PARIS

Paris is such an amazing city - i love just walking around exploring and finding amazing little places along the way. Saying that - i also do research to know where to find the best places for chocolates and patisserie too. This time i focused mostly on eclairs since i have done macarons so much.

I had read about 2 places: L'eclair de Genie & L'atelier de l'eclair

We first went to L'atelier de L'eclair which was on a quiet little side street (top tip - great parfumerie a few doors down called "Nose")

They had lots of display cabinets with eclairs in both normal and mini size. I quite liked the idear of a smaller size since you can try more of them. You can also sit down and eat your eclairs over a coffee in comfy sofas.

We shared a salted caramel, Vanilla and 2 pistachio eclairs and they were good but visually they were a little bit disappointing - not as perfect as they are on the website.

HOWEVER - we then went to the L'eclair de Genie in the Marais.. surprise surprise - a loooooong queue outside which luckily only took about 15 min - and YES it was so worth it.. the finish of the eclairs was stunning and the fillings amazing. They win hands down.
We shared a Pistachio/orange, Praline/Noisette and a Vanilla/caramellised pecan.. all amazing.

I really recommend this place to anyone who wants the perfect eclair!

Paris in February

Went to Paris for the weekend.. not a good place to go to if you are on a diet - that is for sure :-) Went to "La Grande Epicerie" http://www.lagrandeepicerie.fr/ which is a foodie's paradise. Picked up some plastic syringes for food and also some plastic pippetts to be used for some original canapees.. updates to follow with pictures :-)

Highly recommend the salted caramel macaroons that are sold here.. amazing (better than
laduree!)

Also went to Monjul http://www.monjul.com/ in the Marais for lunch. They only have a set menu for lunch which is a shame since i was looking forward to the a la carte that they serve in the evening but the set menu was very good and inventive. Starting with a lentil soup with bread on the side that was brioche stuffed with saucisson then sliced.





























Followed by a bouillabaisse that was de-constructed with the all the elements separate on the plate. Still tasted great.






We also managed to have an amazing dinner at L'absinthe.. highly recommend this restaurant.. amazing food and very French.. absolutely packed all evening so reservations are a must. We had some stunning food like truffled egg, lobster macaroni cheese and of course steak! I totally forgot to take photos so you have to take my word for it. See website here: http://www.restaurantabsinthe.com/





Had a Sunday brunch at Cafe Charlot that was utterly charming.. had a very tasty Croque madame with a good helping of salad. Just what you need before walking around Paris!


http://www.parismarais.com/pleasure-and-leisure/cafe-charlot/index.htm