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“No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses…The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine,” – Marcel Proust

Being far from an intellectual, I had no idea what people were talking about when they mentioned Proust in relation to madeleines (I had never read any of his work), writes Susan Gish. All I knew was that I am addicted to them. Not all madeleines, just those from Christophe Madeleines.

In my research for this article, I looked up Proust. He writes about comparing madeleines to involuntary memory with voluntary memory. Remembering events such as his Aunt dipping a madeleine into tea and feeding it to him as a little boy in the mornings.
All I can say is that my memory needs to be fed every morning by having one of Christophe’s Madeleines. If I forget (haha – involuntary?), my day just isn’t the same (or should I say, if I forget do I use my memory to remember?).

There’s always a long line of people waiting for Madeleines heading up Saporta on the right, from the bell tower and the Hotel de Ville.  Just follow your nose, that delicious smell is coming out of their ovens! The shop is simply a window. You can see the ovens in the back.

Yasmina is full of energy and beautiful. “Ca va, Susan? Comme d’habitude (your usual)?” 

She knows us well as we go twice a week; three chocolate bien cuit for me and three nature for Sam. Well, that’s the past few months anyway. Sam does change – sometimes he wants citron for a few months or orange. On rare occasions almond or rhum raisin. The chocolat has big chunks of dark chocolate, the nature is just perfect, almost vanilla. There’s praline, amande, orange, citron, rhum raisin. They’re sort of like little pound cakes but better!

Six for 3€ or thirteen for 6€. They come in a little brown bag or you can get a box of 20 for 10€. And you can mix and match the flavors. They also have delicious canelés bordelais and macaroons (different from the macarons you see at patisseries).

-You can eat them stale a few days later. It’s Proustian when dipped in tea!
-You can order boxes for pick-up days in advance if you like, I often do so for out of town guests.
-You can freeze them and they taste almost as good.
There are special flavors at Christmas – we still have: bourbon vanilla, amarena/griotte, chocolate chunk/orange, chestnut cream in our freezer right now.

Yasmina, Olivia and Barbara are the people at the counter. All are very sympa.

Details: They are open Tuesdays-Saturdays at 10 am and sell-out of certain flavors (chocolat!) sometimes by noon on Saturdays, I’ve noticed. 4 rue Gaston de Saporta

-Susan & Sam Gish