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Chic chocolate at Angelina's in Paris
A
stone's throw from the Louvre museum, just opposite the
Tuileries Gardens, hidden beneath the arcades of Rue de
Rivoli, a tea-room delights Parisians. Angelina's is the
place for gourmets. It is a familiar name for all lovers
of chocolate and refined pastries. For nearly a hundred
years now, fine society has met in this refined place. You
can drink the best hot chocolate in Paris but the restaurant
is just as famous for its great "Mont Blanc" pastries.
In 1903,
"Gay Paree" at the time of the Belle Epoque, a
tea-room opened. Situated between the Tuileries and the
Louvre, Rumpelmayer quickly became the chic place for Paris
gourmets. The Rumpelmayers were a great family of Austrian
pastry-cooks. Their sweetmeats were such as success that
Antoine, the father, opened this first shop for making and
selling pastries in Germany in Baden-Baden. Then following
high society which, in winter, frequented the French Riviera,
he set up a shop in Menton and in Aix-lex-Bains in the French
Alps. The Paris tea-room, beneath the Rue de Rivoli arcades
at number 226, was founded by his son. It was renamed Angelina
in honour of his wife and was soon frequented by the elite
of customers having good taste who built its reputation.
The famous fashion designer Coco Chanel and the writer Marcel
Proust used to take their five o'clock tea there. King George
V of Britain had his own engraved glasses there. Today,
artists such as Catherine Deneuve, Britney Spears and Patricia
Kass are regular customers.
One
should come as soon as it opens while the tea-room is still
quiet and almost empty. The unchanging ballet of waiters
then begins. The setting has remained almost identical for
nearly a hundred years. Only a few Art Dé
co chandeliers were added around 1930. From floor to ceiling,
the gilded moulding plunges us into the prestige of bygone
times. On the ground floor, a large long room, lit by a
glass roof letting the daylight in, receives small groups
at tea-time, gathered around marble and wooden tables for
a snack. A few people sitting in the window watch passers-by
strolling by, while eating a Viennese pastry. At the back
of the room, alcoves make it possible to set large tables
for a dozen people or so who can meet quietly together.
The mezzanine, almost hidden away and covered in red, attracts
a few customers. In all, the restaurant can serve more than
a hundred people.
In 1993,
Angelina's opened its first shops and franchises in Japan
and the United States. There you can buy boxes of pralines
and confectionery as well as china bearing the firm's distinguished
coat of arms. Even the famous chocolate granules are on
sale allowing you to make the famous chocolate at home.
It is easy to make and was created to recall the famous
Paris beverage.
Today,
the tea-room, which is part and parcel of the Paris heritage,
still holds a few private events. Cocktail parties, birthday
parties and society evenings are sometimes held there. Jean-Paul
Gautier and Karl Lagerfeld have followed Mademoiselle Chanel's
example. As the world of fashion remains among its faithful
customers, numerous fashion parades are held there in March
and in October when the new collections come out. Located
between the Cour Carrée (Square courtyard) of the
Louvre and the famous haute-couture houses, Angelina's saw
numerous new fashion designers making their debuts such
as Herve Leger, Torrente and Michel Klein. So as not to
disturb customers too much, the fashion parades take place
in the morning. A few tables are removed from the restaurant
and the models can present themselves to the public.
Hot
chocolate and "Mont-Blanc" pastries are the two
most popular delicacies and the ones which are ordered the
most. Although this palace has become a veritable institution,
it still keeps its recipes secret. The thick, frothy beverage
is served in a hot-chocolate pot, accompanied by a jug of
whipped cream to complement it. The Mont-Blanc pastry comes
from the Italian Alps. It consists of meringue, whipped
cream and sweet chestnut cream. Many other pastries here
will delight gastronomes such as the fragilité
made of macaroon pastry, almond sponge cake and pistachio
butter-cream, the Colombien, made of coffee ganache or the
Opéra which is another refined chocolate and coffee
cake. For some twenty years, the tea-room has offered a
restaurant service at lunchtime. In winter, you might be
tempted by a Zander and Dublin bay prawn stew spiced with
curcuma or a Pan-fried medallion of veal, and, in summer,
by the selection of salads with Parisian names.
Served
by warm, attentive and discreet staff, the customers are
charmed by this place and will always come back to seek
the simple charm of that French-style art of living. --Actualite
en France
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