Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
L
$$$
Hôtel Luxembourg Parc,
42
rue de Vaugirard, 6e (
&
33/1/53-10-36-
50;
www.luxembourg-paris-hotel.com).
$$
Hôtel Saintonge,
16 rue Saintonge, 3e
(
&
44/1/42-77-91-13;
www.saintonge
marais.com).
26 place de la Madeleine, 8e (Métro: Mad-
eleine;
&
01-47-42-91-10;
www.fauchon.fr).
(
De Gaulle (23km/14 miles), Orly
(14km/8
2
/
3
miles).
Gourmet Emporiums &
Specialty Shops
23
Poilâne
Daily Bread
Paris, France
Everyone knows what French bread is: It's a
long, slender white-bread baguette, with a
fragile crisp brown crust. But ubiquitous as
baguettes may be on the streets of Paris,
what's generally accepted as Paris's best
bread is something completely different—
the peasanty sourdough loaves sold at this
shop in Saint-Germain des Près.
Poilâne, which is still family-owned,
hasn't changed much since it opened in
1932 (though recent expansion, including a
shop at 49 bd. de Grenelle and another in—
mon Dieu!—London, at 46 Elizabeth St.,
has raised a few eyebrows). Bread is still
baked here following Pierre Poilâne's time-
tested techniques, using stone-ground
flour and sea salt, shaping loaves by hand,
and baking them in a wood-fired oven.
Pierre's gregarious son Lionel—perhaps
the world's first celebrity baker—found
ways to update the business, however,
without sacrificing the bread's artisanal
quality.
These larger, denser loaves, which
weigh as much as 4 pounds apiece, don't
get stale as quickly as baguettes do, and
they're easier to slice. They've become so
famous that the generic name for this type
of loaf is now
pain poilâne;
Poilâne's bak-
ers distinguish the genuine loaf by deco-
rating it with a big cursive P. They also turn
out delectable apple tarts, delicate butter
cookies, gingerbreads, and other pastries,
but the bread is the main attraction. The
tiny shop opens early, at 7:15am (closed
Sun), and there's usually a line out the
door. Thousands of loaves are also baked
Monogrammed sourdough loaves fresh from
Poilâne's wood-firing oven.
