My Bordeaux Haunts: Patisseries

You can't throw a rock without hitting a patisserie (aka bakery) in France. People need their daily baguettes, after all. There are many great patisseries in Bordeaux, and these are the two I visit most often, mostly because they are located within a 2-minute walk of Chez Moi. I fondly refer to them as the Fancy Bakery and the Ghetto Bakery.

The Fancy Bakery (a.k.a. the Weird Bakery) (a.k.a. the Bakery That Thinks It Can.)


If you want an expensive baguette, Maison La Biche is your place. An over-the-top outtake from Alice in Wonderland, it's trying very hard to be more than "just a patisserie." Since it opened in the plaza about a year ago, it has added a tea salon, a section boasting pricey Stuff, and, most recently, a daily lunch menu offered by an in-house chef. For such a broad vision, the patisserie has done a remarkable job of cramming all that, plus the displays of cakes, baguettes, and breakfast pastries, into a tiny space lined with overdone colors and clashing patterns, and still managed to keep a "small cafe'" atmosphere. It does feel crowded, though, and I wonder if it won't soon burst its seams.


As expected, everything there is more expensive. A baguette is 95 centimes, a pain aux raisins is 1.20 euros. But they're very good. If you want a crusty, aromatic baguette that crackles like Chinese New Year's fireworks, go to Maison La Biche at 6PM and get one piping fresh out of the oven. For a richly decadent dark chocolate cake that simply melts in your mouth, Maison La Biche is your home. If the Mad Hatter had held his tea party at Maison La Biche, Alice may never have left!


The Ghetto Bakery


Compared to most Bordelaise patisseries, Pain Emmeline is a hole-in-the-wall. There's no outstanding decor. The paint is peeling. The only thing pinned to the wall is a sad, stained advertisement dated June 2002. A half-dozen hazardous tables sit outside, rain or shine. There's a glass display case, a shelf to hold cardboard boxes of candy, a bookcase serving as a support for baskets of baguettes, and barely-concealed industrial ovens. When the owner rings up your order, the outdated register grinds as if it's having a pneumatic seizure.



Don't let its appearance fool you, though. Despite its facade, the patisserie has a large following of regulars. It's possible to tell the time by who's installed at which table every day, sipping cafe and smoking. The owner, who usually pretends he doesn't understand what I'm ordering, is outside each afternoon gossiping instead of actually baking anything. I personally prefer the baguettes here to the ones at Maison La Biche. While their crusts don't have the same cacophany of crackle, their interiors are lighter and fluffier, and their softness is easier on my teeth. (Having not been raised in France, I never developed the iron jaws required to penetrate some of the more rustic crusts of high-quality baguettes. ) Here at Emmeline, I can also find my favorite French dessert, the tart citron meringue, essentially a lemon meringue pie, but single-portion with a denser, tarter filling. I don't know what they do, but the Ghetto Bakery serves up the best tart citron around.

I live above Pain Emmeline. On frosty mornings, the smell of freshly baked bread permeates the air starting around 7AM, even with the windows closed. It's like waking up in heaven.