Le Meurice

Le Meurice on the rue de Rivoli is the home of Cédric Grolet’s trompe-l’œil fruit: a palace where the pastry counter on the rue de Castiglione has become a destination in its own right.

The oldest palace in Paris faces the Tuileries and has always been a hotel of artists: Salvador Dalí lived here for a month every year, and the restaurant Le Dalí under the Philippe Starck ceiling is named after him. Since 2013 the pastry kitchen has belonged to Cédric Grolet, whose sculpted fruit, a lemon that opens on a lemon cream, a hazelnut that is a praline, made him the most followed pastry chef in the world. Afternoon tea is served in Le Dalí, with the fruit as the centrepiece, and at the Restaurant Le Meurice Alain Ducasse the desserts close the menu.

In 2018 the hotel opened La Pâtisserie du Meurice par Cédric Grolet on the rue de Castiglione side: a small counter with a queue, a limited number of pieces per day and a boutique that sells out by early afternoon. The Opéra boutique on the avenue de l’Opéra followed in 2019 with croissants and the flower tarts; the rue de Castiglione counter remains the one attached to the palace kitchen.