A religieuse and some macarons

One of the things I was most looking forward to in Paris was trying some pastries. Someone at my doctor's office told me I absolutely had to try a religieuse so, well I had to try one! We we walking down Rue Cler and popped into a pastry shop, and there it was: two cream puffs, one on top of the other, filled with chocolate cream and covered in chocolate. Oh my...it certainly was a religious experience. Me thinks this is something I might have to try to make sometime...






The other thing I really needed to try was Parisian macarons. I knew I needed to go to Laduree to give these a whirl, and I am now very sad that there isn't a Laduree at home...


We got an 8 piece assortment to try: cassis violet, vanilla, dark chocolate, cherry, praline, raspberry, and two salted butter caramel. My personal favorites were the vanilla and the to-die-for salted butter caramel. Wow, I could eat that stuff with a spoon. sigh...

Here they are close up. Aren't they beautiful?

These are an assortment from La Maison du Chocolat. They all had some sort of chocolate flavor like raspberry chocolate, mocha, vanilla chocolate. They were good, but nothing we tried held a candle to the salted butter caramel from Laduree. Now there's a project for me to try...