Madeleine de Proust, c’est une madeleine trempée dans du thé qui permet à Proust de revivre un fragment de son enfance. Et donc, in extenso, quand on retrouve un goût, une odeur, une impression etc., qui nous fait penser à notre enfance, paf ! On parle d’une Madeleine de Proust.

Proust’s Madeleine, a madeleine dipped in tea which permits Proust to relive a fragment of his childhood. And so, in extenso, when one retrieves a taste, a smell, an impression etc., which makes us think of our childhood, paf! We’re talking about Proust’s Madeleine.


From the charming blog of a Parisienne named Deedee (http://deedeeparis.com/)

Beau and I have discovered madeleines, those wonderful cakey-cookies that, when dipped in his tea, served Marcel Proust as a memory trigger in Remembrance of Times Past (A La Recherche du Temps Perdu)
I find them to be food for thought, since I am writing a memoir, but also food for food’s sake, as when you’re holed up in a tent in the rain and you can’t cook anything.
Beau likes them because they are what I am eating.