Parisian Time

Back after a longer than anticipated break! V's trip lasted for longer than originally planned and various other side tracks kept me away just a bit too long to have a decent blogging session.  

Its midterm week for me and presently reading a very dense article on the history of the Bohemian people. Ironic that the week of midterms and finals always turns into my most prolific blogging week...probably due to the frequency of study breaks. Anyways, 5 new countries from the past 4 weekends of traveling so LOTS to blog about. 

Although Vienna was the first city I visited with V., Paris was my favorite so that's what I'm going to blog about first. Tehe. I've never been a fan of French food, not since a horrifying Foie Gras experience at the age of 10. So one of my  missions in Paris was to try authentic French food (more on that later). However, the first and foremost important thing to try was something that I actually did enjoy: Parisian baked goods.  

First stop: Laduree. Although Lauduree has other locations i n Europe (such as Zurich as I found out this past weekend), I had to visit the original location! Or at least one found in Paris. We bought a box of mini macarons packaged in a gorgeous purple box. While they were delicious, I've come to the conclusion that I like big macarons better :) 

No photos allowed in the actual Laduree store but it was pretty much what you would expect: perfect little rows of macarons upon macarons.

From left to right: pistachio (yup I officially don't like this flavor), rose, lemon, vanilla, caramel (BEST FLAVOR), and coffee.

Second stop: Angelina Tea Room and Cafe. A famous institution for Parisans, located just 5 minutes from the Louvre and yet still just far enough from all of the souvenir shops, this place reminded me of the classical tea rooms you read about from European history textbooks. We intended to come here on our last day for brunch but the allure of noodles in Little Tokyo was too much so we came here just for some dessert instead. After seeing the brunch menu however, I wonder if we made the right decision -_-.  OH well. All the more reason to return to Paris!

Angelina's two most famous offerings: the "sickenly" sweet African hot chocolate and the Mountblanc cake made from a secret hundred-year old recipe. Or so they claim.

The hot chocolate was hand down the BEST hot chocolate I've ever had although V was not a very big fan. But then again, I am obsessed with dark chocolate while he likes minimal cocoa content and this was legit dark chocolate. The mountblanc cake was a unique confectionary blend of a meringue crust, a whipped cream center and a thick, fondant-like icing. 

A generous portion of dark chocolate with an even more generous portion of whipped cream. 

Third stop was a typical Parisian bakery whose name escapes me but we knew it was good when we saw the line of locals stretching out the backdoor. Since we hadn't eaten anything yet and were quite hungry after climbing the 48 flights of stairs at the Eiffel Tower, we opted for a chocolate croissant (not shown), a coffee eclair and a bag of madelines. Everything was easily the best of everything I've ever had. Even the Paris-inspired Bake Shop in Prague cannot measure up to the extra crispy and chewiness of a real Parisian croissant.

Amazing coffee eclair (although I think I'm more of a traditional girl when it comes to eclairs) and one of the last Madelines left when I realized I needed a picture :p 

Hmmm ok back to studying but many more posts of Paris, Vienna, Krakow, Freiburg/Zurich to come :)