My obsession with macarons hit a feverish point last week as I visted Ladurée, the fabled patisserie in Paris, credited with inventing the double-decker delights. Macarons are little sandwiches, sugar-filled cookie sandwiches and as delightful as they taste, their optimistic demeanor is just as significant. Fluffy, colorful, small and round - really they are the happiest cookies you could ever ask for. Ladurée also made the macarons for Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette which has undoubtedly added to the allure of these petite pastels. I myself waited outside and then in a small twisted line at the rue Royale location, feeling silly as a half hour, then forty minutes passed, thinking about the times I had laughed at people waiting in line outside the Magnolia Bakery in New York. Well there’s no good way to travel with a cupcake, but the macarons were surprisingly adept; at Ladurée, they sit nestled side to side in decorative boxes, with crinkly tissue paper protecting the lot. Wonderful! The packaging happens to be just as covetable as the merchandise.

Another obsessed macaron fan:

Just Macarons Flickr Page

Tags: cookies, Laduree, macarons, Magnolia bakery, Marie Antoinette, package design, Paris, patisserie, Sofia Coppola.