A TOUR OF BOULANGERIE POILÂNE

As mentioned over

HERE

one of my favorite things

(if not THE favorite)

we did in Paris

was a tour of the 

Boulangerie Poilâne.

It all started because

Norton Juster 

was in town.

You know Norton, right?

He's this guy:

He and Mr. Willems are fellow

Northampton, Massachuset-tians

so I've had the pleasure of hanging out with 

Mr. Juster and his lovely wife a couple times

They rock hard.

When Mo got to Paris,

Norton insisted he meet

his good friend

Appolonia Poilâne.

She's kind of a big deal

when it comes to bread.

She's also great to hang out with over dinner.

Which we did with 

The Willemses

and

The Justers

at a delicious place

called

Semilla

(fair warning: no manhattans to be found there)

Anyway,

after much food and much wine

we asked Appolonia 

if we foolish Americans

(who were raised on Wonderbread)

could come visit her

boulangerie.

Next thing we know...

BOOM!

Located on Rue du Cherche Midi,

this is where Appolonia's grandfather 

started his business in 1932:

Back in the early days of the bakery,

artists would trade paintings of 

Poilâne bread for actual bread.

(because no one made up the term 'starving artist')

They have a whole room displaying

some of their favorites paintings:

And yes.

That's a

bread chandelier.

Because 

Salvador Dali

used to order bread furniture

from Poilâne.

Down a set of curving stone steps

is the wood-fired oven that 

Poilâne started with in 1932

but goes back

in recorded history as far as

1791.

Yes, 1791.

Very little has changed over time in that tiny room

And they still make bread the same way.

 Flour:

Sea salt:

Water and mixing:

Weigh out just the right amount:

Shape it in a seasoned basket:

And into the oven in goes.

The oven is deeper than it looks.

The paddle the baker uses

looked at least 8 feet long.

And it runs 24 hours making

bread, cookies, croissants

and all manner of deliciousness.

After the tour

Appolonia was kind enough to send us back to the States

with enough bread for our whole neighborhood.

Which we promptly

dove into the next day:

I did have a moment on the plane 

where I realized that I didn't get to 

try one of the apple tarts I saw in the window

of Poilâne.

Looks like I'll have to go back to Paris soon!

Sooper triple giant thanks to

Appolonia and everyone at 

Boulangerie Poilâne!