THE POWER OF SWEETS: Those who didn’t manage to get tickets for Céline Dion’s residency in Paris this fall can console themselves with sweets.
Pastry chef Pierre Hermé collaborated with the Canadian superstar on limited-edition gift boxes of macarons, the eight flavors personally selected by her.
“Caramel has always been my little guilty pleasure since childhood, a comforting and indulgent flavor that instantly takes me back to my sweetest early memories,” Dion said in a press release issued Friday for the range of macarons, dubbed Infinitely Céline.
Indeed, caramel recurs in a second macaron combined with passion fruit, the singer describing the contrasting yet complimentary flavors.
According to Hermé, “pastry, like music, has the power to evoke emotions and awaken memories.”
The gift boxes, priced at 25 euros for four and 38 euros for eight, go on sale Sept. 3 at a dedicated pop-up store at Galeries Lafayette’s flagship on Boulevard Haussmann, before rolling out on Sept. 11 to all Pierre Hermé boutiques in Paris.
Galeries Lafayette is among retailers that stand to benefit from the “Celine Dion effect” this fall amid 166 landmark concerts at Paris La Défense Arena.
“This is going to be a major event for us,” Selvane Mohandas du Ménil, managing director of the International Association of Department Stores, told WWD earlier this year, calculating that roughly half a million people are poised to attend.
Governmental agency Choose Paris Region has estimated that Dion’s landmark engagement — which falls more than two years after her riveting comeback performance during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games — should inject between 200 million and 400 million euros into the French economy, not including ticket sales.
