This is part one of a series of three blog posts about my recent travels - the good, the bad and the downright ugly.
Paris has the pleasure of being 'the good'
I went to Paris early in March for my 40th birthday. And fell in love. Not just with the cakes but with everything. I LOVED it there. I think it could be because you can buy anything flavoured with Speculoos.
We also shared some Cookies and Cream cake - Starbucks in Paris have much better baked goods than here.
We didn't make it to half the places we meant to go to eat in in Paris - mainly because we spent the two days walking round enjoying the city. Oh and buying lots of gore DVDs (Manny found the shop of his dreams just near our hotel). Oh and buying chocolate. And beer.
We did make it to Berko however - Paris's main cupcake store. We went to the branch just up the hill from Moulin Rouge, a few minutes walk from our hotel, Le Chat Noir, which I highly recommend.
We took the cupcakes back on Eurostar and unfortunately they got a little squished but we managed to salvage them so it wasn't a total cupcake disaster.
Our choices included Speculoos and the Hi Hats you can see above. We also got banofee, cookies and cream and chocolate. Although the Speculoos was rather bland and uninspiring, with some odd tasting frosting, the rest were rather good, if a little dry. I think if we'd eaten them there they'd have been much fresher. I would definitely go back to try some other flavours if I went back to Paris. I was especially taken with the fact they use little pipettes to inject coulis into the fresh fruit cakes - as I've done with alcohol into my cupcakes previously.
We also ate some macarons at Dalloyau - the Champagne one being very nice.
The same cannot be said for Eric Keyser's pink praline brioche - dry, tasteless and I really didn't like pink pralines. Thankfully I'd resisted buying a giant bag I saw earlier in the day in G. Detou.
Finally for my 40th birthday we chose not to eat anywhere fancy but instead went to Quick, the local burger chain to have Star Wars burgers - I had the Jedi burger while Manny opted for the Darth Vader one. We are totally classy non?
Oh yeah And I brought back quite a bit of Speculoos.
Oh, another finally - we didn't make it to Ladurée in Paris but we did go to Harrods yesterday and have coffee/hot chocolate and a cake - my first Religieuse - a chocolate one which was amazing. I also bought a box of six macarons in their new limited edition Hello Kitty boxes.
Too cute.
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6 comments:
Ha Ha, I love your speculoos stash! That's some serious habit you have there!!
I loved my trip to Paris last Easter but it was SO hot and we spent the final day sick in our 24th floor hotel room. If I went again I'd be much better organised researching cake shops properly before I went!
Ooooh I'm envious of it all!... Love Paris and would definitely like to go back this year... Will be contacting you for best places to visit!... Glad that you got the Hello Kitty Macaron's... Belated. Birthday wishes Tx
your trip looks amazing! I'm going to Paris for my 18th in the Summer and will make sure to visit some of the places you've recommended here - looks like you had a brill time :) xo
Oh I am in love with the Hello Kitty Macarons! I don't even like Macarons but I'm sure that super cool box would be enough to tempt me otherwise!
That cookies and cream cake looked incredible, and the speculoos one sounded really tasty...I've still yet to try some - I must change that! I also like the look of those hi-hats! glad to see they were properly high! Looks like you had a perfect birthday break :) can't wait to see the rest of your travels!
I shall definately take you back to Paris sometime soon! I think it's funny the best cake we had was in Starbucks but that Speculoos cake was awesome, nearly as nice as the one you made :)
Oh my gosh! I haven't seen the Hello Kitty boxes before! I need to get down there ASAP! Looks like you had a fantastic time. I can't wait to go again, I think Paris is probably my favourite place to visit in the world.
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