Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

Sugar crash is a very real and very brutal thing, my friends. Today is the first day of spring and today is Macaron Day NYC 2014 !  You couldn't have asked for more perfect weather for the annual macaron scavenger hunt, organized by Chef Francois Payard and inspired by Jour du Macaron in Paris.  Bakeries, patisseries, macaron-eries all across the city participate in handing out complimentary macarons, with the added charitable aspect that a portion of any macaron purchases during the day will be donated to City Harvest. Behold, my macarons (which I think are some of the food porn-iest things to photograph, for some reason.  Those feet!  That bulge!  Such colors!  Ooh la la): Francois Payard Bakery / Francois Payard Patisserie  orange blossom  passionfruit  avec CHEF FRANCOIS PAYARD! Mille-Feuille Bakery all the goodies salted caramel Sugar & Plumm  raspberry Bisous Ciao ...

One of my favorite holidays, especially when we were in college, was Macaron Day.  On Macaron Day, you go around the bakeries and patisseries around New York and smile and get free macarons.  Okay so maybe it's not a bank holiday, but it should be.  The fabulous Frenchman who brought the miracle of Macaron Day to New York was Francois Payard.  Chef Payard has several bakeries in New York and around the world, and he has just opened Francois Payard Patisserie to be his flagship restaurant. Francois Payard Patisserie is in a pretty swanky neighborhood with boutique shops, right next to the Museum Mile on the Upper East Side.  Incidentally, there is another Francois Payard outpost in the Village, Francois Payard Bakery on West Houston.  It's conveniently located right around NYU and definitely reflects the clientele.  You could definitely whip out your laptop and linger over coffee and macarons at the Bakery. Similarly, the Patisserie...

So we bid London farewell with one fewer member in our tour group and headed on the Eurostar from London St. Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord.  Oh Paris!  City of Lights, city of love.  We had a very short time in Paris, hardly long enough to do it justice.  In the two-and-a-half days, I squeezed in trips to Notre Dame Cathedral, Musee d’Orsay, Versailles, a Seine boat cruise, the Latin Quarter, Musee du Louvre, the Champs Elysees, and the Eiffel Tower.  Phew! Along the while, we had some interesting eats.  The first night, we dined at  Le Saint Germain  after Musee d’Orsay.  We were starving and ready to keel over so I made the executive decision to head over to Saint Germain where I’d heard there was good food.  We stopped at this brasserie on a street corner (very typical of Paris, no?) and a cute waiter handed us a menu.  I barely looked at it and said YES PLEASE FEED ME.  We shared some escargot (just me and Mom: Dad i...