A Self-guided Paris Macaron Walking Tour
Last Updated: May 15th 2024.
Paris is a fabulous city with so many activities that you can come back again and again and do something different each time. We’ve visited Paris several times, the latest visit was in 2019. That time we undertook a Paris macaron walking tour. Next to visiting the Eiffel tower and Disneyland Paris, this was the highlight of our visit to Paris. Macarons have become extremely popular the last few years, and with good reason. Paris is the place to sample macarons. There are several guided tours to take in Paris on which you get to taste macarons. We however did a self-guided macaron tour, which we loved.
Macarons
Before we go on a macaron tour through Paris. Let’s talk a little about what a macaron is exactly.
A macaron is a delicious cookie, which can be found all over France. It has spread all over the world. But for the best macaron and a true macaron tour you have to go to Paris. Although St.-Jean-de-Luz is a good rival.
A macaron has two delicate cookies, made from ground almonds, and are light. The 2 cookies are sandwiched around a soft filling. Think lemon curd, chocolate buttercream, raspberry jam or any other flavorful filling that makes the cookies stick together. They come in numerous different colors and flavors, one even more tasteful than the other.
The cookies always contain ground almonds, egg whites and sugar. Flavor is added to the cookie in different ways. The macaron is not an easy cookie to prepare. It can easily become deformed or the crust will break during the baking process.
History of the Macaron
Macarons are known from France and as a distinctly French cookie. But looking into it, it’s believed, that the macaron was born in Italy. It has been produced in Venetian monasteries since the 8th century. These were still only simple cookies made of egg whites, sugar and almond flour.
Catherine de Medici, the French King’s (Henri II) Italian wife, is believed to have brought them over to France, around 1533. At the French court these simple macarons where further developed. The French word macaron is derived from the Italian word for fine dough, maccherone.
The first written recipe comes from the 17th century in French. A number of different recipes already existed, with different regions in France having their versions and adopting it as a local specialty.
The macaron seems to have gained in popularity and fame from the year 1792 on. Since in that year two Carmelite nuns in Nancy baked and sold macarons during the French Revolution to pay for their housing. These macarons however were still without filling.
The macaron as we know it today was introduced in the later part of the 19th century. At the Parisian confectioner La Maison Ladurée, Pierre Desfontaines, started sandwiching buttercream, compote, jam and ganache between two macaron cookies.
Although this is still how we know the macaron till this day, this doesn’t mean the macaron stopped developing. New shapes, flavors and colors have kept emerging ever since, reinventing the macaron again and again.
Paris Macaron Walking Tour
Here’s the self-guided macaron tour Paris I compiled for us and which we loved.
- Go to the stop Bac street with the metro.
- Follow the Rue du Bac until number 108, there’s the first boutique we’re stopping at, namely Angelina Paris. They have delicious macarons in normal size and large ones (!) They also sell delicious chocolate.
- Then take the Rue de Babylone, cross the Place la Corbusier and visit la Maison du Chocolat at Rue du Sèvres. It’s on number 19. This chocolate house, not only produces delicious chocolate, but also macarons.
- Go back a little bit and follow the Boulevard Raspail, until you reach the Rue du Cherche-Midi. Visit À la Mère de famille on number 39. This is Paris’s oldest sweet shop, they sell chocolates, all sorts of candies, ice cream and macarons.
- Follow the Rue du Cherche-Midi further until you reach Rue Saint-Placide, where you head towards Maison Pariès. They sell Basque confections, among them delicious macarons. The store is on number 9.
- Then head back a little bit until the crossing with the Rue du Cherche-Midi and follow the Rue Saint-Placide until the end, cross the Rue de Rennes and continue on the Rue de Vaugirard. Visit Sadaharu AOKI, a Japanese-French inspired confectioner’s chain. They’re on number 35.
Break Time
- Turn around and take the Rue d’Assas until you reach the Jardin du Luxembourg. An excellent place for lunch. Which we had at La Table du Luxembourg inside the park. Sit down for a while, let your kids run around at the playground or if you don’t need a rest from walking, take a stroll around the park.
Further with Paris Macarons
- After your break exit the park again at the same entrance and take the Rue Vavin, and visit Jean-Paul Hévin on number 3. When we visited it was closed due to vacation. But this chain is renowned for its chocolate and pure flavors in the macarons.
