There are a few things you absolutely have to eat in Paris—wine and cheese, obviously, but also escargots, crème brulée, and macarons. (And one thing to avoid: the dreaded andouillette.) Colin and I have definitely done our part to support the French economy with our consumption of the first two, but somehow we made it nearly six months without buying macarons.

I know—quelle horreur!

To be honest, the reason was that I wanted to save our euros for the good stuff: although you can buy macarons in just about any corner boulangerie, I wanted ours to come from Ladurée, and those name-brand cookies don’t come cheap. (Six for 17€.) That’s a little pricey, but Colin had never had a macaron before and I wasn’t about to risk a bad first impression.

So about a week ago we wandered over to our neighborhood Ladurée store (NOT the Champs-Élysées one; we’re not insane) and picked out six dainty little cookies. Then we walked to the river, comme d’habitude, and laid out our picnic of sweets.

The verdict: Colin loved them. I did, too.

We chose strawberry vanilla, chocolate, orange blossom, cherry, rose, and pistachio. I’d highly, HIGHLY recommend pistachio and cherry (a seasonal flavor); less so, orange blossom and rose—both were too perfumey for my taste.

Anyway, I’m thrilled to announce that now that Colin is officially a macaron fan, we are saving up for a trip to Ladurée’s rival macaron-maker, Pierre Hermé. My mouth can’t wait, but my wallet insists that it must. I’ll report back.