Fantastic Food Features

C'est La Vie French Restaurant and Bakery

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On a recent adventure to Laguna Beach we went full tourist and spent an entire Sunday morning wandering from shop to shop, and gasp, even buying a few things! After gazing upon multiple surf and skateboards in places like Hobie and Quicksilver, pondering the never ending options of fabulous footwear in a peculiar sock store, and pondering some gigantic photographs for sale at a National Geographic gallery, my offspring proclaimed they were, "famished."

Feeling a bit peckish myself, their announcement put me in a bit of a predicament. You see, my palate is about as varied as the bacteria count in a public bathroom stall. I will quite literally try or eat almost anything edible. The children, however, are a touch more picky. My daughter is more food-venturish, but my son, he would live on blueberries and peanut butter quite happily. With a side of chicken strips and nacho cheese corn chips. I consulted my phone for dining establishments close in proximity to my close to hangry clan, and when I saw C'est La Vie, a French restaurant and bakery was only a few hundred feet from where we stood, I knew I had found a solution.

I wanted the kids to try something new, and I had a hankering to try some macarons, as I have never had a "real" macaron before. My son loves pancakes, and I thought he might dig some crepes. It seemed like a sound dining solution for us all.

This is what I saw when we walked through the door:

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My blogger self took over and I covertly began snapping pictures of the magnificent baked goods. I mean seriously my friends, those pastries cannot even be properly defined by the word gorgeous.

We were seated by some very fancily dressed funeral directors, er, butlers, er waiters and served with a sort of whirlwind efficiency that I kind of admired. As we were in the very bustling beach town of Laguna Beach, plunked in the middle of the very populated state of California, the restaurant was of course, incredibly busy. I loved watching the faces of my woods-dwelling kiddos as they took in the busy as a beehive in June scene.

The boy and I had crepes (blueberry lemon and chicken with spinach), my daughter had a cheeseburger and frites (fries), and my husband had a chicken curry of sorts. Everything that we were served was well prepared and tasty, but it was the dessert tray that was presented to us after our main course that was the special bit of the meal.

My girl and I each chose a macaron to sample, I got the salted caramel and she got a lavender cookie. My husband selected a caramel walnut tart, and my son, ever a dessert connoiseur, selected a raspberry and chocolate mousse torte.

Our table suddenly became a scene of dessert nirvana. My salted caramel macaron had a chewy crisp thing going for it with the most peculiar middle filling flavor, it wasn't overly sweet, and the caramel flavor shone through like a slap in the taste buds from Willy Wonka himself. The lavender macaron was such a delicately flavored creation, and both my daughter and I nibbled at the macaroons and giggled like we were at a fine tea party in some chateau in the French countryside.

It was, however, the boy's chocolate creation that we all enjoyed the most. In between slices of a very moist yet light chocolate cake were layers of a rich, decadent, not even close to sweet chocolate mousse. On top of this layered flavor sensation was a raspberry sauce that was the right level of sweetness to tie the whole dessert together, and it was served with a cup of vanilla ice cream and a cookie on the side. We all agreed that our son's dessert choice would become French Restaurant and Bakery souvenir memory legend, and we all still involuntarily drool when we think fondly of that raspberry amazingness!

The meal was our big splurge of the weekend, and let me tell ya, it was a costly diversion. But you know what? I always allot a bit of funds in our budget when traveling for doing something that we don't normally engage in. Eating at a French joint was totally in that category, and the kids are still bugging me to have crepe creation day, so I think the experience qualifies as a success.

I know Frere Jacques, but is there a French song for "I want to eat all the glorious pastry things?"

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And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's still pining for whatever that strawberry chocolate thing is iPhone.

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