- Follow the Rue Vavin further, until you reach the Rue Notre Dame des Champs. Follow that street until you reach the Boulevard Raspail. Take the metro here to stop Madeleine.
- On Place de la Madeleine 11 are 2 stores from Fauchon. One is a shop, the other is a restaurant. The shop is best for buying macarons and other deliciousness like jams and so on.
- Take the metro again, and now to stop George V.
- Stand in line at the famous Ladurée shop situated on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, number 75. (If you don’t fancy standing in line, there’s a Ladurée store on Rue Royale, close to the Place de la Madeleine.)
- Across from Ladurée, is a Pierre Hermé Paris store. A not to be missed French pastry and chocolate house. When crossing the street between the two confectioner’s, look to your left to see the world famous Arc de Triomphe.
- Head away from the Arc de Triomphe on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, take the Rue La Boétie, until you reach the Rue du Fauborg Saint-Honore. On number 101 is the original Dalloyau store. This is the last Parisian confectioner on our tour. Here our tour Paris macaron walking tour comes to an end. I hope you’ve enjoyed all the macarons!
Background Information
Each confectioner’s house we visited has its own history, background and signature creations.
Angelina Paris
Anton Rumpelmayer and his son René founded Angelina in 1903. Anton named the company after his daughter-in-law. The tea house at Rue de Rivoli 226 quickly became the place to be for the elite. The biggest French fashion designers. Proust and Coco Chanel came together in this famous tea room. Anton’s desire was that Angelina would become the ultimate gourmet temple and a symbol of the French way of life.
Signature dishes are the Mont-Blanc and the famous hot chocolate “L’Africain”.
La Maison du Chocolat
Robert Linxe founded the first la Maison du Chocolat in Paris in 1977. Linxe’s signature was adding ganache to his chocolates. This made it a silky blend of chocolate and fresh cream covered in chocolate.
À la Mère de Famille
Julien Merceron founded it in 1761, on Rue du Fauborg-Montmartre in Paris. It’s still located here (and on other locations) making it Paris’s oldest sweet (candy) shop. Not much has changed in those years. Signature dishes are their ice cream in several flavors, chocolate specialties, candied fruit and calissons.
Maison Pariès
Founded in 1895 by Jacques Damestoy in Bayonne. Bayonne is the chocolate Capitol of France. They sell gourmandizes Basques. Signature dishes are the Gateaux Basques and mouchou et macarons. They also have kanougas, confiseries, chocolats, tourons, cake and ice cream.
Sadaharu AOKI Paris
Sadaharu Aoki, a Japanese pastry chef, opened his first store in 1998. He prepares French-style pastries, while using traditional Japanese ingredients and flavors.
Jean-Paul Hévin
Jean-Paul Hévin opened his first shop in 1988 at 16 avenue de la Motte-Piquet. He produces chocolate of high quality. His macarons have a low level of sugar, which makes that the flavors are pure and can express their strongness. They’re regularly awarded by the press.
Jean-Paul Hévin selects a cocoa every 3 months which he uses as an inspiration to make 3 creations: a macaron, a chocolate candy and a chocolate bar.
Fauchon
Founded in Paris in 1886. A French company made for gourmets and delicacies.
They sell deliciacies, macarons, tea, chocolates and sweets (candy).
Ladurée
A French company for pastries founded in 1862 by Lousi-Ernst Ladurée. They made the first macaron as we know it today and remains one of the most popular spots for macarons in Paris till this day. They sell some 15.000 each day of their famous filled macarons. The shop on the Champs-Élysées opened in 1997 and is a restaurant, tea room and macaron specialist.
Maison Pierre Hermé Paris
Pierre Hermé, a French pastry chef and chocolatier, founded Maison Pierre Hermé in 1998 together with Charles Znaty.
In 2005 they declared March 20 National Macaron Day.
Dalloyau
Dalloyau is an independent, family run company, established in Paris. The brothers Dalloyau were working for Louis XIV in 1682 as “officiers de bouche” (top chefs), which was the highest French gastronomy distinction at the time. In 1802 the “Dalloyau, house of gastronomy” was founded in 1802 by Jean-Baptiste Dalloyau.
