Jour du Macaron

Some marked today's calendar as the first day of spring. It was also the launch of another new season, that of Pierre Herme's macarons, available to any member of the public warmly dressed enough to withstand a 30 minute wait on the sidewalk. I've written before here about the pomp and circumstance surrounding the launch of the Herme's collections. On the basis of the 3 macaron tasting I was allowed, the plaudits are again deserved.

In making my selection I was forced to bypass four new chocolate creations--one with ultra-bitter ganache and cocoa nibs, another with milk chocolate and earl grey, a third with yuzu and the last with the classic duo of caramel and fleur de sel--as well as the trademarked "Celeste", boasting a passion fruit exterior with rhubarb and strawberry compote. (The "Inca", with a filling of avocado and banana, was easier to skip.)

My first choice, mandarin and pink pepper, was faultless, if not extraordinary. I then moved on to the "Eden", filled with a sublime combination of saffron-infused, dried apricot-studded peach cream. I finished with a bracingly bitter "Americano Pamplemousse," the cleverest spin on Campari I've ever encountered.

I'm never going to be sharing any hot-off-the-runway fashion relevations, I fear. But today, at least, I've got the scoop on Paris' chicest, and perhaps most delicious, desserts.