Week 11: La Durée

So I may have cheated a little this week and instead of taking you all to a monument I decided to go and just drink tea instead. That said, I have honoured last week’s promise to take you back to the beautiful, sophisticated version of Paris that we all know and love.

This week joy of a roommate and I decided to go to the home of the iconic French macaroon: La Durée. Macaroons are little almond biscuits which were brought over to France from Italy by Catherine de Medici in the 16^th century and have been famously French ever since! They come in every colour and flavour under the sun and are notoriously expensive and difficult to make (trust me, I’ve tried).

Earrings and Necklace - H&M

In 1862, miller, writer and social reform  supporter Louis-Ernest La Durée founded a bakery on Rue Royale which sold, amongst other things, macaroons. Being burnt down in 1871 turned out to be a good thing when Monsieur La Durée’s brilliant wife suggested they open the new bakery with an attached tea room. This was both innovative and inspired since women were not allowed in cafes at that time, and relished the freedom the tea room afforded them.

Hairband - Present from a Friend

Shoes - Vintage Louboutin, Rokit London

Silk scarf worn as Belt - Present

La Durée really hit the big time, however, in 1930, when Pierre Desfontaines (Louis-Ernest’s second cousin) decided to stick two of the macaroon shells together with ganache, thus creating the famous “double-decker” macaroon. Approximately 15 000 of these babies are sold every day – and it’s easy to see why, they are delicious.

This week, in honour of both the La Durée macaroon (which are most famously mint green or pale pink) but also of the shop itself, we went pastel. The La Durée tearoom is all kinds of sweet, from the celadon green of the shop front, menus, gift bags and sugar sachets, to the pale blue, green, yellow and pink crockery, to the cherubs dressed as pastry chefs which adorn the ceilings. Fortuitously, pastel colours are also very much in for Spring-Summer 2013 (it’s almost as if I’d planned it, huh?) with saccharine hues adorning, the catwalk shows for, amongst others: Erdem, Christopher Kane, Corrie Nielsen, Antonio Marras, and Michael Van derHam. So in stark contrast to last week’s business monochrome, this week I went full-on sugar coated.

The beloved mint-green circle skirt got another outing along with this lovely new pink angora jumper from VintageDreamBox at Etsy. And, just while we’re on the subject – I would like to share with you my hilarious thing of the week: the angora rabbit.  If the continued bad weather is getting you down, or you’re just having a bad day, I would urge you to take a look at this. To me it looks like a cat, wrapped in another cat, wearing bunny ears, and I cannot look at it without giggling. Hope that cheered y’all up, RIGHT! Back to the task in hand.

Jumper - VintageDreamBox at Etsy

Angora Rabbit - NOT MY PHOTO, wikimedia.com

Skirt - Marina Retro

One other thing that you ought to know before you go to La Durée is that it is very very popular. Joy of a roommate and I toddled on over for afternoon tea on a Saturday and were in the queue for a good 20 minutes. Definitely worth it though, even despite the prices. Due to the queue, it was difficult to get many good pictures outside the shop itself so, after tea, we crossed the road to La Madeleine. See? I’m not going to deprive you of a monument this week completely. La Madeleine is a Roman Catholic Church, designed to be a temple to the glory of Napoleon’s armies, and based on the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, one of the best-preserved Roman temples. Located at Place de la Madeleine in the 8^th arrondissement, it is right next to luxury food shop Fauchon and two minutes walk away from Chanel, Dior, The Kooples and Ralph Lauren boutiques. In short – head here if you have expensive tastes!

Unfortunately there was some event going on at the church so we weren’t able to get inside and I had to content myself with swinging from the railings outside like a small child BUT, I promise that id I have time, I will make sure to head back and do this beautiful building justice. Or, alternatively, you could come check it out for yourselves and let ME know! Anyway, that’s quite enough of my nonsense for one weekend, see you soon!