I DIDN'T appreciate just how sweet the trail would be, with numerous patisseries and chocolatiers en route, all offering irresistible products.

Our first stop was St Germain des Pres on the Left Bank, originally a small market town but, following the Second World War, a meeting place for intellectuals - Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir would discuss literature and philosophy at cafes such as Deux Magot, Cafe de Flore and Brasserie Lipp, all found around the intersection of St Germain des Pres and Rue Bonaparte.

We then visited the venerable Laduree, at Rue Bonaparte. This company can trace its history back to 1862, and its first bakery at Rue Royale.

Laduree now has a tea salon, pastry shop, restaurant, chocolate shop and ice cream parlour at various locations in Paris, and one at Harrods in London.

The speciality is a macaroon - a round cake, crisp on the outside, with a smooth ganache centre - and for each new season, Laduree create a confection with a new flavour; some outlandish, such as rose petal, blackcurrant violet and salted butter caramel.

A short walk to Rue de Seine brought us to the outlet, opened in 2003, for the superb creations of Belgian chocolate maestro, Pierre Marcolini, one of only three craftsmen remaining in Europe manufacturing chocolate from scratch, directly from the cacao bean.

His chocolates are unbelievably sumptuous, albeit expensive. If your wallet can take the hit, go for a limited edition chocolate bar made from porcelana beans in Mexico; beans that were facing extinction before Marcolini stepped in.

I was particularly drawn to a blood-red heart-shaped Coeur Framboise, which was a bitter ganache coated with white chocolate and raspberry pulp.

Over at a La Reine Astrid on Rue du Cherche-Midi, owner Madame Salmon (a stunning advertisement for the benefits of eating lots of good chocolate) donned immaculate white gloves to talk us through their specialities.

"For us, chocolate is the packaging as well as the ingredients," she purred as she drew our attention to a display in an open glass counter in the centre of the shop. The chocolates were just crying out to be eaten, so in order not to disappoint her, we did just that.

Pressing on, we headed to the Art Deco splendour of Hotel Lutetia for afternoon tea. I had an exotic concoction called Les Jardins de Mogador, green tea with Nana mint and roses - pricey but exquisitely refreshing.

This is certainly not a tour for those with a delicate digestion system.

Next stop was Poilane bakery, also on Rue du Cherche-Midi. They say the only place where Parisians don't mind queuing is a bakery - and some of the longest queues of all are to be found at Poilane.

Pierre Poilane started baking bread here in 1932, in the basement of a former 17th century monastery. They specialise in traditional sour dough bread that became deeply unfashionable in the 19th century when the white bread baguette arrived on the scene.

A Poilane loaf can set you back lots of dosh in posh restaurants around the world, but here in Paris it's eminently affordable. The company, employing 130 people, is run by Appolliona Poilane, 22, who took over following the deaths of her parents in a helicopter crash in 2002.

A short nap was in order after all this epicurean excess. Suitably refreshed, we took a taxi to Rue Montreuil and L'Aiguiere restaurant, owner and sommelier Patrick Masbatin served up a superb fish dinner. It's fair to say we felt a little sluggish the next day, and opted for a spot of retail therapy.

Galeries Lafayette, on Boulevard Haussmann in the Ninth Arrondissement, has more visitors than the Eiffel Tower. They don't come just for the shopping, but to check out the building itself, with its beautiful glass dome, classified as an historical monument.

Ever since it opened, in 1893, Galeries Lafayette has attracted the "midinettes", high society "ladies who lunch", and businesswomen making time during their lunch breaks for shopping.

Naturally, there's a food lovers' paradise on the first floor, Lafayette Gourmet, which hosts the Gourmet Foodstore, where we sampled some foie gras, caviar and pastries, the Library of Wines and two restaurants.

At one of these we enjoyed a sublime meal. Chêne Vert â Pastilla, filled with minced guinea fowl and dried fruit, will live long in my memory.

Emboldened by some excellent red wine, we decided it would be interesting to view the tourist attractions, but with a gourmet twist.

Our guide, Jean-Manuel Traimond, led us on a whirlwind tour of the Louvre, taking in food-themed paintings from artists such as Murillo (La Cuisine des Anges) and Arcimboldo (four bizarre paintings collectively known as The Seasons).

Visitors to the Salle de la Joconde typically march straight for the room's most famous occupant, Mona Lisa, the Da Vinci masterpiece, and leave without turning to admire the largest painting at the Louvre, Veronese's study of 16th century fine dining, The Wedding Feast at Cana, so enormous there's a whopping 28 metres in front of it to allow people to fully appreciate the scale.

That evening we dined at Beauvilliers, a cosy little spot on Rue Lamark, before making our way back to our comfortable accommodation at the Hotel Mayfair on Rue Rouget de Lisle, a stone's throw from Place de la Concorde and the Louvre.

What mystifies me is how French women are so much slimmer than their UK counterparts - perhaps the secret is a chocolate and pastry diet?!

Factfile

Eurostar operates up to 17 daily services from London Waterloo and Ashford International to Paris with weekend city breaks (travel and one night hotel stay) from £95 per per person. From November 14, Eurostar's London terminal will switch from Waterloo International to St Pancras International. Journey times will be reduced, with London to Paris taking just two hours 15 minutes.