Thé for Two

Yesterday Lynne took a break from touring with Robert to join me at one of Paris' salons de thé. This one was on a tiny sidestreet, the passage Dauphine, not far from both of our apartments. I'd wanted to treat her to tea as a birthday present and had been doing a bit of research via guidebooks before we arrived, followed by actual tracking-down-and-checking-out once we got here. The ones that the travel writers had raved about turned out to be way too chi-chi--like Ladurée, which offers "a simple afternoon tea of sandwiches and pastries" for $40 a person. With rates like that, we'd have to forego our morning croissants for the rest of our stay! So, when I stumbled on L'Heure Gourmande in the passage Dauphine during my on-the-street reasearch, it seemed like the perfect place for tea: cozy and comfy with a huge selection of teas and goodies at reasonable prices. Happily the actual tea-and-crumpet experience was just as good as advertised on the menu. I ordered sheperd's tea, an herbal concoction of citrus-y leaves, and Lynne diverged from her Earl Gray ways and had a pot of jasmine tea. Our pastries--apple crumble and clafouti aux fruits rouges (strawberry-rhubarb)--had just come out of the oven (not the microwave) and were heavenly. Steve isn't a tea drinker, but maybe I can convince him to go back with me and try the hot chocolate!