Friday, November 2, 2012

Paris! 4.5 days, 7 patisseries and a chocolatier.

During our European honeymoon, we spent 4.5 days in Paris. We had one aim: Eat and drink everything we could get our hands on! I've now realised that 4.5 days for me is just not enough. We came, we saw, we conquered. We left 3 kilos heavier. Mission accomplished.  (insert more movie one liners here)

I have spent the drooling over Adams Top 12 Patisseries http://www.parispatisseries.com/2011/06/02/paris-patisseries-best-pastry-shops-in-paris/ ( seriously check out this post, it has the address, the opening times, a ridiculous amount of spelling mistakes and a few wrong opening notes but still incredible!)   And so I decided to knock off as many of these as I could... and forcing my new husband to do the same. It was harder than you think. Especially when you want to walk the streets of paris, look at the art, and the buildings and drink the wine, eat the cheese...and it was hot.  We did our best. I think you would be proud. So here's a little run down of the places we did go, some I forgot to take photos in my state of utter chocolate/cream euphoric state. Here goes:

First stop:


Ladurée Bonaparte


Laduree is beautiful. It is exactly what you would want to see in a french patisserie. Pastel colours, beautiful windows and gold filigree. If you haven't seen their recipe book. You must, and touch it. The cover has a faux suede feel to it, comes in a box with tissue, and looks like it is actually containing real pastries.








 We had the Religiuese Rose. A beautiful choux bun filled with creme patisserie, fresh raspberries, and covered in baby pink rose fondant icing. This was one of my favourites. We were off to a great start!

Next stop:


Pierre Herme Bonaparte


Pierre Herme is famous for bringing the "Macaron craze" to life. One of the first to start pushing the little bite sized treat, and using exciting flavour combinations. His macarons are known to be crispier than  others, and without that trademark chewy-ness that most macarons have. They also have almost as much , if not more butter cream than the biscuit itself. I for one am always a fan of the under dog. Too much hype and name dropping of this patisserie, much like most famous paris patisseries have put me off slightly. However It was a beautiful little set up.




 We had the Jasmine Macaron and the Caramel. The Jasmine was actually a lot better than I thought it would be and it did look oh so pretty with the pearl lustre dust. However caramel always wins over anything. I would eat my foot if it was dipped in caramel.


Next stop:


Jacques Genin


We came to this place on a very hot day, which seems to be one of the main memories I have of this place. I don't remember taking much note of the architecture, or the place itself other than the fact that it had air conditioning. And it was beautiful air conditioning. Unfortunately I don't feel that I can give it the review it possibly deserves.. But the cakes....woah.





The chocolate eclair we bought was unbelievable. It was just pure heaven. The kind of heaven that you regret having only bought one to share, so you take two bites instead of one. Your lucky I was able to even let go of it for a 2nd to take a photo. One of my favourite things about the patisseries in Paris is the packaging. Everything comes in a cute package. Things just taste better when they are all wrapped up in a cute box!
I was also proud of my self this day for having nicely painted nails... they didn't last long.




We also bought these caramels which were so good! They were soft and buttery in your mouth, not chewy at all, my favourite was mango. 


Next stop:


Patrick Roger Chocolatier


A beautiful little chocolate shop, with amazing crafted chocolates and a perfect temperature in the room to keep all the chocolates on display in perfect condition. It was similar to walking into a jewellery shop! There was a huge sculpted Hippo made from chocolate in the window... playing in chocolate mud! 


This is actually the worst photo of me ever....  The praline chocolate I had however was incredible. Only let down of this place would be the silly tourist that came in during our visit with a dog in her back pack... a dog in a back pack in a chocolate shop. yeah.

Next stop:

 

Un Dimanche à Paris


This patisserie is down a beautiful little cobbled lane, with little bars and restaurants. ( also a primo wifi stop!) The kitchen is behind a window so you can potentially see the masters making the treats. They had all sorts of great products. Little beads of chocolate in different colours, and one of my favourites, a goats cheese caramel. Sounds crazy but sticky and delicious! A beautiful spacious little shop with a pretty tree design on the ceiling. 





Chocolate overload! This little beauty was "chocolate 3 ways". There was smooth, and crunchy and salty and delicious...and we didn't feel sick. This is one thing I noticed about the sweets we had. You could eat them and feel ready to walk the Louvre and not feel like a nap. Chocolate is always a winner and I loved the crunchy base on this. So simple and so delicious. Coffee wasn't half bad either.

Next stop:

 

Des Gâteaux et du Pain


First suggestion. Don't try walking to this patisserie. We did. In fact we walked most of paris, as we figured it was a good way to walk off any extra calories. And the public transport was too confusing. However this shop was miles away. We got tired. It was hot, and we got grumpy. By the time we got there, we weren't in the mood for it at all. The place was beautiful. The staff not so friendly, and the place was almost too nice for us. I mean we aren't hobos but we are definitely a bit daggy, and I felt like I was in the wrong place. So we grabbed a simple bite and fled. I forgot to take a photo of this place. 
OM NOM NOM NOM



The treats were of course great. We were yet to find something disappointing. Painful life I know. The brioche was sweet and fluffy and delicious. This gave us enough energy to get to the Eiffel tower without arguing too much and having a beautiful relaxed picnic ...what was seeming like a crap day turned out to be one of my favourites.



Next Stop:


Jean Paul Hévin


This patisserie as beautiful as it is, is smack right in the middle of all the tourists. In fact when we got there it was full of people from an organised tour group. Who seemed rather rude and uninterested in the patisserie itself but more about where they were from. We made some quick choices, and fled to the park. 





See what I mean about the packaging??? Its just amazing! And well by the photographic proof you'll see that we picked the hardest things in the world to eat! Alan had the most beautiful cheesecake, which on looking at it you would think it would be as heavy as a brick and dense, but it was like a fluffy cheesy cloud. It was incredible. I couldn't believe how light it was. I am determined to find a recipe and re create something similar to this. I cannot for the life of me remember what mine was called, but it is two large chewy meringues sandwiched together with beautiful creamy passion fruit butter cream, and yes I did get icing sugar all over my face.  Quite a mission to eat but ...challenge accepted. 


Last but not least: (my pick of the lot!)


La Pâtisserie des Rêves


This was my overall favourite. I loved everything about this shop. The set up was amazing. White walls, with touches of pink and grey everywhere ( yes i said pink and with a positive tone) with a round multi level table in the centre. There were glass domes hanging from the ceiling and flush with the table containing one beautiful pastry. There were about 10 globes I think. So you can look at each thing undisturbed and when your ready go order from the lovely staff member who pops out back and grabs it for you. The packaging is to die for! I am so glad we went to this place as we had tried to go and it was closed, then on the last day we just happened to be close by accident so managed to get it in! So happy! 




BEST LEMON TART EVER. That's all there is to it really. Nothing like a classic done beautifully to remind you of the simple things in life. I could have eaten 3 of these. Probably a good thing that I didn't. If you go to Paris, you must put this place on your list of "Must eat at".


Paris was amazing, and I would love to go back, but next time I think I'd like to go for 2 weeks ( can you imagine how many patisseries we could go to??!!) so we could have a day in between to relax...Well now with all that said I'm off to the gym....sheesh. 

MLB x

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