France: Ladurée

Everyone knows that when you go to Paris you have to try macarons.  And when you try macarons, two names come to mind: Pierre Hermé and Ladurée.

Since we were walking along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées (T and AF wanted to check out the Louis Vuitton flagship store), we made sure to stop by Ladurée:

Apparently rainy days don't stop people from crowding through Ladurée's door:

When you finally reach the start of the counter, you can't help but be blown away.  Glorious sweets as far as the eye can see:

While everything else looks pretty, the undisputed stars of the show are the macarons:

We each picked a flavor:

There were four of us...so we should have had four maracons.  We ended up with six.

Math was never our strong suit.

I picked the yuzu ginger (which turned out to be my favorite).  AF wanted the lemon and T wanted the caramel with salted butter.  My sister couldn't resist getting a giant pistachio macaron.  And somehow, we ended up also getting a coffee and a Marie Antoinette.

When we saw the bright blue macarons, we just had to ask what it was.  The Marie Antoinette macaron is filled with fondant infused with Ladurée's Marie Antoinette tea, which combines Chinese black tea with rose petals, citrus, and honey.

At 1.83 € per macaron (regular sized, not the giant one), don't let yourself get too carried away.  Your taste buds may be in bliss, but your wallet certainly won't be.


Ladurée
75 Champs-Élysées
75008 Paris, France
+33 1 40 75 08 75
http://www.laduree.fr/en/