CLAUDIO CINA

Ladurée Macaroons Box Designed by John Galliano

Ladurée, the famous macaroon cake shop and in my opinion, one of the best that can be found in the world has commissioned John Galliano to design a glamourous packaging.  These miniature cakes come in 26 amazing flavors and besides the unbelievable taste, the packaging is always to die!  The boxes are always so perfect in dimension and the way that they are made is like couture.  It's as though each one has been hand crafted. It is always a pity to have to throw it away after they are all gone.  Most of the time, I am sure like many of you, I end up keeping them.

courtesy Vogue Italia.com; Photo by Miles Aldridge, from Vogue Unique, August 2003

above photos of Ladurée store in Versailles, Paris featuring their candles and fragrances. Look for their complete range of products, body cream, hand cream, body oil, facial quenching water, bath salts and bath powder.

above photo of all the amazing flavors of Laduree macaroons available for purchase courtesy laduree.fr

Ladurée was founded in 1862 in Paris.  Stores are open in Paris, Beirut, Milan, Tokyo, Nagoya, Dublin, Switzerland, Monaco and London.  I have linked some of the locations  in these cities. It is definitely worth a trip to one of them if you are visiting.  If you lucky enough to live in one of them, you have no excuses.  You will not be disappointed!!!!!! I love Ladurée.

The "Chanel" of Pastry Shops - Fauchon Paris

One of my favorite destinations in Paris is Fauchon.  They are located at Place de la Madeleine, right around the corner from the Chanel store on Rue Cambon.  You can go there anytime of day, but I love to go there for morning breakfast.  The facade and packaging is black and pink, with a white logo.  The interior is all gold and white, but very sleek and modern.  They have everything you can imagine; from gourmet patisseries, macaroons, breakfast breads, croissants, pane du chocolat, as well as an amazingly packaged fruit salad (that tastes out of this world), yoghurt parfaits, and much much more.  It is my favorite place in the world.  They just opened one at Parc de L'Exposition, where Premier Vision takes place, so you can grab some too when you go to the fabric fair in Paris.

The pink Fauchon lips tied with a pink ribbon at the end of the pink stairs was another one of my favorite things in the shop.  Yes, I love pink.

The store is so well done, and I love the packaging.  These were lunch boxes they were preparing to deliver to some function or office.  They looked great.  Gold boxes with the white logo.  I wanted one!

all photos courtesy of Chee Chung

I love the pink tables, chairs and umbrellas surrounded by all the green.  This is their seating area directly outside their shop.  It was raining that morning, so we couldn't use them.  You should definitely check out Fauchon when you are in Paris.  It really is as fun as it looks!