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!

EL SKETCHBOOK LOS PARIS

So like...

did I mention that

Paris 

happened?

Yup.

Me and the stylish

Mrs. Warburton

took a vacation

(without the hobbits)

to

eat

drink

explore

and hang out with

local boy

Mo Willems

when we got tired of

classy, beautiful people.

Mo spends a lot of time sketching in Paris

and I wanted to get in on some of that action.

So i got a Moleskine

and had at it:

I don't always sketch people from life,

but when I do,

it kinda sorta maybe looks like them.

The Pompidou Center

rocked the modern art 

HARD:

One of the best parts of the trip 

was the apartment we rented in the Trocadéro.

It really felt like we had a home

instead of a stuffy, sterile hotel.

(thanks, Genia!)

We went to 

A LOT

of restaurants.

One of our favorites was

Poulette

which our favorite Frenchy friend Jerome 

suggested.

While the Mrs. shopped the stores,

I usually doodled: 

Mr. Warburton fact #243

I don't really like hot drinks.

I only drink iced coffee.

But ordering an iced coffee in Paris 

is like...

well, it's like ordering an iced coffee in Paris.

So I gave up and ordered

noisettes

instead.

Which are pretty delicious.

I thought the Musée d'Orsay

could have been called the

Musée d'Okay.

Ditto for the exhibition at the 

Fashion Museum.

Mr. Warburton fact #4

I don't really like wine.

But ordering a Manhattan in Paris 

is like...

well, it's like ordering a Manhattan in Paris.

So I drank wine.

And it was fine.

That said,

they make a life-fulfilling Manhattan

HERE

(that costs a million euros)

I didn't want to order a hamburger in Paris.

But everyone was ordering one at

L'Atmosphere

in 

Canal St. Martin:

Did you know that there's a convenient underpass 

that takes you to the 

Arc du Triomphe

so you don't have to risk your life dodging 

hurtling trucks and angry motorists 

to get there?

I didn't.

I think my favorite part of the trip might 

have been our tour of the

world famous

Poilane Bakery!

(but that's a tale for a later post)

(thanks Apollonia!)

On the plane home, 

I tried remembering

French-type stuff

for future reference:

I wish I had got more sketching done.

But I was too busy doing

EVERYTHING!

Keep it locked

to hear more about it.