Ah, Bread

A day without bread, at least here in Paris is, unthinkable. The French are completely fanatical about it - Parisian’s buy bread as often as three times a day; you can’t use the term boulangerie unless the bread conforms to specific criteria and is made on the premises and the varieties of baguettes alone can boggle the mind (with every term strictly regulated e.g ancienne, traditionelle, bio). No one ever eats day-old bread, or even left-overs from breakfast. Paul is in bread ‘seventh heaven’.

Morning, noon and night, men and women, young and old, head home with long loaves of bread. There’s no bag, instead, an expertly twisted square of paper is wrapped around the middle for you to hold. There are so many types of bread Chris usually looks at what’s available and points! We’ve had some wonderful surprises. Sometimes not, but there’s always tomorrow and another shop just around the corner!

Here on the Ile Saint Louis, we have three boulangeries within a couple of blocks of the apartment. Paul’s favorite bakery, named “Paul” is a little further, but I expect we’ll find ourselves there often. While they can’t claim the boulangerie description, the bread and pastries are exceptional and we just love their sandwiches for lunch – they understand that a sandwich is about the bread, not the filling.

Paul & Christina
September 28, 2006h