The first thing we ate in Paris were pastries. After checking into our Airbnb, we walked down the street toward the Opera and the Galleries Lafayette and stopped at the first good looking boulangerie we saw: Jean Nöel Julien. We bought a lemon meringue tart, a canelle, and a long eclair with Chantilly cream and strawberries.
I missed the memo that we were all supposed to make Ina Garten's flag cake for 4th of July this year. I went rogue and made a trifle, though funnily enough, I did use her flag cake recipe for part of it. A note about the cake: I reduced her recipe by a 1/3 and it still made way more than I needed, so I have reduced the amount made here to 1/2. You'll probably still have leftovers. (oh no, that would be terrible)
On our recent trip to Paris I made a point to try as coffee shops as possible. I love good coffee and I had fun finding third wave coffee shops in Italy, and there were so many more in Paris!