Imagine window-shopping for food in an upscale neighborhood. Walking past dozens, hundreds of displays of the tastiest, most mouth-watering comestibles — meat, fish, cheeses, chocolates, vegetables. It would be a form of torture.

Now flip it. You are doing the same window-shopping of gourmet foods … but you are allowed — nay, encouraged — to stop and pop a morsel into your mouth, costing you nothing beyond a sunny “merci!” of appreciation.

That is what the Salon Saveurs is about. Tasting wonderful things … for hours. And it is going on right this minute in Paris.

Even a second- or third-tier foodie (like moi) can appreciate this. It’s impossible not to.

A morsel of duck sausage here. A taste of olive oil there. Cheeses hard and soft, goat cheese, rabbit rillette, foie gras, fondue, six varietes of mushrooms, 10 kinds of jam … indeed, just about anything you might see on a French menu.

Also available: Wine, Pineau de Charente, Champagne — though as a venue for the fermented grape, it does not compare to the wine salon we attended the previous weekend here. This is primarily a food fair, with a smattering of vintners on hand, seemingly offering visitors a chance to buy a complete French meal, from soup to nuts.

The place has more than 400 exhibitors, from all the regions of France and even from its former colonies and Italy … and you just taste your way right through the place until you’ve exhausted yourself.

It is popular. There’s that. The aisles are thronged with Parisians pulling little shopping carts in which they load all the wonderful things they buy in advance of the Christmas holidays. Episodes of gridlock will occur and, attention, you may be stranded in front of a chocolatier for another 2-3 minutes.

We spoke to a cheese producer about the object of the fair. “Everyone is here, the quality producers, and the visitors are food-lovers,” he said. “They find the products they want and we find the kind of customers we are pursuing. It works for everyone.”

That sort of conversation is an added benefit for salon-goers. Except when buried by the weight of visitors, the exhibitors are happy to talk about their products, and how they come to market. It is a learning experience, as well as a tasting event.

We eventually purchased a goat cheese from the Val d’Isere region, duck sausage and foie gras from a farmer in southwest France (whose specialty, in fact is capons — who knew people still ate those?), a bottle of red Pineau, olive oil from the southeast of the country …

We broke for lunch, during which Leah paid 13 euros (about $17) for a dozen perfect oysters (above, with bread and wine), shucked moments before by a family from Normandy, and still tasting of the sea … and I watched her eat. I had a bowlful of mini-ravioli — ravioles du royans — a specialty pasta from the south, filled with cheese and parsley and topped with either cream or olive oil.

The fair includes five functioning restaurants, inside the convention center at Champerret, on the northwest edge of central Paris, about two blocks north of the Metro station. You pay for your food at the restos. You are not obligated to eat at any of them, and most visitors do not.

It is an amazing event. If you haven’t already done so, pause to look at the 12 photos on the Salon Saveurs website. It gives an idea of what sort of beautiful stuff is for sale …

Or, even better, for tasting.