Laduree Je T'aime

Dreary eyed, sleep deprived, and quiet. Not the most enthusiastic attitude to start a trip, but considering we arrived late evening from Barcelona we did question ourselves...why on earth did we decide to go Paris at 5am the next day? However two cups of strong coffee and a little snooze on the Eurostar helped us back to the land of the living, ready for another day of adventure.


With Paris being an easy city to navigate, I'm not going to go into great detail about how convenient the Eurostar and Metro is or how beautiful the Eiffel Tower is (see photos). Paris always left good (and crazy) memories for me and on this occasion, the great company and fabulous sunshine definitely left a good mark.

Life is uncertain.  Eat dessert first.  - Ernestine Ulmer


Laduree..C'est L'amour

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Everyone knows that anything that's sweet, sugary or cake for that matter will make me happy. I have a guilty sweet tooth and really do believe that dessert should come before dinner. Laduree was definitely on our Paris to do list. Right in the middle of Avenue des Champs-Élysées, its a few minutes walk from George V metro and hard to miss its pale green and gold exterior. The little kid in me wanted to just skip hop and jump inside, but we took a few minutes to have a picture moment outside its famous entrance. Unfortunately, that was pretty much all the pictures we could take of Laduree as they have a strict no photos policy inside (you know that didn't stop me though...I cheekily managed a few shots).  Once inside, you step back in time surrounded by marble flooring, heavy drop curtains, dark burgundy display cupboards and glittery chandeliers. It was like having tea in Marie Antoinette's home with silver tea sets, white silky table napkins and bone china plates.

The menu is like a mini brochure, the history is on the first page followed by the food menu for breakfast, lunch and dessert (of course).  Word of warning, there is a lot to choose from. I had great difficulty choosing what tea to have! Oolong, Breakfast, Jasmine, Ceylon...then you have a choice of flavours...orange, lemon,vanilla..the list is endless. Don't get me started on the dessert, I wanted everything on the patissierie menu and wished they had a sample platter of their goodies. The food is also really good, I had the Omelette aux morille (mushroom omelet to you and me) and french fries (more like french chunks). I decided on a Ispahan, which was a pink crispy rose flavoured macaron with fresh raspberries and lychee's. Perfect with vanilla ceylon tea.

We spent over 3 hours there, enjoying the food and the good talks. We also bought a few boxes of the Macrons, having to choose from the rainbow of flavours was really hard, but I chose my favourites Frambois (raspberry), Pistachio and the salted caramel. A box of 8 pieces came up to 11 Euros.

 Tea at Laduree feels like a very "grown up" thing to do, although in my mind I couldn't help but remember when I was a little girl playing with my toy tea set (not the plastic kind). A reminder to be lady like whilst sipping on my tea (ribena juice back then) and not to selflessly devour my dessert in one mouthful. A visit to Laduree is not cheap but worth it for its classic Parisian feel, excellent food and service. It was a real treat and such a memorable experience. Luckily we have one in Harrods. Whos up for afternoon tea?

Parisien Metro Abesses

La Sacre Coeur

La tour Eiffel

Bon Apetite!