Gorging my way through Paris

It is difficult to be a lady when you have this sitting in front of you!

I have to give credit to Kerrin Rousset. While reading her blog, my eyes feasted on the most heavenly piece of dessert I had ever seen! Surely, this was the crème de la crème of desserts. The tarte au citron meringuée looked ridiculously good. On my next trip to Paris I was going to find out how good.

The plan was that, at some point during my few days in Paris, I would make my way to ‘the tarte’.

Private Tours was bringing me around the city and educating me on the wonderful little secrets of Paris when I started to get hungry. I conveniently slipped in to conversation that there was a lemon meringue pie at a café in the Marais that I had to try. In my woe-is-me, sweet, manipulating tone I continued to say that I just didn’t know how I was going to fit it in to my busy schedule.

“What do you mean you have to try a pie? What pie? Why a pie?” asked my tour guide in his lovely, thick Italian-French accent. With a mischievous grin, and realizing it was working, I gave him a bit of background and a brief description. He quickly turned the car around. We were headed for the Marais. “We will try the pie now!”.

In hindsight, we should have asked for a corner seat. But no, instead of scheming for a bit of privacy, we positioned ourselves right in the middle of the café. In doing so, and with my ladylikeness left back in the vehicle, many people witnessed the assault. Wow! What a dreamy pile of sugar and lemon: a ten out of ten in my book.

Situated in the Marais district, ‘Le Loir dans la Théière’ has an impressive supply of desserts which will leave you with such a sugar-high you’ll be dashing around the city working it off in no time. At least that is what I told myself… as I hopped back into the car.

The gorging continued. Hôtel Daniel invited me for tea and I had to think about it for approximately one second, “Yes, I am coming!”.

From the images I had seen on their website I was somewhat prepared for what to expect; however, upon walking through the front door I was immediately hit by its charm. “It’s beautiful!” I announced to anyone who was listening.

After a brief tour of the hotel, Antoinette and I sat down for tea. With the previous day’s pie event already out of my mind, I placed the napkin on my lap and prepared for a civilized feast.

The little desserts, provided by star pastry chef Sébastien Gaudard, were all lined up on a tray in front of me. With my manners intact I tried several – a conveyor belt would have been most convenient.

After devouring wonderful mini-sandwiches, scones and other delicacies my tummy was at full capacity, yet again. However, this time I did walk it off … in heels for 40 minutes all the way back to my hotel. A Parisian conquest indeed!

Ordering a butter and sugar crèpe while traversing the Jardin des Tuileries the following day probably wasn’t necessary – but I’m so glad I did. Stopping by a candy stand on my way back to the hotel probably wasn’t necessary either – but I just love the sugar coated, marshmallow-textured strawberries. And it was great fun baking my very own macarons at La Cuisine!

After returning home it was a no-brainer to write about finding the perfect desserts in Paris. The original idea was to write about cycling around the many arrondissements. Next time, maybe. Then again, probably not. Food is far more fun!