Laduree~French Macarons

Mike and my first experience at Laduree was in London.  We were walking through Harrod's in London and I saw a Laduree cafe in the store. I wanted to wait until we went to Paris to try Laduree's macarons, but decided that the macarons would probably taste the same in both London and Paris. 

Chocolate (traditional flavor), black currant violet (unusual flavor combination), salted caramel (salesperson's choice).  All the flavors were delicious, and Mike and I had a difficult time deciding which flavor we liked the best.  The chocolate had a standard rich chocolate flavor and creamy chocolate ganache, the black currant macaron was light and filled with a fruity jam, and the salted caramel has the perfect balance between sweet and salty. 

I decided that the salted caramel macaron was the best flavor macaron that we purchased.  This macaron was so good! I didn't think that I would enjoy salted caramel as much as I did. This started my mild obsession of caramel-making (I will post about this in the coming weeks). 

Here's the window display of a  Laduree's that we passed in Paris.   We were walking around in search of Pierre Herme, so we did not purchase macarons again. 

Look at all the pretty colored macarons.

Here's a pictures of the pretty pastries.

Instead of ordering macarons, we purchased this palmier (palm leaf cookie that had a shiny almost shellacked caramel coating on it.  This is the best tasting palmier that I ate in Paris.  It must have contained oodles of calories from all the butter and sugar caramelized to perfection; but it was what I imagine a perfect palm leaf cookie to taste like.