Pierre Herme and Laduree Macarons

My very good friend, Ariel, just got back from a summer vacation in Paris, London, and Ireland. Since he was gone during my birthday, he offered to buy me something from Paris (I’m not sure I say this enough, but I really do have the best friends in the world). I told him that I wanted macarons from Paris, and not just ANY macarons, I wanted macarons from TWO PLACES: Laduree and Pierre Herme. On my family’s last trip to Paris, we didn’t have time to go to Pierre Herme because I was on my deathbed for the majority of the trip, but we did make it to Laduree on our last day to buy lots of macarons that I hand carried all the way home. Ariel asked for addresses and flavors I wanted and didn’t PROMISE to bring back any since he wasn’t sure how much time he had to visit the two bakeries, but he delivered (I KNEW HE WOULD!)

Laduree’s macarons were beautifully presented in a decorative box:

Pierre Herme:

I sent Ariel an e-mail telling him which flavors I wanted (just the usuals like chocolate, vanilla, raspberry, pistachio) and Ariel went above and beyond by buying a TON of macarons from Laduree and Pierre Herme! The macarons from Laduree:

The people at Laduree were making fun of Ariel when he went to the store because he had the Pierre Herme bag with him and was buying more macarons (in his defense, sometimes you just can’t get enough of a good thing!) The macarons from Laduree didn’t keep as well as the ones from Pierre Herme; some of them were a little stale, but the fruit-based macarons (raspberry and strawberry) kept very well. My favorites from Laduree were caramel, dark chocolate, and raspberry. They got a little smushed during the trip home, but they were still very delicious.

The Pierre Herme macarons were still pretty fresh:

The buttercream was a lot smoother at Pierre Herme than the ones at Laduree AND the macarons still had a very good texture. Ariel said they gave him full-sized samples of the macarons while he was in the store and he also bought some other desserts to eat that he really enjoyed. My favorite flavors from Pierre Herme were chocolate, jasmine tea, and pistachio. We paired all of the macarons with vanilla gelato from Ciao Bella and sparkling water from my Sodastream. I decided to freeze the ones I didn’t finish (we ate about 1/2 of the boxes when Ariel came to deliver them) and now the box is almost completely gone because I’ve been eating them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Thank you for the wonderful birthday present, Ariel!