One of my obsessions this trip has been eclairs.  I really think it’s the baby that’s gotten me addicted to all of these delicious Parisian sweets.  A few of the Paris blogs I follow have something called an Eclair Smackdown.  They try a whole bunch of eclairs from some of the best pastry shops and then vote on which ones were the best.  One of the top winners was L’Eclair de Genie, which happens to be very close to our apartment so I thought I should sample some.

If you’re wondering what an eclair is, it’s an oblong pastry made with dough filled with a cream and topped with icing.  It originated in France and was called “pain à la duchesse” or “petite duchesse” until 1850.

L’Eclair de Genie is located just a block off the main road that takes you from the Bastille to the Louvre.  You have to know about this place to find it and wouldn’t just happen to stumble on it.  I’ve been there twice now and I can say that people do search for it because there’s always a line (not too long though).  I chose three that sounded delicious and took them home for Dusty and I to do our own taste test.  Our favorite was the caramel beurre sale (salted butter caramel) but we’re really addicted to anything of this flavor.  Our least favorite was the chocolat lait caramelia.  For me, it had a weird taste and I wasn’t very fond of it.  The chocolate grand cru had this wonderful dark chocolate flavor and resembled a traditional eclair.  One of my favorite parts to all of these gourmet stores is that all of the employees wear gloves.  They treat the merchandise as though it is a a precious gift.  And they put them in the cutest boxes too.  Click on the picture above if you’d like to see the ingredients at a closer glance.

As a reference, these eclairs cost 4.50 euros to 6 euros.  The eclairs at our local patisserie, just around the corner from us, cost 2.20 euros and are quite good but only come in three flavors, chocolate, vanilla and pistachio.  Again,  there’s no way to compare the gourmet L’Eclair de Genie eclairs with your everyday eclair.  It’s like comparing hershey chocolate to a handcrafted gourmet chocolate.  You’re trying to compare apples to oranges.  Hershey chocolate is good but every once in a while you have to have the gourmet chocolate (or eclair) as a special treat.