Ladurée

It's time to skip a few backlogged posts to blog about my recent trip to France.  I've been to France a few times in the past.  It's the city where my father spent his formative years from childhood to adulthood, pretty much growing up and finding his way all on his own.  There seemed some darkness in his past, being bullied by the French kids, being poor and lonely, but somehow there was always a great amount of nostalgia for that city.  He would drag my siblings and me all over the city, showing us his former haunts, his schools, everything he could remember about Paris.  At that time, I never thought much of it, but looking back, I have so many memories of family vacations there.  I met family I never knew I had. I had an embarassing encounter with a bidet, which was a foreign porcelain god to this American kid at the time.  We rented a car and trekked all the way to Italy.  My mom expertly crafted sandwiches from baguette, headcheese, jambon, and pate from the local boucherie.  My dad would snore away, while my sister drove and got pissed at my lazy brother for being such a sorry excuse for a navigator.  Paris is a city that holds a special place in my heart, and because of all the many memories there, will probably be my favorite city in the world.

My mom and I took a vacation to visit her friend in Paris.  Since I've seen all the major sites in Paris, I basically wanted to take a gastronomic tour of the country.  Having a local take us around was a major plus.  It didn't hurt that we never had to pay for a hotel either.  I would have liked to pick all our eating spots, but who am I to tell a Parisian where to eat in France?  Our first stop was rather coincidental because Ladurée just happened to be on the way to our shopping destination.  You can imagine how ecstatic I was to be able to sample the much-talked-about highly lauded macarons here.

At Ladurée, they don't just offer macarons...

But of course, they are the main attraction, and not without a hefty price tag! 1.90 euro is just under $2.50 per macaron.

In the end, I sampled framboise, chocolate pure origne, casis, praline sesame, chocolat, and caramel à la fleur de sel.  All excellent flavors, but framboise was my favorite.  It tasted like really fresh raspberries.

It's hard for me to judge macarons because I'm not a die hard fan.  Give me a chocolate chip cookie, brownie, tart, or pie, and I will give you a straight up yay or nay.  For these, I can only say they were tasty little treats.  Frickin' overpriced as all hell, but tasty nonetheless.  Perpetually Underwhelmed, who is a die hard fan, thinks the offerings here are too sweet.  She prefers Pierre Herme, which unfortunately I did not get to try on this trip.  I know this is a city I'll be coming back to.