What Ladurée is known for
The Parisian macaron maison since 1862 — pastel towers, double-decker macarons and salon-de-thé romance. Pierre Desfontaines, Louis-Ernest Ladurée's second cousin, joined two macaron shells with a filling; Jeanne Souchard (Ernest's wife) is credited with creating one of the first Paris tea rooms at Rue Royale.
Ladurée began as a Parisian bakery in 1862, and its tea salon on Rue Royale — with ceiling cherubs painted by Jules Chéret — helped establish the salon de thé as an institution where women could meet unaccompanied. The house's claim on posterity is the double-decker macaron: two almond-meringue shells joined with ganache, an assembly Ladurée popularized in the twentieth century and turned into the pastel-boxed emblem of Parisian sweetness worldwide. The Rome address on Via Borgognona delivers the full ritual — the mint-green livery, the pyramid of shells in rotating seasonal flavors, the pastries beyond macarons that reward attention: the Ispahan's rose-lychee-raspberry combination has entered the pastry canon. Buy macarons to carry, but sit if there is time; the salon experience, unhurried and slightly theatrical, is the original product.
Macarons travel poorly beyond a day; buy the last morning, and choose the seasonal flavors over the permanent ones — the pastry kitchen's invention shows there.
In the press
- Eater 2017
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Pastel macaron boxes.
Handcrafted daily in their Parisian atelier using traditional methods.
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Where next
- Antica Manifattura Cappelli — Rome
- Del Giudice Roma — Rome
- C.U.C.I. Leather — Rome
In the Journal
Hand-curated for ORBIS · no paid placement