Walking around Paris, I couldn’t help but see that most tourists carry that distinct mint-green paper bag everywhere.

Being a dessert person, I of course know that those bags can only come from the world-famous French house of macarons company, Laudree.

On our last day in Paris, we caught up with our friend Nick, (who we also met up with in Copenhagen earlier in the month) . Because of our constant travelling and erratic schedules,  we term our catch ups along the lines of “Shall we have lunch in Copenhagen, and tea in Paris?”

Well, dinner, brunch and breakfast are still open. Who knows where the next meal will be 🙂

As both Nick and I are fans of desserts (therefore outnumbering Zombie), we made our way to Saint-Germain, where in a quiet street lies this quaint little cafe with that signature faintest-of-green hue.

Mint green walls, dainty boxes of purple…we’ve come to the right place!

It may not look busy from this shot, but we had to line up to get inside.

The line isn’t as bad as what I’ve seen in pictures of Laudree cafes in Singapore or Japan, where there had to be velvet ropes to snake the queue in and out.

There is no outside area of this cafe, and because we trekked all the way from Louvre to Saint-Germain, we decided to eat in.

The first level of the cafe is just for ordering. There are no tables at all and this proves practical because the place was busy with quick walk-ins for takeaway macarons.

Climbing up a small flight of stairs though, the ambience quickly changed. The dining area itself was very quiet, lots of dark wood and old navy. Quite a nice contrast from the pastel-and-pink party happening below.

We had an assortment of macarons in (if I recall correctly), Raspberry, Salted Caramel x 2, Coffee, Chocolate, and Pistachio.

On top of that, a giant eclair that was devilishly rich and had the creamiest filling I’ve had. And this is why I suggest having tea or water – you will need something to balance all the wonderful sweetness.

I’ve never tried ‘designer’ macarons before , just good old macarons sold in cafes. So you would understand when I say that these are by far the best macarons I’ve had. Not too sweet, delicate flavours, right amount of crisp outside and that chewy goodness in the filling.

I would love to try Pierre Herme too, but is for another expedition 🙂

Now there’s no Laudree in Sydney, so when I flew back to Paris a few weeks after this lovely afternoon in Laudree, I was thrilled to find that they have quaint little stalls in Charles de Gaulle. I didn’t have enough time in Paris on the 2nd trip so I got my fix at the airport:

I got 2 each of my top 3 flavours: Salted Caramel, Pistachio and Chocolate. And while they were still fabulous even a couple of days after I arrived back in Sydney (3rd day was pushing it into the crumbly-gaggy category), nothing still beats having a macaron at its freshest inside a Parisian cafe.

But for a jet-lagged girl in the middle of Sydney’s summer– that precious pink box will do the trick.

So tell me, what’s your flavour? And if you are a macaron-lover, which house makes the best in the world?

Laudree

21 Rue Bonaparte
Paris, France