{"id":4609,"date":"2017-04-16T20:52:01","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T01:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/?p=4609"},"modified":"2017-04-16T20:52:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T01:52:01","slug":"travel-eats-macarons-crepes-more-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/16\/travel-eats-macarons-crepes-more-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel Eats: Macarons, cr\u00eapes & more in Paris, France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travel Eats documents my food adventures while traveling.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Macarons,
Arabesque (apricot and pistachio), passion fruit, and coffee macarons, Pierre Herm\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I vacationed in Europe for 10 days at the beginning of the month, and three of those days were spent in Paris at peak springtime bloom. Brilliantly colored flowers seemed to show up everywhere we looked, and I have to believe that made the food taste even better.<\/p>\n

One of my Parisian goals was to sample some authentic French macarons, and Pierre Herm\u00e9 was consistently recommended as the best. From the first bite, I knew these were unlike any I’d eaten previously. The delicate domed exterior gave way to a chewy interior, where rich fillings took on the purest form of passion fruit, coffee, and other flavors. These macarons were so good that we went back to Pierre Herm\u00e9 twice more \u2013 once to a different location in Paris, and once to the London outpost (so that we could tote macaron boxes on our return flight that were only a day old).<\/p>\n

\"Ham
Ham and cheese cr\u00eape, Chalet du Grand Palais<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another Parisian mainstay is the cr\u00eape, served street-side in a cone shape for maximum portability. This one was from a kiosk that we came across as we began our stroll down the Champs Elys\u00e9es. The classic combination of ham and (lots of) cheese was definitely the right way to go \u2013 simple savory snack perfection.<\/p>\n

For dinner, we took our Airbnb host’s recommendation for a typical French bistro and landed at Bonvivant. Their take on steak frites involved rare ribeye and compound herb butter flanked by salad and thick-cut fries. It was hearty, but still elegant enough to pair with a glass of dry ros\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\"Steak
Beef ribeye steak with meat jus, house-made fries, and herb butter (and a glass of ros\u00e9), Bonvivant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For breakfast, the croissants from aforementioned Pierre Herm\u00e9 also somehow managed to outshine the rest of their pastry competition. Isaphan is the patisserie’s best-known flavor combination: rose, raspberry, and lychee, and the croissant version infused those flavors into the filling, glaze, and candied petals on top. It was so uniquely delicious that I was genuinely forlorn about taking the last bite.<\/p>\n

\"Isaphan
Isaphan (rose, raspberry, and lychee) and chocolate-pistachio croissants, Pierre Herm\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Quiche
Quiche lorraine, Maison Eric Kayser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another morning, I tried a typical quiche lorraine from another bakery chain, Eric Kayser, and the texture was even creamier than I expected. There was also no shortage of bacon, which made it especially filling.<\/p>\n

Coffee is a must in Paris as well, and we’d read about Le Peloton, an especially charming bike-themed caf\u00e9 in the Marais neighborhood. The generously sized cortado was worthy of a break from exploration.<\/p>\n

\"Cortado,
Cortado, Le Peloton Caf\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because the spring weather was so pleasant, we picnicked at the Jardins du Luxembourg one afternoon with sandwiches from nearby bakery G\u00e9rard Mulot. My sandwich was simply dressed: lettuce, juicy tomato, sliced chicken, and tarragon mayonnaise, which all sunk into the pillowy seeded bread. The sandwich was perfectly balanced on its own, but rounding out my lunch with a pear and a small bottle of ros\u00e9 certainly didn’t hurt. The macarons at G\u00e9rard Mulot had also been highly recommended, so we selected a colorful variety for dessert. My favorite of the bunch was the aromatic pineapple-ginger, whose vivid yellow color blended right into the flowers.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken
Chicken sandwich (with ros\u00e9 and a pear), G\u00e9rard Mulot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chocolate,
Amaryllis (raspberry buttercream and jam), pineapple-ginger, chocolate, and rose macarons, G\u00e9rard Mulot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On our last night in Paris, we timed our evening so that we could see the sparkling Eiffel Tower lights at nighttime. A lacey, piping hot cr\u00eape stuffed with Nutella and bananas made the view that much more magical. <\/p>\n

\"Nutella-banana
Nutella-banana cr\u00eape, Le Kiosque des Fontaines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The details:<\/strong> Pierre Herm\u00e9<\/a> at Publicis Drugstore<\/a>, 133 Avenue des Champs Elys\u00e9es, and at 72 Rue Bonaparte; Chalet du Grand Palais<\/a>, 9 Avenue des Champs Elys\u00e9es; Bonvivant<\/a>, 7 Rue des \u00c9coles; Maison Eric Kayser<\/a>, 13 Boulevard Diderot; Le Peloton Caf\u00e9<\/a>, 17 Rue du Pont Louis Philippe; G\u00e9rard Mulot<\/a>, 76 Rue de Seine; Le Kiosque des Fontaines, Place de Varsovie; all Paris, France.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travel Eats documents my food adventures while traveling. I vacationed in Europe for 10 days at the beginning of the month, and three of those days were spent in Paris at peak springtime bloom. Brilliantly colored flowers seemed to show up everywhere we looked, and I have to believe that made the food taste even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2140,2144,2145,2136,367,2139,2138,2143,2137,713,2132,2133,2134,2141,2135,2146,2142,1084],"class_list":["post-4609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel-eats","tag-bonvivant","tag-chalet-du-grand-palais","tag-cortado","tag-crepes","tag-croissants","tag-eric-kayser","tag-gerard-mulot","tag-le-kiosque-des-fontaines","tag-le-peloton-cafe","tag-macarons","tag-paris","tag-paris-france","tag-parisian-food","tag-parisian-picnic","tag-pierre-herme","tag-quiche-lorraine","tag-springtime-in-paris","tag-steak-frites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4609"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4627,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4609\/revisions\/4627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}