Tableau Vivante

A little bit of macaron comparison is underway here. During my past few days in Paris, I was sickity sicky sick. The cold air outside would hit my lungs and I’d be leveled by a string of coughs that made me unfit for human company, let alone trips on the Metro or strolls along the Seine. For health’s sake, I confined myself to a one block walking radius from my hotel. Normally, this situation would have had no redeeming aspects. I anticipated pawing at the window of my room, full of longing and a pout stretched across my mouth as I watched Paris be interesting and tasty without me.

And then I walked into Stoeckl Patisserie et Salon de Thè. It was one block from my hotel on Ave Kleber. It was small. It was intimate. The women behind the counter were friendly and helpful and helped me with my French. I would get a few brioche, a salad, and some tea to go and head back to my room to watch French costume dramas. They also had the above pictured macarons, of which I bought two boxes to smuggle home. Those pictured above are the last of them. Sadness.

Europane, I noticed, also has macarons. So I brought some home for comparison.

Um. Ok. Kind of giant. Less cookie. More sandwich.

Bless them for trying though. Not only are the bigger macarons huge by comparison, they are also sweeter and the cookie parts are almost gooey, unlike their French counterparts which have more pillowy cookies. Think marzipan vs. well-done chocolate brownie. They aren’t bad. But not even close.

Did this stop me from eating them? Non. Pastry is pastry. Next stop: Boule. Word is they have the macaron down pat. We shall see…