The main Paris shore, since 1802, is still at the Rue du Fauborg Saint-Honoré. Although on this tour we visit Dalloyau for their macarons, their signature pastry is the Opera Cake. Cyriaque Gavillon invented this in 1955 at Dalloyau. A rectangular cake with 3 thin layers of almond sponge cake. It’s soaked in coffee syrup and in between alternating are layers of coffee butter cream and chocolate glaze topped with ganache.
Our Experience
We all loved the macaron tour and the Paris macaron. We did the tour with the 3 of us, our son was 9 years old at the time. Paul and Yuri’s favorite was the yuku macaron from Sadaharu AOKI Paris. My favorite where the ones from Fauchon, such a delicious flavor. We bought some 21 macarons in total, which we shared, and some other pastries. It wasn’t cheap, we spent over €100,- in total.
It took us some 5,5 hours, lunch included to take the tour. This was longer than the guided tours, but we could sit down whenever we wanted and walk our own pace. Besides this we could let Yuri run around at a few parks we came across. The time of your tour could be shorter, depending on your speed of walking. We spend a lot of time at the parks, but if you don’t need this, you can take the tour in almost 2 hours. We also took our time after each store to sample the macarons. Total walking time between shops would be about an half hour to an hour. Mind you this is without the added time of waiting and taking the metro twice during the tour.
Where to Stay
We stayed at 55 Hôtel Montparnasse in 2019. A basic hotel, with lots of restaurants close by and a metro station. We’ve stayed at other great hotels in Paris before, as discussed in stopover hotels on the way South.
That’s a Wrap on the Paris Macaron Walking Tour
Hope you can take this fun tour!
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42 Comments
Katie Driscoll
Wow I love this! It is such a different take on visiting Paris! And I want to go to every one of these stores now!
Cosette
Yes, we loved doing the tour. And you really have to visit all the stores.
Taylor
This is such a great guide! I LOVE macarons and would definitely enjoy trying more spots in Paris. I only went to the Lauderee in Champs Elysee (so touristy, I know), but I love their macarons. 🙂 The macaron cakes look amazing!
ANUKRATI DOSI
I loved reading this post. Firstly, I love Macarons. Secondly, I always wanted to read all about it in one place. Your post did that for me.
Keep up the awesome work!
Emma
This is my kind of tour. I love a self-guided walking tour and macarons are probably one of my favorite things so this is right up my (Parisian) street. I love all the colors and flavors and how deliciously delicate macarons are. Can’t wait for my next trip to Paris to do this
Krystianna
I LOVE this post, definitely saving it for later because I’m a sucker for macarons. I was lucky enough to visit Paris two years ago and only got to eat macarons from two different places, but they were divine. 🙂
Rob + Ann @TravelLatte
Wow. We have visited a lot of shops in Paris for macarons, but there are so many more! We love Ladurée, but Angelina’s is a favorite – hard to beat macarons and that hot cocoa! Hoping to be back in Paris this fall to go find more of these shops!
Chirasree Banerjee
I haven’t come across such a post before and really like the concept. I love macarons and used to eat a lot while living in Lausanne. Lovely share.
Elena Pappalardo
You had me at macaron! What a fantastic tour – I’ve never heard of anything like this before. I will definitely keep this handy for the next time I’m in Paris!
Joanna
Sounds fattening but delicious!
Denise
So many macarons! Love this post, this is definitely soething I would do!
Krista
That is such a fun idea for a walking tour! I think I only tried one or two macarons while I was in Paris and I’m not even sure they were good ones, so this is a self-guided tour I would love to try out.
Holidays from Hels
Great idea for a tour! I’m sure my boys would be totally up for this! Such pretty food – so French.
Lisa | Handmade in Israel
Gosh, now I really want a macaron! Each and every one looks amazing to me. It sounds like a wonderful tour. Thanks for sharing the history with us.
Sarah McDonald
Great idea for a walking tour! The last time I visited Paris was before macarons were famous and I had no idea they existed. I need to go back and explore some of these places. Thanks for sharing.
Jennifer Record
if only I was going to Paris sometime soon! This post is incredible..you have me dreaming of visiting Paris.. I love food tours like this!
