Maison Méert is one of the oldest French pastry shops still in operation. Their original location in Lille dates back to 1761, when it was opened by a chocolatier. In 1849 Michael Paulus Gislinus Méert took over the business and developed the recipe for their famous gaufres using Madagascar vanilla, and the rest is history. These small waffles have a huge reputation: King Leopold, Charles de Gaulle, and Winston Churchill, among others, are said to have been huge fans. The highly-valued recipe remains unchanged today.
They now have more locations, including two shops in Paris, which are supplied by daily deliveries from the Lille location. The one I visited on a street corner in the Marais is really charming, with vintage touches throughout—you really feel transported to a different era.
Their gaufres, which means “waffles”, are very different from ordinary waffles. They consist of two thin waffle layers sandwiching a filling of sweet vanilla filling. The recipe is now public: they’re formed from a brioche dough that is briefly placed in a waffle iron before being cut open lengthwise and filled with a mixture of butter, sugar, and vanilla. This YouTube video shows a brief clip of how they’re constructed.
Their gaufres come in boxes of 6 for 18,50 € (or 29,00 € for a box of 12 vanilla ones). They also sell them by the piece in the Paris shops, but these are the same as those packaged in the boxes since they’re premade in Lille rather than freshly on the spot.
A first observation is that the packaging is quite nice. Each stack of 6 gaufres is wrapped in parchment paper and foil before being placed in a light card stock box. The package feels surprisingly sturdy and heftier than expected. The gaufres are at room temperature and are best consumed within 10 days of purchase: I visited on October 5 and the ones I received had “best by October 15” stamped on the bottom. (Note: This post was written several days after the gaufres were consumed, so they were nowhere near expiration when I tried them.)
The underside of the boxes lists some information about the gaufres. As you can see, the classic vanilla ones have a very simple ingredients list: sugar, butter, flour, eggs, salt, and Madagascar vanilla.
In addition to the classic Madagascar vanilla, their other flavors include raspberry, pistachio, Speculoos, lemon & citrus, and adorably-named seasonal EphéMéert variants. As the three different boxes above suggest, I tried three flavors:
La gaufre à la vanille de Madagascar
The gaufres à la vanille are the classic vanilla waffles at Méert. The gaufres are very flat and thin, and they’re pretty greasy to the touch. The waffles themselves not sweet in flavor but instead very buttery both in taste and touch. The texture isn’t crispy like most waffles, nor is it soft and fluffy: instead, it’s somewhat dry, firm, and almost clammy. They are very thin compared to the thick layer of filling.
The filling is very sweet and has a strong vanilla scent, with some vanilla bean seeds interspersed throughout. The texture is very grainy from a high amount of undissolved sugar crystals, which is probably intentional but I personally really did not enjoy it: the granules were both texturally and audibly very apparent, and eating the filling reminded me of very sweet, grainy buttercream.
As you can see in the above photo, the waffle layers are very thin compared to the amount of filling. So the effect of the vanilla gaufre as a whole is very, very sweet.
La Gaufre Citron & Agrumes
I tried the lemon and citrus gaufres at the recommendation of the shop attendant. The texture of the waffles and filling was the same as in the vanilla variant, with the only difference being the flavor of the filling.
This lemon and citrus filling was the least sweet of the three flavors I tried: quite tart with some bitter and floral notes from the other citrus fruits added. There are still a few vanilla bean flecks inside vanilla fragrance is not obviously as strong as in the vanilla gaufres: this filling also contains candied lemon, lemon powder, lime powder, grapefruit powder, and mandarin powder. These types of dehydrated fruit powders frequently contain other additives such as citric acid, ascorbic acid, etc., but I don’t know what kind of poudre Méert uses.
La Gaufre Pistache & Griottes
The final flavor I tried was the the pistachio- and sour cherry-flavored gaufres. These were filled with a buttery pistachio paste interspersed with small pieces of cherry gelée; there’s no vanilla in this filling.
Compared to the other two flavors, this one was the best: the filling was smoother, creamier, and less greasy in texture, and it wasn’t as grainy. It’s still quite sweet though not as much as the vanilla, and it has a pronounced pistachio flavor from the generous use of pistachio paste. The tart cherry gelée pieces also help balance the sweetness, but they aren’t evenly interspersed throughout the gaufres, as pictured below. Still, the texture of the waffles in this one was not pleasant.
In summary, I am not a fan of Méert’s gaufres: I found them overly sweet and with a very unpleasant texture. The price point is also exceedingly high, especially compared to more elaborate and involved pastries sold elsewhere (e.g. one box of 6 gaufres ≤ 2.5 pastries at basically any pâtisserie). However, they are beloved by many locals and tourists alike, so there is presumably a reason for their popularity other than their history—maybe they just weren’t for me.
Méert (Marais location)
16 Rue Elzevir
75003 Paris, France
+33 1 49 96 56 90
https://www.meert.fr/
Hours:
Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday–Friday: 10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m., 2-7:30 p.m.
Saturday: 10:30 a.m.–7:30 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m.–1 p.m., 2-6:30 p.m.
Will Travel for Snacks 