Beyond the Baguette: Where to Find the Other Great Breads in Paris
Buying bread from a local boulangerie is truly a daily ritual for Parisians. The French buy 10 million baguettes each year, according to the Observatoire du Pain (the French baker's lobby), making them easily the number-one loaf in the country. But the city’s best bakeries shelves are increasingly filled with dark, nutty loaves that are sometimes large enough to span the width of your dining-room table. Some are traditional recipes, and some are signature breads that use unconventional ingredients liked smoked sea salt and different combinations of flours. They're nearly all worth taking a break from the baguette for.
The owner of the French food magazine Fricote, Julien Pham, credits Christophe Vasseur, the baker at Du Pain et Des Idées for sparking a renewed interest in the crusty, artisanal loaves that were in demand in France before World War II, when baguettes took off in popularity. Eight years ago, Vasseur started selling pain des amis or "bread of friends" at his bakery near Canal Saint Martin. Before selling it at the bakery, Vasseur would make this time-consuming bread for friends on weekends. With its deep golden color and roasted, nutty aroma and flavor, the bread now has a cult-like following among in-the-know locals and chefs.
"When I grew up it was baguette, baguette, baguette," Pham says. "But when Christophe started making pain des amis, it turned bread eating into a more communal experience where you would have the bread at the center of the table.”
Vasseur has his own theory: "We kind of lost that taste for crust, but now when people know how tasty a well-done crust can be, they don’t want to eat something else. That’s why the pain des amis is so successful.”
So the next time you're in Paris, skip the baguette and try one of these. We promise you'll thank us.
Casey Hatfield-Chiotti1/10Pain du Coin
Two years ago, baker and co-owner of Liberté Boulangerie-Pâtisserie Benoît Castel decided he wanted a signature bread, so he came up with this dense, smoky loaf, which is nearly two feet long and one and a half feet across before it's cut up and sold in smaller pieces. A pastry chef at heart and a strong believer in thinking outside of the box, he liked the idea of experimenting with unique ingredients. The bread includes a mix of rye flour and white flour, along with honey and red-alderwood-smoked sea salt from Washington state that gives the bread a grayish-brown crumb. The bread is available at Liberté in the 10th arrondissement, an industrial-looking bakery, and his new location in Menilmontant, where breads are baked in a Parisian rarity—a wood-fired oven from the 1950s. The savory flavors make it a great match for foie gras. 39 Rue des Vinaigriers, 33/01 42 05 51 76, 150 rue de Menilmontant, 33/01 46 36 13 82
Casey Hatfield-Chiotti2/10Tradition Chocolate
Castel came up with the recipe for this rich chocolate bread at his original bakery, Joséphine, in Saint-Germain-Des-Prés, and it's become a mainstay in his repertoire. It's made 64-percent cocoa powder, and dark- and white-chocolate pieces. Amazingly enough, the dough contains no butter or sugar, which helps to amplify the intense chocolate flavor. 4 rue Jacob, 33/01 42 60 20 39
Casey Hatfield-Chiotti3/10Schwarzbrot
The German-style bread Benjamin Turquier makes at 134 RDT is the perfect solution for those who prefer their bread to have more graininess and texture than lightness. The small, dense loaf comes brimming with sunflower seeds and nuts, and is topped with a thin layer of sesame seeds that turn golden brown in the oven. A little goes a long way, and half loaves are available. The bread has a caramel-y sweetness to it that works well with tart strawberry or raspberry jam. 134 rue de Turenne, 33/01 42 78 04 72
Casey Hatfield-Chiotti4/10Vabret Miche
Au Petit Versailles du Marais tied for second place in Paris’s best-baguette competition, La Grand Prix de la Baguette de la Ville de Paris, this year, but it’s the bakery's Vabret miche, a country-style sourdough bread, that really stands out. Baker Christian Vabret began making this bread 30 years ago using flour from the Coreze region of France. The dough contains so much water it looks like crêpe batter when it goes into the oven. "It's magic, it explodes," bakery co-owner Julien Houssais says. The result is a rustic loaf with a bit of tang that has a crunchy, flour-dusted crust but an inside that is so moist it almost seems undercooked. It’s heaven for those who prefer a doughy center. If you really want to seem like a local, specify what type of loaf you want: "bien cuit" (well done) or "pas trop cuit" (not overcooked). This slightly acidic bread is great for sandwiches and pairs nicely with grainy mustard and saucisson sec (dry-cured sausage). 1 rue Tiron, 33/09 71 47 61 89