Jenn | By Land and Sea
You are making my mouth water with these delicious treats! Admittedly, I have been to Paris twice and haven’t had an authentic macaron. Now I have yet another delicious reason to return. Your guide will be post helpful in finding the best ones!
Adriane
What a fun idea! I love both Paris and sugar. This sounds like a great idea for our next trip.
Rebecca Scholes
What an absolutely brilliant idea! We’re due to visit Paris in October and I’m now very tempted to do this tour!
Cosette
Hope you can do this tour in October. Let me know if you liked it.
Ashley
Wow, so glad I came across this post. I’m planning a trip to Paris in November. Will definitely be checking out a few of these bakeries. Do you recommend Paris Disney?
Cosette
Yes, I recommend Disneyland Paris, also have a post about i: https://karstravels.com/fun-times-at-disneyland-paris-with-and-without-kids/
Mayi
You are making my mouth water and miss my home town. I have not visited as many shops as you but love the idea of a self-guided tour. I also love the macarons from Fauchon! Now, your next challenge (if you would like to take it) is to make your own macarons and compare them with those of professional chefs 🙂
Cosette
I’ve made my own macarons already a lot of times. Flavor goes well, shape is hard!
Nina
This is amazing! I did a guided walking tour of paris a few years ago that included chocolates and macarons. I love that you did one on your own and still hit the places we went!
Cosette
So great they overlap. I looked up on the internet what tours recommended to visit and made my own tour based on that.
Julia Bocchese
I’ve been to Paris, but I don’t think I had any macarons while I was there! I definitely need to have some the next time I’m there. And the history is so interesting, I wouldn’t have guessed that they were created in Italy!
Cosette
No, the origin in Italy was a new one for me too. Hope you get to taste macarons the next time you’re in Paris.
Linda (LD Holland)
I would definitely follow a self-guided macaroon tour in Paris. A tasty way to see the city and and enjoy these sweet treats. I would certainly make a stop at Maison du Chocolat and add chocolate to my day. With all these great stops, I am sure I could try many different flavours.
Cosette
Yes, you can try so many different flavors on this tour. The chocolate is also devine, and I could make a tour on its own for chocolate in Paris.
Claire
Thanks for including the history, I had no idea they are thought to have actually started in Italy! It’s crazy how one person can change the way we think about things, that it was one woman who brought it over to France and then it took off from there.
French desserts are so aesthetically pleasing, they really know how to make you want to try something just from appearances. I know the macarons were your main focus, but I also got distracted by the chocolates in some of the photos haha. Man, no wonder I’ve always wanted to move there. Maybe subconciously it’s my sweeth tooth that’s driving all my goals lol.
Cosette
Yes, it’s crazy that one person brings it to another country and then it all started. Yes, the other sweets were also distracting for us, but my two men just love macarons.
Cristina
I can’t wait to go back to Paris! I love a good macaron, so this is the perfect guide for me. Thank you for sharing, I am saving it for the future 🙂
Cosette
Hope you get to back to Paris soon and have fun with this tour.
Amy Tull
Such a fun tour! This would be especially nice with kids. Thanks for sharing!
Heather Markel
Brilliant post! I love Paris and of course the macarons are a must-eat activity! I love this compilation!
Anja
Great post! I love a macaron, but the ones we get here in Germany are underwhelming. Saying that, I have tried Pierre Herme and MAison du Chocolat and liked both. I would travel for Maison du Chocolat’s cholocates
Sue
What a fun idea for a delicious day in Paris! I love this and now I am totally craving a macaron!
Caroline
I don’t actually think I’ve got a proper appreciation for macarons. It was never the first dessert I reached out for but now I feel like I’m missing out or maybe that I haven’t tried a good one yet (tbf I haven’t tried one in Paris…). One of my friends loves macarons so I’m gonna share this with her. I think I’d actually like to try Sadaharu AOKI. I’d love to see how the pastry chef has created a fusion between French pastries with a Japanese touch.
Stephanie
What a delightful tour! I never would of thought of a macaron tour, but how fun!
Linda
I love all the amazing colours and flavours that macarons come in. But I must admit, most I have tried are just too sweet for me. But that would not stop me from wandering around Paris to try more! Especially if we also found chocolate on the tour.
Yvonne
A macaron tour – brilliant idea! All those sweets look SO good.