Bon Appetit!
“I think this is my favorite thing we’ve done this entire trip. Yes! This is the best thing ever!”
My husband and I treated my mother to a trip to France last month. We had the most amazing food and wine experiences, from meals that we raved about so much that our neighboring diners had to order the same thing, to biking through vineyards and tasting all the wines Burgundy had to offer. In Paris, we had a few specific opportunities for Mother-Daughter “foodie” time. We spent one afternoon in the Mariage Frères tea room, enjoying pastries and tea, after a morning in the Louvre. Our favorite experience, however, was when we took a macaron baking class from La Cuisine Paris. Even if you only have a few days in Paris, you have time for a cooking or baking class!
La Cuisine Paris is located in the 4th arrondissement, just a block from the Hotel de Ville, and a short walk from the Notre Dame. When you step inside their darling shop, you’re greeted by their friendly, English-speaking staff in a simple, but chic room with branded aprons and classic baking supplies. After greeting the other students in our small, intimate group, we headed downstairs to the kitchen. Much like the wine caves we had spent the previous days exploring, the cellar we’d be baking in also had a rounded, cavernous roof. That’s where we met our wonderful pastry chef and teacher for the day!
Let it be known that I am by no means an experienced baker. I tend to bake things that start in a box and only require a few extra additions. So when your teacher started explaining all of the steps in our macaron recipe, I might have panicked a little. Thank goodness my mom was there! She’s the baker in the family!
Not to worry though, La Cuisine Paris has even the most inexperienced bakers covered. All of our ingredients were pre-measured, and our wonderful teacher walked us through each step very slowly. We all took very detailed notes on our recipes, and she provided great explanations for each step we took. She was right when she said that licking your fingers is an occupational hazard. Just look at that meringue! I could have eaten the entire bowl!
Our class was split into two different filling flavors – white chocolate with espelette pepper and praline. Both were delicious, and we might have kept licking our fingers when we were filling the cookies, too. By the time we filled our boxes full of overflowing macarons, we had already eaten “the slightly broken ones” until we were full.
All in all, it was an absolutely amazing experience, and I can’t recommend it enough! We only had a few full days in Paris, and we are so glad that we squeezed this wonderful two-hour experience in. Just make a reservation online and head over toward the Île de la Cité for a quick class before visiting the Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle. They have other classes as well, from making the perfect french baguette to cooking entire meals with ingredients from the market!
This post is part of a collection of our guides to France. Click here to read other great stories from France.
Today, the Hospices de Beaune draws visitors that marvel at its beautiful and brightly colored tile roofs, an icon of Burgundian design, and the interior that has been preserved. We loved the way the sunlight reflected off the roof. The pharmacy with shelves full of ceramic jars was our favorite room, but we really enjoyed viewing the large halls of hospital beds that were still set up as they would have been hundreds of years ago.
Beaune also has a wonderful market on Saturdays and Wednesdays. The Wednesday market is much smaller, but we greatly enjoyed shopping for bread, cheese, and charcuterie for lunch, and since Beaune is so close to Dijon, there was a large selection of local mustards that made great gifts for foodie friends back home. My husband made fast friends with these gorgeous truffle-sniffing dogs that work for the truffle stand at the market. They may have a job to do other days, but on market days, they were enjoying a lot of attention and belly rubs!
