Founded in 1761, A la Mère de Famille, is Paris’s oldest sweets shop. With its period exterior and furnishings, the store on rue du Faubourg Montmartre is like a time capsule, filled with traditional sweets of all kinds: artisanal chocolates, jams, candied fruit, calissons, marrons glacés and teas from around the world line its shelves and wooden fixtures.
Today, the company has seven chocolate and confectionery shops in Paris (plus an outlet in Le Printemps department store).
For Christmas, head pastry chef Julien Merceron has created a smooth and velvety chocolate bûche de Noël: “Bûche à Oreilles” combines the flavours of chocolate and clementine jam, along with hazelnut mousse, crispy praliné and two solid chocolate “ears.”
A la Mère de Famille, 33 and 35, rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 75009 Paris and other locations
Julien Merceron has published a collection of A la Mère de Famille’s authentic recipes for sweets, chocolates and cakes. The book is already available in French from Amazon.U.K. and Amazon France. The English-language edition, due to be released in the fall of 2013, may be pre-ordered from Amazon U.S. and Amazon Canada.
A la Mère de Famille, by Julien Merceron
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Photo: © A la Mère de Famille/BMRP