Pastry 101

Picture this: You fly all the way to Paris and you enter a French bakery and see an array of mouthwatering pastries in front of you. You know you want one but you need more information to select the right pastry for you. If someone could just tell you what was in them and what they were called, you would be in pastry heaven. Alas, you don’t speak French and even if you did the woman serving you is French and may be culturally opposed to helping you. Fortunately, you can choose and recognize French pastries without having studied abroad.

Let’s begin with the most simple one. The Croissant is essentially a crescent shaped roll. It is unadulterated bread and nothing fancy despite being being flaky, buttery, and delicious. Remember the croissant by its shape- crescent moon.  Crescent sounds like croissant. The croissant is where simple approaches sublime.

• croissant- kwa-ssah – crescent moon shaped – just bread

The next pastry is breakfast for chocolate lovers.  The Pain au Chocolat, or bread with chocolate in English, is not a chocolate croissant because it is not crescent shaped. It is a bread roll with two sticks of chocolate hidden inside. How can you recognize the shy Pain au Chocolat hiding its amazing filling among the other treats? If you examine the sides of the rolls, you will see the two sticks of chocolate peeking out and you have a winner.

• pain au chocolat- pan o sho ko lah- bread hiding sticks of chocolate inside

For those of us who like something more elaborate, there is the Pain aux Raisins- bread with raisins. This one is easy to recognize for a couple of reasons, 1. you can see the raisins on top and 2. it is round.

pain aux raisins – pan o ray-zahn- round raisiny bread

There is a final alternative:

You may have heard that French women don’t get fat. They also don’t eat many pastries.

The last, sad choice is not to eat a crescent shaped croissant, a pain au chocolat that almost hides its chocolate center, or a round, raisiny pain aux raisins although I wouldn’t recommend it.

Best Bakery in Paris – Macarons: Laduree vs Pierre Herme

Macarons are among the most indulgent Parisian sweet treats.  They are divine little baked sandwiches composed of two delicate halves whose texture lies somewhere between meringue and dense biscuit filled with jam or creamy spread.  The classic flavors are caramel, pistachio, chocolate, vanilla and raspberry, but more exotic variations can be found from rose to foie-gras.  While they are available in many patisseries in Paris, two establishments in particular have built their stellar reputations on their macarons.

Laduree is a venerable institution which first introduced macaroons in 1893.  While the macarons are their signature dessert, Laduree also makes beautiful cakes of all varieties which they serve in a handful of ornate tea rooms in Paris. For take-out, the treats come packaged in pastel and gold boxes which are works of art themselves.  The picturesque cakes and macaroons in Sofia Coppola’s film, Marie Antoinette, were made by Laduree and the patisserie even released some special edition flavors to commemorate the opening of the film.

Pierre Herme is Laduree’s esteemed, if much younger, rival.  Despite his renown today for fabulously “French” pastries, Pierre Herme actually opened his first boutique in Tokyo in 2001. Bringing a Japanese aesthetic and following with him, he made a splash in Paris by offering macarons in a dizzying range of colors and flavors including a bright red, gold dusted, foie-gras flavored Christmas special.  Pierre Herme is largely responsible for the recent macarons renaissance.

Both Laduree’s classic macarons and Pierre Herme’s zanier varieties are delectable.  The classic grande dame Laduree and the adventurous upstart Pierre Herme have outposts on rue Bonaparte in St Germain des Pres in easy walking distance of each other.  The geographic proximity invites a taste test and as the macarons are quite small, a sampling of 4-6 is an ideal accompaniment to afternoon tea.  While Pierre Herme is take-out only, Laduree also serves a luxurious afternoon tea in their tea room.  It is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon after a long walk or a visit to the nearby Musee d’Orsay but it can be quite expensive and often requires a waiting for a table.  Alternatively, buy the macarons at the counter and bring them back to your apartment or, even better, enjoy them while sitting on the quais while people-watching.

