On Saturday, my friend Siobhan and I decided to spend our Valentine’s Day at a Macaron and Mews tour of London. We met up with Yannick, our tour guide, outside the Lanesborough Hotel at 2. It was Valentine’s Day so we were the only non-couple there besides another girl so that was fun. She is traveling Europe and is from DC so it was nice to have another American in the group! There was also a very cute and incredibly well-behaved baby. The tour itself was great. I love nothing more than finding hidden corners of London and French pastries so this tour was right up my alley.
The tour took us around Belgravia and Knightsbridge, where we learnt about the history of the area and also went exploring the mews, which are houses converted from the former stables of the large houses. Let me just say that I found so many dream homes. And ate five delicious macarons. I highly recommend taking the tour. You’ll definitely go exploring through the mews and see parts of London that you never knew existed. And, you’ll fall in love with all the cute little houses. Check out some photos from it below!
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| Luxembourg Embassy |
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| Our first mews. How expensive do you think they are considering all the fancy cars?? Totally affordable right? |
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| Obsessed. |
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| I want a vine covered house |
The Grenadier (pictured below) was originally built in 1720 as the Officers Mess for the First Royal Regiment of the Foot Guards. It became The Guardsman Public House in 1818. It was frequented by the Duke of Wellington and King George IV. Today, it is known as one of England’s most haunted pubs because of a a young grenadier named Cedric who got caught cheating during a game of cards. Legend has it that his friends beat him to death as a punishment and then threw him out of the window. Today, people pay homage to his spirit by putting money on the ceiling. A sign by the side door states “it is house policy that all customers should be suitably dressed. Persons wearing overalls or soiled clothes will not be served”. Who knew overalls were still a thing…
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| Such a great entrance! |
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| Why are the mews houses all so cute?! |
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| This was the pub that my parents and I went to over Christmas break. So cool to stumble upon it again!! |
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| Dream: to one day have a cute little door to my home. |
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| A cool map of London. It even shows the old river that ran into the Thames. You can see Hyde Park & Regents Park! |
The Pantechnicon building was built in 1830 as a bazaar and this facade was the only part of the building that wasn’t destroyed in a fire in 1874. It now houses retail and restaurants.
Our first macaron stop was Pierre Hermé. He began his career at the age of 14 and has been called the “Picasso of Pastry. And man do I agree. The other pastries in the store looked phenomenal and the macarons were delicious and fluffy. I got vanilla (I know I played it safe, but I just love vanilla) and it was a really intense flavour. They had so many other flavours, some normal, some really interesting. I definitely want to go back. Perhaps when I’m in Paris again… :)
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| Julian Assange’s home! Yay Ecuador and the £9 million it takes to police the embassy! |
When we were in Harrods, we went to our final three macaron places. The first two were William Curley and La Maison du Chocolat. I got raspberry from the former and pistachio from the latter. Unfortunately, they both contained chocolate in the centre (sinful) so I could only eat the edges but the edges were good!
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| #obsessed with these stairs |
If you’re in London and want an excuse to eat French pastries and walk around some hidden parts of the area, check out this tour. Yannick is a great guide. Very entertaining and informative. Plus, for a 2.5 hour tour including 5 macarons for £20, how could you resist?! Walks like these just make me fall in love with London even more!
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