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The Art of Making Memories
The Proust phenomenon or Madeleine Moment. A Madeleine Moment is a spontaneous and vivid memory that is easily retrieved and trigged by a taste. (From “In Search of the Lost Time” by Marcel Proust)
You would think that macarons from Laduree would trigger memories from my childhood or at least from my home country France but it actually doesn’t. It reminds me of China (& also Norway). Wait, what??!
J. would bring me back a box of Macarons from Laduree each time he would flight to Paris on a business trip. There is a Laduree shop conveniently located next to the international departure gate at Charles de Gaulle’s Airport so it’s not like he had to cross Paris from east to west to get them 😉.
This was my little treat to make me feel better he got to go to Paris and I didn’t. It was especially appreciated on our first posting in Beijing when western food wasn’t yet easily available. I would cherish my box of 2 dozen macarons and reluctantly shared a few with the kiddos. Traditions continued when we were in Norway but because he traveled to Paris a lot more it became almost too common (so I would share my little macarons a lot more !!). We were back with the more occasional business trip to Paris on our second posting to Beijing but by then western cafe were everywhere.
When he arrived in Singapore last week I got my box of macarons from Laduree (I didn’t even ask for them) and all the memories came flooding back.