France! Day 40: Paul

08.11.11

What? Boulangeries Paul for pastries

Where? 25, avenue Opéra (1er arr., m^o Opéra/Pyramides, Paris)

Price? 1€-8€

The skinny: Founded in 1889, PAUL started out as a family-run bakery (or “boulangerie”) in Lille. Now, there are over 330 boulangeries patisseries PAUL serving over 5 million customers every month in France alone! Come here for breads (“viennoiseries”) and other baked goodies! :D

This is the final “France!” post and it comes at a little over a month after I came back home. It was nice reminiscing about the amazing food. Thanks for reading all about it…even bearing through my horrible cheap meals in Tours! Haha

La Tour Eiffel! To avoid waiting in line for hours, take the stairs to the 2nd level! (it costs less too! 4,70€)

I decided I should probably hit up PAUL at least once before I leave. Without looking for one, I’d seen at least 5 locations just by chance. And even luckier for us, there was one right on avenue de l’Opéra, a 2-min walk from the apartment! 

Climbing....climbing...climbing. Of course, the quintessential "eat-the-tower" photo. :D

Croissants, you’ve got to get them fresh, first thing in the morning. Any other time of the day you won’t know if they’re fresh or not. I came here first thing when I woke up. (Don’t worry, I brushed my teeth of course!) 

Souvenirs "Made in China"?! No thanks. Instead, I found a rock on the grounds that's similarly shaped like the tower.

Croissant (0,95€)

I got two “croissants au beurre.” They don’t look all that impressive compared to other ones that I’ve tried (such as that the one from Hardouin & the farmer’smarket), but I’m now used to croissants that all look different. 

They looked kind of dry…and to a certain extent, that was true. The outside had a thick crust of pastry that crunches very satisfyingly. The inside wasn’t buttery enough for me though. It lacked the in-your-face butter fragrance. 

Escargot aux Raisins (1,50€)

Not entirely sure of the price for this but I know it was definitely under 2 euros. I’m guessing it got its name from its spiral shape, reminiscent of a snail shell? It’s pretty cute, the size of your palm. Be careful! The glaze makes it rather sticky so make sure you don’t get any on yourself!

It’s pretty tasty. The glaze and the raisins give the pastry some weight. It had the right amount of sweetness in it.

Unrolling the escargot as you ate it was fun. :D It reminds me of a sticky cinnamon bun! Mmm. 

 

Verdict: I won’t be dreaming about the croissant or the escargot aux raisins that I tried from PAUL. It was enjoyable, just not spectacular. I wanted this sort of sweet raisin bread from there that comes in a loaf but I could never find it at any of the locations! :(

Check ‘em out! PAUL

3.5 out of 5 NOMs

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