La Cure Gourmande

The 'Cure Gourmande' franchise In Strasbourg has become very famous and you will also know it as the 'biscuit shop next to the cathedral.

The Cure Gourmande is a French chain of biscuit and other sweet product franchises, which has locations all over France and in other parts of the world. This shop stands out for its selection of biscuits, the gift boxes and its fairy tale decoration in which detail, colours and an artisan atmosphere dominate.

This chain of sweets has the following products in its shops:

• Biscuits in bags or by weight in several flavours: Vanilla, almond, lemon, orange, strawberry, chocolate, dulce de leche, coconut, etc.



• Chocolate olives covered in coloured sugar.
• Sweets in boxes, no loose ones.
• Artisan lollipops in several flavours: lemon, orange, chocolate, strawberry, etc.
• And nougat, caramels, marzipan... Additionally, according to the time of year, there are even traditional, seasonal products, such as chocolate rabbits in Easter or marzipan at Christmas.

These products come with special packaging or if you purchase a large quantity, they come in a rather pretty metal box which means it can normally be a gift (that we all have in mind once we're aware of the shop).

The Cure Gourmande has shops in the following locations in the world: in Spain (in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Toledo, Zaragoza and Palma de Mallorca), in Belgium (in Bruges and Brussels), in Germany (in Berlin and Dusseldorf), in Canada (in Montreal), in Kazakhstan (Almaty), in the Arab Emirates (in Abu Dhabi and Dubai) and in many of the French cities (Marseilles, Nice, Paris, etc. ). This is lucky for us since if you don't come to Strasbourg but go to any of these cities, you can go there and try its famous biscuits.

I knew this shop before I came to Strasbourg and it wasn't that I saw it in another city. It wasn't that but otherwise that before I left for Erasmus, I saw the episode of 'Murcianos por el Mundo en Estrasburgo' in which a girl taught me of the shop and since then, I haven't stopped dreaming of it until seeing it in person.

I don't class the service in this particular shop as very friendly. It didn't give me the feeling of being welcome, even when I bought a product. In any case, there are times I prefer them not to bother me, rather than being too nice when I'm buying. A point in its favour is that there are times they do biscuit tastings in the shop but whenever I've seen the tastings, they've been same - those of biscuits and chocolate but I used to love it because they're my favourites.

They have an online shop that offers home delivery and to continue with the Cure Gourmande line, they can send your little box or special package to you.

In my opinion, you have to go into the shop at least once in your life; be it in Strasbourg or in another city. It's a shop with a lot of charm, where you'll get a terrible desire to eat biscuits and it's worth visiting it because it's different. However, when I finally decided to buy a selection of biscuits (I took a while in deciding because the prices are somewhat expensive), I was a little disappointed as the biscuits were good, but not as much so as they seemed. In fact, I didn't like some of those I tried. Truthfully, they were tiresome to eat and I ended up throwing away some pieces. If I go back to buy biscuits there, they will only be the ones that I tried in the shop which are normal biscuits and chocolate. Regarding the sweets and other products, I can't give an opinion as I haven't tried them but they look really good.

If you want high quality, artisan Alsation biscuits, there are many other shops in the city which aren't as well known but offer better products, such as the 'Maison Alsacienne'.

The stores opening hours are from Sunday to Thursday, from 10am until 8pm and they extend the hours from 10am until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Although you think they shut early, not at all. Most of the Strasbourgs' shops shut at half 6 or 7pm.

In order to get to this shop, you have to go to the street that goes down from the Place Gutenberg, towards to main façade of the cathedral. The tram stop that gets you the closest would be the Homme de Fer and you can catch any tram line as all the tram lines in Strasbourg go here.