When it comes to French food, I have simple tastes. I don’t crave fancy foods. I’m happy with bread, cheese, quiches (savoury pies), viennoiseries such as pains aux raisins or chaussons aux pommes (apple turnovers) or simple pastries such as flans.
Nantes has several famous and fancy pâtissiers, such as Debotté or Carli. Their shops are fascinating, with elaborated colourful pastries on display. Frankly, I think sticking a spoon into these art pieces is a crime. Sure, the mousse might be delicious and the chocolate coating is probably just sweet enough… but can you imagine the tedious work involved in each pastry?
I already find bakers are masochists. I mean, they wake up at dawn to bake loaves and loaves of bread, roll croissants into perfect half-moons and stick chocolate into sweet bread—and they do it every single morning, all over again. But pastry chefs take masochism to a whole different level, crafting these fancy yet ephemeral treats.
These days, Mark has a chocolate-smeared face on half of the pictures because he discovered les boulangeries and loves his daily treat. Like every French kid, he unfolds the dough of his pain au chocolat to eat the chocolate first and he complains loudly if I buy something without a sweet filling. A piece of brioche without chocolate chips? Quelle horreur!
J’adore la France pour ça, les pâtisseries 🙂 Qu’est-ce que c’est beau et en plus c’est très bon!! à Ottawa avec notre boulangerie-Patisserie de provence au Byward Market on est proches mais pas exactement là… j’en bave rien qu’à y penser… #dentsucree
J’aime pas le Moulin de provence… je trouve le service vraiment désagréable et les prix trop élevés pour la qualité. Ou je suis difficile…? Je préfère Planet Coffee!
Your post just gave me a craving for something sweet! Lately, it’s been so so hard not to buy a dessert with strawberries on it. I adore the fruit so much!
Me too! It feels fresh during summer too. Apricots are my favourite.
I should steer away my boyfriend from French bakeries, then. He is such a foodie that all he wanted to do while we were in Tuscany last March was eat!
I like him already 🙂
Great pictures, great post! I’m personally a sucker for brioche.
Same here, especially toasted with a bit of salted butter 🙂
PASTRIES. One of my favorite things about France. Eclairs are not the same in the States.
Those unbaked pains au chocolat look funny!
I know! I wonder is the raw dough is good, like cookie dough…
Hummm, je vais prendre un pain au chocolat et une boîte de macarons stp! 😀
Tu dois trouver ça par chez toi aussi, non?
Mmmmh.
C´est quoi le truc jaune avec une framboise et un morceau de citron au-dessus ? j´en prendrais 2.
Je sais même pas en fait… trop cher!
Hmmm yum looking at these pastries are making hungry !!! French pastries are the best !
I agree!
Pastry heaven!
🙂
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