The Paris Pastry Tour
Some people do museums and historic sights in Paris; I do bakeries and pastry shops. I careen from one side of the city to the other admiring the artful window displays in boulangeries andpatisseries, and my only regret is that I have but one stomach to stuff with napoleons (called millefeuille in French, and they'll laugh at you if you ask for a napoleon).
I begin on rue Royale near the Opera House with the original location of Ladurée, which dates back to 1862 and is one of the great pastry shops and tearooms in the city. They make hamburger-shaped macaroons (from almond paste, not from shredded coconut like our macaroons) that are to die for, with bright, pastel colors and flavors that range from lemon to chocolate to fresh berries. A second Ladurée on the Champs Elysées adds a fine-dining restaurant above the street-level pastry counter that is a great place to go for an expensive, atmospheric lunch.
Across the river on the left bank, in the 6th arrondisement, you'll find Patisserie Gerard Mulot at 76 rue de Seine. A takeout deli, they specialize in clafoutis, that creamy, cakey, custardy delight that comes out of the ovens in big, square blocks. See picture above for cherry clafoutis. They cut a square off the main block to order and wrap it up in pretty, pink boxes with a ribbon. The cream-filled meringues are also more than enough reason to spend half of your vacation at Patisserie Mulot.
And who said that pastry shops can't be historic? Stohrer, in the 2nd near the Bourse on rue Monterguil, is Paris's oldest continuously running pastry shop, dating back to 1730. They had elegant, prepared salads and savories on one side of the shop and the pastries on the other, including four kinds of napoleons and little custardy cylinders of delight called puits d'amour. Guess which side of the shop I frequented?
All of this talk of pastries has now made me hungry. What's your favorite Parisian food find?