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Paris – Pierre Hermé and Jardin du Luxembourg

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I can’t believe I went to Paris in August and this post is going up meow. Eek.

 

Paris

Paris

 

On that note, I’d like to give you my most valuable advice for traveling to Paris: don’t go in August. Even though the weather will be nice. August is the official vacation month for the French so 95% of restaurants are closed. I had a list of about 20 restaurants I wanted to go to. One was open. Pretty much only the restaurants that cater to tourists are open. And even though the neighborhoods feel emptier as all the locals are gone, the city is still teeming with tourists so you don’t even get the added benefit of lesser crowds everywhere. You will still have to crop out five Chinese weddings out of your Eiffel Tower picture and stand in a line behind all the British people at the Musée d’Orsay.

 

Paris

Saint Germain des Prés

 

My other tip would be to bypass hotels (unless you can afford the 800+ euro a night at the Plaza Athénée in which case HI LET’S BE FRIENDS/ADOPT ME) and stay in an apartment! Although Airbnb is a given, I actually preferred the findings on smaller, local websites like Perfectly Paris or Haven in Paris. We actually found our apartment on Paris Vacation Apartments and loved it. It was clean, well-decorated, had modern appliances and amenities but was still very charmingly Parisian and in Saint Germain des Prés which is nice and you really feel like you are in Paris. I would compare it to the Upper East Side, not as much character as East Village or Brooklyn but scenic and safe.

 

Our apartment had a lovely courtyard and you could walk up the three flights of stairs or take the tiniest elevator in the world. Unless you are over 5’11 or claustrophobic. Then I would stick to the stairs. It was simultaneously the cutest and also most terrifying elevator I have seen in my life. I am mostly being dramatic, because I really have no complaints about the stay! The prices were very fair and they even leave you a bottle of wine and fresh flowers as a welcome gift.

 

Paris

Our courtyard!

Saint Germain des Prés

Saint Germain des Prés

 

Our first stop of course was Pierre Hermé for macarons and pastries! SOEXCITED. The one in St. Germain is a little mini but we were still able to stock up. I really wanted to bring macarons or cake home for my family but we were going to Croatia after so they would have been entirely stale. SORRY FAMILY.

 

Pierre Hermé

Pierre Hermé

Pierre Hermé

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Pierre Hermé

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Pierre Hermé

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Pierre Hermé

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So instead I bought jam for my mum! I actually had a funny exchange with the cashier as I was trying to pick which jam to bring home. I wanted something unique and although I can read most French (thank you being fluent in Portuguese / living in Canada) there were some terms I was unfamiliar with. One of these terms was ‘quetsche’. The lady was trying to explain to me what the fruit was and she said it was very typical of the Alsace region of France. I was intrigued by it as I had never heard of a questche of anything that sounds similar to that so I imagined some quaint little local fruit and was ready to buy when another girl came by and clarified “OH questche d’alsace! In English it is…uhhhh how do you say…prrrrrune?”.

 

OH. It was prune jam you guys. Although I imagine the prunes are lovely in Alsace I passed and went with a more exciting flavor. I also was very tempted to take this granola home:

 

Pierre Hermé

Granola Ispahan

 

The Ispahan macaron is one of Pierre Hermé’s most famous desserts, it is a macaron filled with lychee and rose water cream and studded with fresh raspberries. And they turned it into granola! I imagine this is the best granola ever (and probably the only one in the world to have dried lychees), but I could not justify spending something like $43 USD on granola. I’m too cheap to even buy the stuff at Whole Foods that costs $9 dollars.

 

We picked up some pastries and a box of macarons with flavors ranging from standard chocolate and pistachio to green tea and passion fruit. Then we picked up some cheese, baguettes, rice crackers (its not easy being gluten free in Paris I will tell you that much), and champagne and headed to Jardin du Luxembourg for a picnic!

 

Jardin du Luxembourg

Jardin du Luxembourg

Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

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The weather was looking awfully rainy and sure enough as we set up, it began to rain! Ahhh. So we hid under a tree and ate brie until the storm passed and we magically had the lawn all to ourselves. Win.

 

Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

lawn all to ourselves. plus pigeon.

 

The pastries we got from Pierre Hermé were quite good as well. We got the Ispahan macaron which I described above and has the rose petal, the Désiré (top right) which is “Brittany-style sablé pastry, lemon cream, strawberry and banana compote, tender lemon biscuit, and raspberries” and lastly a pistachio cake (bottom right) which I cannot find the link for online. The Ispahan, surprisingly, was my least favorite, but I also tend to prefer cakes to macarons.

 

Pierre Hermé

Pierre Hermé pastries.

 

Walking around in the gardens is lovely and you see many people picnic-ing, lounging or playing with those remote controlled boats on the fountain. I think this was my favorite park we went to.

 

Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

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Jardin du Luxembourg

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Even though it rained intermittently throughout the day this was a lovely first day. More sights and more food to come! And no more prune jam.

 

Saint Germain des Prés

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Saint Germain des Prés

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Saint Germain des Prés

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The post Paris – Pierre Hermé and Jardin du Luxembourg appeared first on Sun Diego Eats.


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