Bread
I wasn’t going to write a new blog for today but I changed my mind as I was out running some errands. Yesterday a dear friend of mine from Pittsburgh, Kevin, sent me an article about the best pastries in Paris. I cannot argue with the list but I could certainly add to it!!! Baked goods are absolutely fabulous in France. BREAD, my topic for today, is taken very seriously here. Baguette is almost certainly universally known, I would guess, but my personal favorite is the Tradition. It looks similar to the baguette in shape and size but is a tiny bit darker in color with a rougher appearance. The texture is a chewier center with a very crusty exterior, but the flavor… I can’t describe it. I could eat the entire thing with a hunk of cheese washed down with copious amounts of red wine and call it dinner. You can’t get bread like this anywhere else except France. It’s the best bread in the world in my opinion… There I said it. Fight me!
You have to go the bakery daily to get this kind of bread. There is a cute boulangerie around the corner that has morphed into a cafe. Their baked goods have gotten progressively better although they’ve always had delicious cakes. Either myself or Pierre visits them on a daily basis for one thing or another. They bake bread twice a day and often run out of our favorites. There is often a line to get inside. The young lady that sometimes waits on me always repeats my order back to me with a squint as if she doesn’t understand my American accented French. I know my French is not horrible since I shop, dine, take taxis etc every day without that same reaction. Perhaps she’s trying to shame me but I’d like to hear her speak English without a French accent. She’s never tried to speak English with me but I know I wouldn’t try to shame her if she did.
Back to the bread. Today I got one of the last 3 Tradition left at 3pm. I believe there will be another batch baked later today for the dinner rush since it’s Friday evening. I’m sure there will be a long line at 6 pm of people getting bread and choosing from the few remaining picked over pastries left in their case by that time. I’m serving our bread today along side my favorite homemade spaghetti and meatballs, and salad à la crème with a bit of French salted butter ( This is the coveted butter that all of my flight attendant friends buy in bulk and pack their suitcases wall to wall to take back to the US. I will blog about that on another day. And my flight attendant friends will definitely back me on that!)
Our meal is the perfect commentary on my French life. Life for me in Paris is a combination of all of my favorite things. It’s a mixture of what I’ve learned and what I have yet to learn. It’s a simple life, filled with mini daily adventures and some more eventful days tossed intermittently throughout. It’s kind of perfect really. its definitely delicious.
