La Duree- Paris, France

La Duree!

   One of my favorite foods in France were the French macaroons, and while I was in Paris, I went to one of the most famous macaroon places of all time; La Duree. La Duree is on the Champs Elysees, the most expensive street in Paris. I guess that La Duree had earned a spot on the Champs Elysees, because their macaroons were anything but cheap. 

   La Duree was a VERY popular macaroon shop.  There was a huge line of people waiting to get in.  The line wrapped around the corner of the block!  You should know that it didn't just sell macaroons, it also had small assorted pastries as well as another whole section for actually eating meals. Since we had already eaten lunch, we decided to just get a box of macaroons to go. Choosing which macaroons

to get was going to be the hard part, considering that there were twenty-three different flavors to choose from. We learned that most of them are there all the time, but some change based on the season.  At La Duree, you could buy a single macaroon, or buy a box and choose your flavors. There were boxes of two, four, eight, ten, sixteen, twenty-one, and forty-eight. Instead of spending a few hours trying to pick and choose flavors, my dad told us we could get a box of twenty-one and just pick the two that we didn't want. We decided to not get a mint-thyme and a basil-lemon.

   I've been to a number of other macaroon shops in both the US and in France and I was impressed that all of the macaroons at La Duree were perfect.  Several other places we've visited would have some macaroons that were cracked or just not right, but here you could tell they were serious!

Mmmmm... Macaroons

  Because you are waiting in a huge line to get your macaroons, inside and out, you can really scope out the place. First of all, La Duree is furnished and decorated in a very Victorian style, with hardwood tables and chairs, and floral carpet and green walls with ornate gold decorations. I found it beautiful and very interesting. Anyways, as soon as we received our macaroons, we hurried outside with our treasure. Right outside of La Duree the restaurant had an ice cream and sorbet cart, and my brother was immediately drawn to it. He picked a cup of raspberry sorbet, and because the ice cream/sorbet cart was part of La Duree, they even put a macaroon on top! My brother ate it so fast no one else got to try it, but after finishing the sorbet; with a huge, sticky ring of pink around his face, he commented that the sorbet was pretty darn good. Over the next few days my family and I ate our box of macaroons from La Duree, and I have to say, they were really good, definitely better than I expected for some reason. All of the flavors were bold and evident, except for a couple macaroons that were different kinds of the same thing - those tasted the same. All in all, a cool experience with great macaroons.  The flavors included: Raspberry, Pistachio, Coffee and Chocolate Coconut, with a few of my family's favorites being: Salted Caramel, Peach and

Fancy Macaroons; Fancy Box

Rose Petal!

  The service may be different if you were eating a meal, but with us standing in the line and buying the box of macaroons for take out it definitely felt like we were being rushed along.

  As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter Scale of Cookieness, with one cookie being old, burnt, stale oatmeal raisin cookie nastiness, and ten cookies being perfect, warm, gooey, chocolate chip (my favorite) cookie goodness! My Cookie Counter ratings for La Duree are:

  

  Food: 8 Cookies

  Atmosphere: 7 Cookies

    Service: 6 Cookies