Never befriend a baker
You'll know too much about croissants
Dear Friend,
It’s not often (for a human, at least) that your sense of smell makes you a new friend.
A couple of years ago I was walking through Square de Clignancourt, an elegant enclave behind the Montmartre hill comprising a small central park with a bandstand, playground and ornamental flowerbeds, ringed by a small road and hemmed in by some very elegant Belle-Epoque buildings, complete with grand Art Nouveau mouldings.
During the lockdown, this pretty spot, which was in the designated 1km radius permitted for outings, was a place of solace for me. I went for runs comprised of laps and laps around the dinky park, and I used to walk my then puppy around its perimeter too, enjoying the birdsong from its cluster of decades-old trees. During that time, commerces de bouche (‘mouth shops’) selling food items were considered ‘essentials’ (whether they sold fruits and vegetables, elaborate pastries, or even ice cream or snails) and a few times I would pop in, with my mask on of course, to La Boulangerie du Square, a bakery on the top corner of the square.
One day, at some point between lockdowns, but before the world was totally back to normal, I walked past the Boulangerie and smelled the unmistakable aroma of hot cross buns, a sweet spiced bread bun that we eat in the UK around Easter time. I believe that at the time, lockdown oblige, I hadn’t been back to the UK for over a year, and the smell of the hot cross buns was so overwhelmingly homely that I went inside without thinking twice.
The affable vendeuse (seller) explained that “oui” they did indeed have ‘ot croz bun’ because their baker is anglaise, “elle s’appelle Fran-chess”", they explained to me (Frances). I bought several of the buns and began greedily eating the first on my way out the shop. It was quite simply wonderful. The next time I went I passed my compliments to the chef and since then I have gone there regularly for bread and other delights.
Slowly over time, I got to know Frances — in fact it turned out she was friends with another local friend of mine. As we slowly started becoming more friendly, I didn’t tell her that I felt like I was befriending an admired celebrity, such was the status of her baked creations in my mind. As I started going more to the boulangerie, I also got to know their resident cat, Kimchi (named by their former baker who was Korean) and started looking out for their elaborate and often changing window displays. At Christmas I bought their exquisite mini yule logs, in January I tried their galette des rois, and of course at Easter time I bought piles of hot cross buns.
After 18 months out the country, I finally went back to the UK in the autumn of 2021 to attend my brother’s wedding. At the dinner, I was sat next to an old friend of my brother, a fellow Francophile, and we were chatting away about Paris. At some point, we began speaking about pastries and I told him that the best baker I knew in Paris was actually British. “That’s funny,” he said, “my best friend is a baker in Paris.” Well reader, it was the same person, Fran-chess herself! You can imagine my delight.
As the months have gone on, Frances and I have become pals and she gives me the inside scoop on both the neighbourhood gossip and the tricks of the trade.
Thanks to her, I now know that an almond pastry (croissant aux amandes) is in fact yesterday’s dry croissant steeped in marzipan syrup (it’s nonetheless quite delicious), while a chocolate almond pastry is yesterday’s pain au chocolat dipped in the almond syrup (again, with delicious results).
I also now know far too much about how much butter, sugar and chocolate go in to the French pastries we love so much.
I did also learn that boulangeries are only legally allowed to sell bread 6 days per week, in order to enshrine the baker’s time off. That explained for me why some bakeries refuse to serve bread on random days.
Today I spent my afternoon wandering with Frances around a local vide-grenier, or a kind of local jumble/yard sale, before stopping for lunch at a local café called Le Reinitas. It’s the kind of place where the owners know every generation of the local families and where you’ll find a gang of older lads propped up at the bar from about 12pm onwards on any given day.
This evening we ate at an excellent local bar/restaurant called Supercoin that serves gourmet sandwiches in the evening made with Frances’ bread. It was a delightful and delicious Sunday, which I would never have experienced without the smell of those hot cross buns.
Thirty-second book club
This week I’ve been reading Une histoire du conflit politique (A history of political conflict) by economist couple Julia Cagé and Thomas Piketty, a book so thick (about 1000 pages or so) that it’s impractical to take around with me. If you read my letters closely, you’ll remember I’ve been trying to gently increase my knowledge of economics. This book maps economic data from the French Revolution until now, such as the distribution of wealth and income in different kinds of place (town, suburb, bourg and village) and in different parts of the country at different times. It then also (I haven’t got there yet) will do the same for voting data and using this in-depth study will draw conclusions about the different kinds of voters and what motivates them. Already the authors are making the point that people are not necessarily socially divided by the lines we might think (city vs. rural, for example). This is what I’ve gathered so far, anyway. I will see how the book develops as it goes along.
Alongside this, I wanted to be reading a novel, so I’ve just started Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. I read the American writer’s earlier novel The Secret History when I was younger and recall it being absolutely immaculately written and gripping. I am enjoying The Goldfinch so far.
Et voilà ! Thank you for reading this week’s letter about bread, friends and secrets.
I hope you have a good week!
Yours,
Hannah
The baker has a great name. Also I loved the Goldfinch ❤️
Love this! ❤️ love those random connections and finding friends through scent 😂
Also I remember Goldfinch to be a really great read!