Boulangerie and Pâtisserie

Despite fierce competition from supermarkets, boulangeries (bakeries) and pâtisseries (pastry shops) are still an integral part of the French culinary landscape. Nothing beats the aroma of warm bread as you pass une boulangerie, and who can resist a display of delicious éclairs and other fine pastries in the shop window of a pâtisserie (pastry shop)?

Let’s take a virtual tour of a boulangerie and a pâtisserie and sample what they have to offer:

Par exemple, la boulangerie, la pâtisserie, la pharmacie, la banque.

For example, the bakery, the pastry shop, the pharmacy, the bank.

Caption 63, Français avec Nelly Masculin ou féminin ? - Part 1

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In addition to baking and selling bread, la boulangerie specializes in viennoiseries (buttery, doughy, or flaky pastries), often originating from Vienna, Austria. In this video, the baker is worried about having to raise the price of her viennoiseries (pastries):

On va être obligé d'augmenter la viennoiserie.

We're going to be forced to raise the [price of] pastries.

Caption 35, France 3 Les conséquences de la crise du beurre

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The rising cost of beurre (butter), a main ingredient in viennoiserie, is eating into her profits. The reporter in the video makes a pun on the word beurre (butter), which also means “profit” in the expression faire son beurre (turn a profit):

En attendant, elle ne compte plus sur les viennoiseries pour faire son beurre.

Meanwhile, it's no longer counting on pastries to make its butter [turn a profit].

Captions 49-50, France 3 Les conséquences de la crise du beurre

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Viennoiseries are often referred to as “breakfast pastries,” as they are usually enjoyed as a treat on a leisurely weekend morning, for example. They include all manner of flaky pastry items such as croissant, pain au chocolat (rectangular chocolate croissant, also known as chocolatine in southern France), pain aux raisins (raisin bun), and others.

Mais pour les Français le croissant, le pain au chocolat ou le pain aux raisins que vous avez ici, c'est généralement réservé au petit déjeuner du dimanche, voilà.

But for French people the croissant, the chocolate croissant or the raisin bun that you have here, it's generally reserved for Sunday breakfast, you see.

Captions 26-28, Arles Le petit déjeuner

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On weekdays, though, French people are more likely to eat une tartine de pain (bread with jam or butter) for breakfast. And people are known to travel the extra mile to buy good bread from their favorite boulanger (baker). However, in this video, this person claims that boulangers (bakers) are not what they used to be. She now prefers to make her own pain (bread) and enjoy the taste of pain fait maison (homemade bread):

J'ai du mal à trouver du bon pain chez tous nos boulangers...

I've had trouble finding good bread at all our bakers'...

Captions 4-5, Claude et Zette Le pain fait maison

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That said, someone carrying a warm baguette under their arm is still a familiar sight in France. It is considered acceptable (in casual company only) to tremper (dunk) a chunk of baguette in your coffee or tea at the breakfast table:

Ensuite on va tremper la baguette dans le thé. 

Then we're going to dunk the baguette in the tea. 

Captions 22-23, Arles Le petit déjeuner

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As for lunch and dinner, bread is usually sliced and served in a basket, or sometimes simply placed whole on the table in more informal settings. Baguettes sliced lengthwise make a perfect base for a sandwich. Bakeries offer a variety of sandwiches with delicious fillings such as sandwichs au pâté, au camembert, au jambon-fromage et au beurre (pâté, Camembert, ham and cheese, and butter sandwiches). Unfortunately, in this video, le sandwich (pronounced “sondweech”) is tasteless!

C'est pas possible que ce sandwich n'ait pas de goût, voyons !

It's not possible that this sandwich has no taste, come on!

Caption 41, Il était une fois: la vie 14. La bouche et les dents - Part 2

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As you may have gathered, le pain (bread) is the staple food that accompanies every meal. During the French Revolution, a terrible time when many people were starving and could not afford to buy pain (bread), let alone brioche, Queen Marie-Antoinette supposedly uttered the infamous words:

Eh bien qu'ils mangent de la brioche.

Well, let them eat brioche [cake].

Caption 15, Français avec Nelly How to Speak Like Marie Antoinette - Part 2

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For more luxurious, refined pastries, it’s best to go to a pâtisserie (pastry shop), which specializes in them. French people will often wander off to the pâtisserie to buy, you guessed it, une pâtisserie (a pastry) for a Sunday lunch dessert, for example. In this video, a woman who was on a sugar-free diet managed to resist temptation and only partake of one bite of a magnificent cream pâtisserie called a Paris-Brest, named after a famous bicycle race:

Y a pas très longtemps chez des amis qui avaient acheté une magnifique pâtisserie en dessert, j'ai pris un morceau à peu près grand comme ça de Paris-Brest.

Not so long ago, at my friends', who had bought a magnificent pastry for dessert, I took a piece about that big of Paris-Brest [cream pastry].

Captions 130-132, Le Figaro Elle a banni le sucre pendant un an - Part 2

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Those not on such a strict sugar-free diet might also enjoy a fruity pâtisserie, such as une tarte aux fraises (strawberry tart or pie):

Je voulais te prévenir qu'il y aura de la tarte aux fraises à manger.

I wanted to warn you that there will be strawberry pie to eat.

Caption 64, Mère & Fille Le jour de l'an

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Others might indulge in un éclair au chocolat (chocolate éclair) or un éclair au café (coffee éclair):

Les éclairs au chocolat sont délicieux, mais les éclairs au café sont bons aussi.

Chocolate éclairs are delicious, but coffee éclairs are nice too.

For those who prefer a cream or custard filling, why not try un choux à la crème (cream choux pastry)? Philippe Etchebest shows us the utensils for making une pâte à choux (choux pastry) in his video:

Dorer la pâte à choux par exemple.

Coating choux pastry, for example.

Caption 18, Philippe Etchebest Les Ustensiles - Part 2

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Our delicious tour of boulangerie and pâtisserie has come to an end. If this lesson made your mouth water, check out our cooking and baking videos! Thank you for reading!