Hardly anyone in Paris makes croissants any more. I learn this startling - not
to say disturbing - fact from Christophe Vasseur, passionate pâtissier and
proprietor of Du Pain et des Idées, a mouthwatering bakery in the 10th whose
Belle Époque decor pales in comparison with his splendid produce.
For the past six years he has been producing artisanal breads and pastries
using the finest - and simplest - ingredients. A chausson aux pommes is
often a tedious affair: stodgy, oversweet pastry filled with something that
resembles mealy apple jam. Not here. The light pastry encloses a heart of
pure apple.
A speciality is brioche la mouna, its golden crust topped with sugar crystals
and the tender, yellow dough scented with orange-flower water.
Vasseur has become most renowned, however, in the past three years for his
pain des amis, a nutty, robust bread with a crackling crust and an open
texture that the great chef Alain Passard recently pronounced the best he
had ever eaten.
I'm here thanks to Jamie Cahill, whose clever little book The Pâtisseries of
Paris has sent me in search of some of the treasures she picks out.
Vasseur's place is, unsurprisingly, one her top picks - and one that clearly
does a roaring trade despite being open only on weekdays.
Vasseur gave up a life in business to devote himself to bread; in discussing
France's relationship with pastry, he recounts a familiar postwar story of a
creative profession destroyed by the need for cheaper, faster food.
Even now, with a renewed interest in “real” food, it's hard to learn the trade
properly; the course to become a pâtissier, he tells me, no longer includes
what is known as “tournier”, the art of making pastry for croissants.
Why? Because it's so easy to buy the dough frozen; everyone does it. He tells
me that while there are 1,300 bakeries in Paris, only 3 per cent make their
own croissants.
It's hard work trawling the City of Light for the best pastry on offer, but it
was a task I was willing to undertake on your behalf. It's not as tough, of
course, as actually being a pâtissier, so that's something. We're not
staying in the funky 10th but in the elegant 6th; the bijou Hotel Artus is
tucked into the Rue du Buci, just around the corner from
Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Down the block we find Le Bonbonnière de Buci, presided over by Pierre
Marandon and his wife, Edith. It's a compliment, I promise you, to say that
M. Marandon's enthusiasm, beaming smile and apron-clad girth call to mind
Auguste Gusteau, the inspiring chef in Ratatouille.
Work starts here at 3am, and at noon the flour-dusted kitchens are still a
hive of industry. Marandon's speciality is the millefeuille, crisp pastry
layers filled with cream.
Every day there are three different parfums on offer - the day we visit, the
choice is vanilla, Grand Marnier or praline... it's hard not to try them
all, and I'm almost glad not to be here at the weekend when the full choice
of 11 flavours is available.
The Marandons have been here for nearly two decades; their place isn't grand,
but isn't it strange how you can always tell when a shop - and its owner -
has heart? Of his dedication to his craft M.Marandon says simply: “C'est mon
métier” - which means, it's my job, or my profession, but also has a
connotation of vocation.
I suppose that once you might have found the same at Ladurée. Yes, it's true
that there are few things more lovely than one of its delicate macaroons,
but lately there is an assembly-line feel to it - and since when did it
become necessary for a pâtisserie to promote a line of toiletries?
Cahill's book is Paris-wide; but if you are in the 6th, as we were, it would
be easy enough to eat along with her for a few days and never leave the
neighbourhood.
One of my son Theo's favourite playgrounds is in the Jardin du Luxembourg, a
perfect combination of state-of-the-art and old-fashioned play equipment
(the carousel goes round very fast, indeed, and riders are given a stick to
try to catch a sneakily small brass ring).
Why not pick up an opéra - almond cake, coffee cream, chocolate - from
Dalloyau while you watch your boy ride? I did. Or, in more austere mood,
collect a chewy loaf from Poilâne, not so far away?
If you are done with playgrounds, and fancy a proper lunch, there are simple
and elegant snacks in Matteo and Paula (which has changed its name from Le
Confiturier); its charcuterie plates and tartelettes will please the
grown-ups; Theo was happy with the simplest and loveliest pizza imaginable.
Too much pastry: too little time. But the pleasure of Paris is to visit and
revisit. Next time I'll make sure to find my way to Pain de Sucre, in the
3rd - in part because it is famous for its guimauves (isn't that a better
word than marshmallow?), my husband's favourite, but mainly because it was
the especial recommendation of the remarkable Christophe Vasseur.
NEED TO KNOW
Eurostar (08705 186 186, www.eurostar.com)
has return fares to Paris from £59. Rooms at the Hotel Artus (00 33 1 4329
0720, www.artushotel.com) cost from
£198, based on two sharing.
Read The Pâtisseries of Paris, by Jamie Cahill (The Little Bookroom, £7.99)
Sweet stops
Du Pain et des Idées, 34 rue Yves Toudic, 10th (www.dupainetdesidees.com)
Le Bonbonnière de Buci, 12 rue de Buci, 6th (www.bonbonnieredebuci.com)
Ladurée Bonaparte, 21 Rue Bonaparte, 6th (www.laduree.fr)
Dalloyau, 2 place Edmond-Rostand, 6th (www.dalloyau.fr)
Poilâne, 8 rue du Cherche-Midi, 6th (www.poilane.fr)
Matteo and Paula, 20 rue du Cherche-Midi, 6th
