No problem, because their sweets are already seriously delicious and original. There is one small bar to sit and eat the dessert with tea or coffee. You just pick what you want from the display and they serve it up. However, the bar is small and rather uncomfortable. Highlights in my opinion include their “rolls” which consist of layers of poppy seed, fruits and a million other wonderful things that go inside. There is also a layered honey cake and a very complex strudel. Nothing I had was too sweet at all. I wont pretend I know what are inside these gems.

Roll - I wish I could tell you what is exactly inside but I have no idea

Strudel with layers of flavours and textures

Macarons with a difference

A very summery dessert with a surprise inside

Paris store - very different to the Moscow and the New York stores

• Texture of the shell is airy and not dried up
• Flavour is prominent and not artificial
• Macarons are invariably sweet, but there is a balance still. Too sweet then you can’t taste the flavour. Balance please.

Here are a few of the best shops and simple gorgeous. I will add more. Sorry, I can’t take these back to Australia.

Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki - macarons on the wall decoration

Aoki - here you can find Japanese flavours such as various teas, yuzu and sesame

Laduree - very famous and for a good reason. If I was to pick one shop for macarons then this is it.

Their salted caramel macaron (not pictured) is a must try. Though the filling is thicker and denser than their other flavours, it is an explosion of salted caramel

Patisserie Pain de Sucre

Patisserie Pain de Sucre - more on the denser side. They have an espelette/saffron flavour.

Looks good and will not disappoint

Weiss - a chocolate company. Very genuine flavours. I am pretty sure it was the best pistachio I have had so far.

Café Pouchkine - originating from Russia, brings a new range of flavours and textures with very refined techniques. Here are double flavoured macaron shells.

“That place is out of control.” That was the reply.

Paris Brest

Rêves has been awarded the best Paris Brest for three consecutive years. This mind blowing dessert was originally created to help fuel cyclists on the 1200 km Paris to Brest race. It is essentially a choux pastry filled with praline cream, shaped into a wheel shape. The idea might have came from modifying an eclair into the shape of a wheel. The version from Rêves is made of 6 connected choux pastry, filled with a hazel nut (?maybe almonds too) praline cream. Under the cream is a think liquid coulant of chocolate and hazel nut that taste quite like Nutella. What makes this one taste so good is no doubt the richness of the cream, filled with unmissable hazel nut power. The cream had a ‘bite’ to it – dense from the nuts blended through it.

I went twice because I ate the first one before I could take a photo. The shop is beautiful too. The selection of pastry is displayed under glass domes. When you have decided, the staff will go behind the counter and retrieve the individual pastry from their optimum storage condition.

Store design reflected in their website

Look only. They will retrieve your purchase from the back where each dessert is stored optimally

If one ever made it back to my apartment, I will cut it up properly

The wooden communal table next to the courtyard is a lovely piece of furniture.

A 'holy f__' moment

One of the communal tables

They do sell out, often.

Serious things

Macarons are mostly too dense, too sweet, artificial flavoured and just disappointing (regret) to pay $2-3. But this is a good one – from cafe Chez Dre. The head pastry chef is Andrea Reiss.