tasting and a historical overview of Champagne
– a tasting of the new “third wave” coffee scene in the capital city
– a special lunch put together by one of the city’s leading charcutiers
– a bunch more specialty shops, remarkable restaurants, and walks through neighborhoods.

I should warn you that you may not want to come home. The writer Gertrude Stein—who Hannah Arendt was known to quote regularly—went to Paris in 1903 when she was 39 and ended up living there for the rest of her long life. As she explained, “America is my country and Paris is my hometown.”