Should you wish to bring a taste of Paris back home, they also make a wonderful Parisian gift and keep well on long plane journeys plus an extra day or two in the fridge.

Ladurée Bonaparte
21 rue Bonaparte-75006 Paris
Tel : 01.44.07.64.87
Open every day from 8.30am to 7.30pm
On Saturdays from 8.30am to 8.30pm. On Sundays from 10am to 7.30pm

Pierre Hermé
72, rue Bonaparte-75006 PARIS
Tel : 01. 43. 54. 47. 77
Open every day from 10am to 7pm
On Saturdays until 7:30pm

A Rainy (or Overcast) Day Delight, Cinema in St-Germain des Pres:

The weather forecast is gray and I am a weather wimp.  One option is to grab a coat and some practical shoes and tough out the inclement weather.  A better choice is to accept that gray or rainy days are not the best time for outdoor adventures and revel in Paris’ accessible and spontaneous indoor pleasures.  One of the most indulgent habits I have acquired in Paris is the expectation that no matter the weather or the circumstance,  and with virtually no advance planning or reservations, the city will never fail to provide entertainment and gustatory delights.

One such sure thing is watching a film at an independent cinema like one of the Action theaters on the Left Bank.  The French love the cinema and have a particular reverence for classic and foreign films.  They also have a wonderful tradition of celebrating the cinema through themed mini-festivals.  In Paris, a few old independent cinemas in the 5th and 6th arrondissements, change their thematic programming on a weekly basis.  The salles (theaters) themselves are tiny and still have the red velvet chairs of bygone eras.  They resemble private screening rooms more than modern cineplexes.  An afternoon ensconced in a cushy armchair with three dozen other cinephiles is the ideal way to spend a rainy matinée, afternoon or evening.  All the films are shown in the original language (usually English) with French subtitles.

This week’s festivals include the Seven Year Itch as part of a Billy Wilder retrospective at

ACTION CHRISTINE
4, rue Christine
75006 Paris
Tél. : 01 43 25 85 78
Métro : Odéon, Saint-Michel.

As well as, To Catch a Thief with Cary Grant, during the Cary Grant festival at

ACTION ÉCOLES
23, rue des Écoles
75005 Paris
Tél. : 01 43 25 72 07
Métro : Maubert-Mutualité, Jussieu.

This week’s programming  http://www.actioncinemas.com/semainedu07.html.

N.B. The Action cinemas are particularly recommendable in the rain as they are easily accessible from the metro, which is the best transportation option in bad weather. It is typically very difficult to get a taxi in Paris on a rainy day.

Bridge Moments

There is an expression that you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.  For most people, the logic that applies to “family” in this context, also applies to “hometown.” You can choose your vacation spots or attempt an attractive relocation, but home will always be home. Home is tied to family, to childhood, and most importantly, to identity. It is often the place you grew up and the unique place where you belong.

Restless expats are the rare and curious exception to this rule: they find their sense of belonging elsewhere. As an expat, I chose Paris not as my friend or as a vacation spot but as my home and life partner.  And so after years of dating, I married Paris and made her my family.

This blog is a tribute to my love and my home. I hope to share my vision of Paris through this blog and reveal a few of the countless moments that make the city of lights so magical.

It is superficial but true; first and foremost, I fell in love Paris for her beauty.  From the venerable architecture imbued with history to the meticulously landscaped parks and the river flowing through her center, Paris is a feast for the eyes. Rushing through the city on a busy workday, I continue to have moments when I feel compelled to slow down for a moment to let Paris’ splendor wash over me.

The most powerful and poignant moments occur on Paris’ bridges, where her visual magic is nothing short of arresting.  They are the best in the evening, walking back over the river on Pont Neuf from a dinner in St Germain to my apartment in the Marais. Suspended in the very center of Paris on a centuries-old stone arch over the river Seine, with an unbeatable view of Paris’ neighborhoods in front of me, I fall in love all over again.