The blogosphere informed me that the trendy, must-have treat in Paris is macarons. They are light, crispy cookies that envelope a delicious highly-flavored center.
We purchased 3 different offerings macarons during the trip:
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- Ikea mint macaron: By far the largest (4″ across!), and cheapest. Flavor: minty, light, and crispy. Flavor intensity was low.
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- Googled “Best macaron in Paris” and came up with Pierre Herme. Stood in line behind some other Americans to get a taste! No pics allowed inside – I wish I could have gotten one. The assortment of pastries was beautiful!
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- About to devour my $15 worth of macarons. Yes, you read that properly. Europe is so expensive :(
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- Cute packaging for a delicious assortment of flavors: lemon, rose, olive oil to name a few.
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- My favorite macaron by far was the citron Pierre Herme macaron. Pefect light crispy texture and INTENSE lemon flavor. yuumy!
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- An assortment of all the flavors that McCafe offered. Why don’t the US McCafes have this?
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- Sampling a McCafe macaron. For much less than Pierre Herme, it was still pretty tasty. The lemon flavor was nowhere near as intense though!
So, our trip to Brussels involved no Brussels sprouts, but many many frites.
We started off by finding “Moules frites central” – the little Italy of Moules frites. We got a disappointing tiny dish of fries that were clearly frozen and unsavory. The mussels also weren’t that great – I suppose we should have looked up the best place ahead of time. Oh well! We did it 
Nevertheless, after the disappointing mussels we were still hungry. We found not one, but two, most delicious frite places. I’m not sure why they are called “French fries” in the US when they are clearly a Belgian specialty. Most places, you order them on their own, and they come with a huge variety of sauces to choose from. And, you do not want to be stupide Americane and order ketchup. We came to like the spicy mayo that was offered at this cute little kabob shop – then we tried asking for it again at a different place, and got a blank look and “we do not have spicy mayonnaise!” We looked over the menu again, and chose the possible culprit: Samarai sauce. Oh yes, this was what we were talkin’ about. Yum! (Research upon returning home : it appears to be siracha and mayonnaise mixed together. Uuuh yeah what doesn’t make that spicy mayonnaise?).
So, we hit 2 different places – one that had a big cone of fries as their mascot/logo (aww) and a place called “Fritland” that had the Manneken Pis at their logo. Clearly, the Belgians think a peeing little boy can go with anything! It’s like black.
Both fries were delicious, but I give props to the cone presentation of the first place (as that is what I was secretly expecting), but I appreciated the sauce on the side at Fritland. Both very, very approved.. and I consider myself a French fry connoisseur.
So, my favorite band, Eve 6, has been in limbo for the past 5 years or so – a breakup, hiatus, a new group made of only a few of the members, and finally them reassembling as themselves with ALL the original guys! yay!
They came to Charlotte a few weeks ago and we had an enjoyable time going to see them. We even got some free Coors light (with the awesome color-changing mountain on the packaging). Sweet!
Don’t feel like paying $30 for 2 glasses of wine in a cafe? Solution: stock up on way too much wine at the Supermache for like $2 a bottle! So much, in fact, that you have to drink most of it in the last few days in the trip because there is too much to travel home with. Be sure to forget the juice glasses you bought just for this purpose and drink straight out of the bottle on the banks of the Seine river! Here, nobody cares if you drink out of unconcealed containers of booze. Ding!
Yeah, I am classy like that.
Surely after drinking a half bottle of wine, figuring out directions will be that much easier.
Hahaha! Maps are HILARIOUS!
When you get up, realize your butt is covered with little teeny very sticky flowers. Notice that none of the French people walking by have flowers stuck to their butts, even though they sat in the SAME EXACT SPOT!
Clearly these flowers prefer the butt of a stupide Americane! Really, if you ever want to feel like you are dressed like a huge dork (and get stuff stuck all over your butt), just go to Paris. I felt just like Andie in The Devil Wears Prada, pre-makeover, in my sensible traveling clothes and shoes. Still, I was not inclined to shove my feet into any teeny pointy shoes for walking 6 miles a day. My dogs were barking enough with my made-for-walking Teva hiking boots, thanks! Parisian women must walk about 1 block a day, or, they have insane toleration for pain… or perhaps several bottles of wine are involved just for one short afternoon jaunt in the classy shoes. Must be, must be.
