It’s our first morning waking up in Paris. We’ve had coffee and breakfast, and now we’re heading out to visit two of Paris’ most famous department stores, Au Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. It’s fun to see these great establishments, and as a bonus, two of Paris’ premier macaron makers, Ladurée and Hermé, are located within. We’re going to have our own little macaron tasting contest. Which one will be our favorite — Ladurée or Hermé? It will be fun finding out!
Au Printemps and Galleries Lafayette are located next door to each other. We could take the Metro, (the subway), to both stores, go to Ladurée and Hermé, then take the Metro back to Montorgueil and be there in time for lunch. OK — we had a plan.
We boarded the Metro at a station close to the apartment, (Sentier). We rode for four quick stops to a station, (Havre Caumartin), that empties out at Printemps. The ride took maybe ten minutes. We walked upstairs to street-level and there we were, standing right in front of Printemps. Getting there was so easy.
We crossed the street and went inside. We looked around. Had we been transported to another country? Essentially all of the customers, as well as the many of the store employees, as far as we could tell, were Asian. Very affluent Asians, at that.
They packed the store. By the looks of them, they had come to do some serious shopping. Most store personnel were Asian, too, hired to cater to their current customer base. We were fine with that, but it did come as something of a shock. Who knew?
Anyway, we were here to find Ladurée, which turned out to be pretty easy. It wasn’t much more than a little counter tucked away in a corner, but it was tucked away in a very French, classy style. There were incredible-sounding flavors to choose from, and nice packaging options, too. The package I liked most was a cylinder designed to hold six macarons perfectly. That’s just the right amount to do a good taste test, eh? Maybe even with a few left over, (in case there’s a tie).
Now, these aren’t the same things as our “macaroons,” that are mostly coconut. I don’t know how the two things ended up with almost the same name, but they’re entirely different animals.
Macarons!
A “macaron”, (pronounced, “mac-ah-ronh”), is constructed like a sandwich. The two “cookie” parts are light and airy, but with a thin shell on the outside that gives them a delicate little crunch. The filling is always soft like frosting or pie filling. When you take a bite, the cookie and the filling get mixed together with a little crunch thrown in. Mmmmm…
The flavors can get pretty wild. Sometimes the cookie part and the filling part are the same flavor, say coffee, chocolate, raspberry, or coconut. But usually the cookie part is one flavor and the filling is another. Macaron makers seem to compete to see who can come up with the most imaginative flavor combination.
For example, you can get a cinnamon & cherry macaron. Or how about a hazelnut praline? Perhaps a white truffle with roasted hazelnut slivers? No, wait! Let’s make it lemon gingerbread. No? OK – Caramel and sea salt. Flavors vary from season to season, and they’re always coming out with a new flavor to celebrate this or that. These guys are no dummies, eh?
From Ladurée we left Printemps and went into Galleries Lafayette, which is on the next block. We wanted to find the Hermé store located somewhere inside. After some wandering around, we found Hermé. After some oohing and aahing, we purchased six macarons for taste testing, and we were on our way.
We had our macarons, but all this macaron shopping had made us hungry. We decided to get back on the Metro, head back to Montorgueil, and find someplace to have lunch.
To be continued…
