Macarons are a sweet treat that have exploded in popularity in recent years. The elegant, delicate, luxurious sweet meringue-based confections are made with egg white, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring and are formed of two layers that sandwich a ganache, buttercream or jam. While they were originally invented in Italy and the name comes from an Italian word, the sweets are now most commonly associated with France.
Records show that macarons have been produced in Venetian monasteries since the 8th century A.D. and they were brought over to France with Catherine de' Medici in 1533, when she married Henry II. The modern iteration was born in the 20th century, when they began to be sandwiched with a layer of buttercream, jam, or ganache filling in between. This was originally called the "Gerbet" or the "Paris macaron" and Pierre Desfontaines, of the French pâtisserie Ladurée, is often credited with its creation while Claude Gerbet himself claims to have invented it.
Whoever came up with the idea first, it has taken off in a big way and if you are a macaron lover planning on finding a vacation rental in France and spending time in the country, there will be endless excellent places to sample macarons. Several French cities and regions have long traditions in and specific variations of macarons, particularly Lorraine (Nancy and Boulay), Basque Country (Saint-Jean-de-Luz), Saint-Émilion, Amiens, Montmorillon, Le Dorat, Sault, Chartres, Cormery Joyeuse and Sainte-Croix in Burgundy.
However, the city of Montmorillon is especially well known for its macarons and even has a macaron museum dedicated to it. The Maison Rannou-Métivier is the oldest macaron bakery in Montmorillon and dates back to 1920 and uses an unchanged recipe. If you are a serious macaron fan, just find a vacation rental in Aquitaine and make your way to Montmorillon, the French capital of macarons!
Whoever came up with the idea first, it has taken off in a big way and if you are a macaron lover planning on finding a vacation rental in France and spending time in the country, there will be endless excellent places to sample macarons. Several French cities and regions have long traditions in and specific variations of macarons, particularly Lorraine (Nancy and Boulay), Basque Country (Saint-Jean-de-Luz), Saint-Émilion, Amiens, Montmorillon, Le Dorat, Sault, Chartres, Cormery Joyeuse and Sainte-Croix in Burgundy.
However, the city of Montmorillon is especially well known for its macarons and even has a macaron museum dedicated to it. The Maison Rannou-Métivier is the oldest macaron bakery in Montmorillon and dates back to 1920 and uses an unchanged recipe. If you are a serious macaron fan, just find a vacation rental in Aquitaine and make your way to Montmorillon, the French capital of macarons!