Casey Hatfield-Chiotti5/10Pain des Amis
"Each baker should have his or her own specialty bread, and you close your eyes and you recognize it immediately," says Christophe Vasseur, the owner of Du Pain et Des Idées and the man behind pain des amis or "bread of friends," Paris’s most addictive loaf. The bread is made with wheat flour from the Ile de France region that is kneaded with a pinch of yeast and allowed to ferment for up to two days. The long, flat loaf has hints of chestnut and maple syrup, and an incredible smoky aroma that wafts out of the bakery. The loaves are long—about one and a half feet—so they’re usually sold by the half or the quarter. Mix almond butter with a bit of honey, sea salt, and vanilla extract, and slather it on this bread for the perfect start to your morning. 34 rue Yves Toudic, 33/01 42 40 44 55
Casey Hatfield-Chiotti6/10Pain aux Cereal
Eric Kayser has locations throughout Paris and even in New York (under the name Maison Kayser), but the bread quality hasn’t suffered. Pain aux cereal is a multigrain bread that is quite common in Paris, but Kayser's sets the gold standard and comes filled with millet, sesame, and sunflower seeds. It’s light, slightly sweet, and the grains give it the right amount of crackle. The bread makes great croutons but also works well with sweet toppings like a drizzle of honey. 8 rue Monge, 33/01 44 07 01 42
Casey Hatfield-Chiotti7/10Pain à la Pointe du Grouin
Believe it or not, many Parisian restaurants say it’s difficult to source good bread in Paris. Neighborhood bakeries only make small quantities, and if you want to serve pain des amis, for example, you have to wait in line like everyone else. Chef and restaurant owner Thierry Breton has found a solution: baking all the bread for his three restaurants himself. Breton describes his hearty loaves as a country-style bread from Brittany. He doesn't cut corners; the bread requires two days to make and an all-night fermentation process. You can buy a loaf to go, but a highlight of eating at La Pointe du Grouin, his Brittany-inspired small-plates restaurant, is getting this bread alongside heaping plates of charcuterie or dunking it in soups du jour like seafood bisque or creamy pumpkin. 8 rue de Belzunce
Casey Hatfield-Chiotti8/10Bob's Bagels
Bagels have been quite trendy for the last two years in Paris but they’re almost always store-bought. Marc Grossman, the New Yorker (and brother of designer Steven Alan) behind Bob’s Kitchen and Bob’s Juice Bar has changed that with Bob’s Bake Shop, his new bakery in the 18th arrondissement. He's making New York-style bagels from scratch in flavors like sesame, poppy seed, pumpernickel, and cinnamon raisin. Bagel sandwiches come topped with ingredients like cream cheese, organic Scottish salmon, avocado, and sprouts. 12 Esplanade Natalie Saurraute, 33/09 84 46 25 26
Casey Hatfield-Chiotti9/10Pain a l'Ancienne aux Fruits Secs
It's a bit of a trek from the center of Paris to get to Aux Delices du Palais in the 14th arrondissement, but the corner bakery that won the prestigious title of Paris's best baguette this year in La Grand Prix de la Baguette de la Ville de Paris is worth seeking out. In addition to the award-winning baguette de tradition française, 24-year-old baker Antonio Teixeria makes other delicious breads, including a rustic bread with a charred exterior called pastoreau. This beauty is packed with dried papayas, figs, bananas, apricots, raisins, pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, honey, and a touch of vanilla. With all those ingredients it's a weighty slice, and at 12 euros a kilogram, it isn't cheap. No accompaniment needed. 60 blvd. Brune, 33/01 45 39 48 68
Casey Hatfield-Chiotti10/10Tourte de Seigle
This round loaf at La Petit Marquise is a bread for people who love crust—the cracked surface dusted with white flour makes it looks like a huge chocolate crinkle cookie. The crust is about a quarter inch thick, and just cutting through it is a workout for the arms. The bread is made of pure rye flour and, while it tastes of coffee and molasses, it's surprisingly mild—sort of like Guinness. It's great just with a slick of butter. 3 place Victor Hugo, 33/01 45 00 77 36
