Afternoon Tea at Angelina Paris

Now we are into the new year and back to work, it feels like quite a while since our trip to Paris however I’m still thinking about it for many reasons. With the terror attacks happening during our stay, it was such surreal feeling – we literally didn’t know what to do with ourselves. However, after a couple of days hiding out in our hotel room, we decided to brave the outside world again and see some of Paris. Walking about, the city was a ghost town, most shops were closed, museums completely dark and closed for business, however the sun was shining and there were glimmers of hope that life was starting to begin again. Paris still looked just as beautiful. With the city mainly closed, the museums and the eiffel tower were out of the question, so we decided to go for Afternoon Tea at a beautiful, quaint tearoom called Angelina.

I later found out, that Angelina Paris was founded in 1903 by confectioner Antoine Rumplemayer and has since built a reputation in the city for being a place of sophistication and indulgence. It has since then been the place to be for Parisian aristocracy and some of the biggest names in fashion, such as Coco Chanel. Inside is lavishly furnished with elegant furniture, decorative watercolour murals, gold trimmings and afternoon tea served in delicate china.

We arrived around lunch time and luckily got a table straight away (I hear there can be quite a queue during busy times!). Sitting down in the Angelina tearoom was the first time we had truly relaxed since we heard the news of the terror attacks, it felt like a little piece of calm within the terrible storm we had been a part of. We sat down and promptly ordered a large glass of white wine each and it felt like my birthday celebrations had finally started to happen, albeit a little later than expected. Not wanting to over-do it on the sugar, we tucked into a lunch of fresh filled sandwiches and fries before moving on to the best bit….

I’d been told by numerous sources that Angelina is famous for their amazing ‘African Hot Chocolate’. I’m normally a coffee kind of girl, but I just had to give it a go. Mixed with three kinds of African cocoa, the famous hot chocolate is a secret recipe that has been served for over a hundred years and is the absolute peak of indulgence. The Angelina hot chocolate is the thickest, richest hot chocolate I have ever experienced, pouring it was like pouring liquid melted chocolate (with a shimmer of gold) into a cup and the smell, words can’t describe! If you are a chocolate lover it’s just absolute heaven. Taking a sip, the chocolate was rich, smooth and intense. There is a reason they serve you a carafe of water with your chocolate, it is just so rich you have to work at it slowly, however as hard work as it was…. I persevered 😉

If you didn’t think that was enough sugar for one day, we were also presented with a menu for the patisserie (including cute pictures of each of the delicate pastries to lure you in even further). How could we resist? So in the name of my 30^th birthday I decided to take indulgence to another level and ordered a tart as well. Tart Au Citron for me, and another of Angelina’s delicacies the Mont-Blanc for Vee.

We sat and sipped our hot chocolates and nibbled at our cakes as we finally began to unwind from the sheer horror of the previous couple of days. It was the best moment of pure escapism and indulgence I’ve had in a long time. I literally savoured each bite and felt so grateful to be able to be there.

If you are ever in the Paris, make sure you visit Angelina – you won’t regret it!