This may be the best baguette in Paris.
A wonderful second day. Lots of walking, some shopping, a lovely lunch, the Paris Street Music Festival and baguettes at every meal.
The French take their baguettes very seriously. I am always charmed to see so many people on the streets heading home with a baguette, or two, tucked under their arm. On my last trip here I literally saw a man on a bicycle, wearing a beret (!) with a baguette in his front basket. I kid you not.
My Mom and I have be very busy trying the baguettes from the many different boulangeries in our neighbourhood of Montmartre.
Our favourite baguette of the three we have tried so far is from Le Grenier a Pain which is just over on Rue de Abesses and won the Grand Prix de la Baguette de Tradition Française de la Ville De Paris in 2010. This is an extremely serious competition and the winner becomes the official supplier to the French President for a year.
The winner for 2011 is a bakery called Au Levain d’Antan and is also on the Rue de Abbesses. Baker Pascal Barrillon beat out 173 competitors, although 20% were immediately disqualified for using too much salt, (over 18 g) or not being the right length (between 55 cm and 70 cm ) or not being the right weight (between 240g and 330 g). We are on a mission to track one down tomorrow. Report to follow.
No recipe today but the promise of one in the next couple of days.
