A French Mecca for the Pastry Connoisseur

Visit Laduree at Place Madeleine (map it)

Find Elegant luxury cakes and pastries that taste as rich as the history of this fanciful 148-year-old pâtisserie. It’s best-seller: the magnificent macaroon. It is a creation so utterly perfected that few other sweets in Paris compare to this small yet significant melt-in-your-mouth treat.

The Back-Story Life is all about decisions, and in 1862, Louis Ernest Laduree, a simple miller from the Southwest of France, decided to open a bakery at 16 Rue Royale in Paris.

Nine years later, right when Paris was undergoing a massive makeover spearheaded by Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann (the man credited for turning this medieval metropolis into the “City of Light”), Laduree’s namesake shop was experiencing it’s own facelift. At the urging of his wife, he expanded his tea room to include a pastry shop. He also revamped the décor to include fine art and frescoed ceilings inspired by Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. Like Vatican City’s spiritual monument, this sophisticated shop attracts hordes of people, too (primarily high society back in the day).

Laduree’s greatest ingredient of success is world-famous recipe for the immaculate macaroon. The two round, crispy shells of meringue-like pastry held together by a creamy ganache filling are carefully constructed every morning in Laduree’s so-called “laboratory.” The tempting treats are available in 12 classic flavors, including pistachio, salted caramel, and coffee, as well as new seasonal flavors, like chestnuts, mint and fig & date.

What is more striking than the pastries themselves is the beautiful packaging. The differing color schemes and adorning designs transport any consumer to a fantastical world, usually hard to dream up. There’s a good reason the line was advertised at the luxury department store Le Printemps with the release of Tim Burton’s “Alice and Wonderland” earlier this year. And how could it not? The Mad Hatter would truly be mad to resist such enchanting sweets.

For more information, visit laduree.fr/.

[Photography courtesy of Laduree]