Finally, I organized my photos that I took while I was in Paris back in September and finally, I am able to share my thoughts on Parisian bakeries. I will start with the Poilâne Bakery since it was the first bakery that I visited on my trip back in September.
The Poilâne Bakery is one of the famous bakeries in Paris. It is not a bakery where you find baguettes on the shelves or your croissants as every French bakery offers around the corner.
Poilâne is famous for its sourdough bread. I visited the original store on the Rue de Cherche-Midi in the 6th arroundissement but there are two other stores in Paris (and one in London), I also found Poilâne breads in the Monoprix grocery stores and if you can’t live without Poilâne bread there is even a possibility to order your bread online.

I am discussing about the art of rye and raisin bread.
Although the Poilâne sourdough loaf is the most famous bread, I opted for the rye and raisin bread because I simply could not see myself eating a big loaf (or half a loaf) of bread myself and I had also planned visits to other boulangeries and patissieries. However, I could not resist and bought a tartelettes aux Pommes (apple tartlet) as well which was simply heavenly delicious.The rye and raisin bread was good (it tastes best with some butter and cheese) without question but in my opinion it was baked a little bit too long. In general, I came to the conclusion that bread crust of French bread is often too dark, not to say burned. Maybe there is a Parisian baking secret behind it which I have yet to discover.

On the left: The famous Poilâne loaf of bread. On the right : At the bottom center the delicious tartelettes aux Pommes


Besides the beautiful store on the Rue de Cherche-Midi, other details makes Poilâne unique and so charming in my eyes. The paper bags where the Poilâne bread is wrapped in look more like stationary. I kept the bag that I got for my raisins bread and save it in my little "baking box".
When you pay your purchases at the cash desk, there is a bowl with butter cookies and the sale assistant kindly tells you to take a cookie before you leave. I think that was a very kind gesture and I did not know that there was a story behind it until I stumbled upon this video here on youtube. If you can spare five or six minutes, watch this video because it does not only tell you why the butter cookies are called Punitions (punishment) but you can get to know about the Poilâne bakery history.
Poilâne bakery also has a wonderful website which is such a creative and beautiful designed site which I highly recommend. Besides the history of the bakery and ordering your bread online, you can find recipes; there is a paper model, so you can built your own Poilâne bakery, a Poilâne bakery and much more. I am very excited to try out the Mint Brioche and the Apricot Bread.
Address:
8 rue du Cherche-Midi
Paris, 75006
http://www.poilane.fr/
This store is open from Monday to Saturday, 7:15 am to 8:15 am.
The closest metro station is Saint-Sulpice (line 4).