For delicious French moments in Paris, you can simply enter a pâtisserie and enjoy choosing your favourite pastry. Facing so much choice, it is very hard to decide… which one will I choose?
Delicious pastries
One of our favourite is the ‘religieuse’. Traditional flavours are chocolate, vanilla, or coffee… but creativity is possible: we have found a rose flavoured religieuse in the Montparnasse district.
Rose-flavoured religieuse © French MomentsThe French often call these delicious pastries “Péchés mignons” (literally “lovely sins”).
The little brother of the “religieuse” is called “éclair”. Same ingredients and same taste but a different shape. Pierre is a little cheeky: he has asked the pâtissière for the largest éclair in Rue des Clercs, 7th Arrondissement of Paris. Quel gourmand !
Unlike what is done in Sydney, the French have a nice way of wrapping their delicious pastries: they often use a paper-made packaging attached with a ribbon. This packaging technique is nicely written in a book by Philippe DELERM called “La première Gorgée de Bière et autres plaisirs minuscules”:
“De l’autre côté du comptoir, la vendeuse, la pince à gâteaux à la main, plonge avec soumission vers vos désirs; elle ne manifeste même pas d’impatience quand elle doit changer de carton, le mille-feuille ne tient pas. C’est important ce carton plat, carré, aux bords arrondis, relevés. Il va constituer le socle solide d’un édifice fragile, au destin menacé. Ce sera tout !
Alors la vendeuse engloutit le carton plat dans une pyramide de papier rose, bientôt nouée d’un ruban brun. Pendant l’échange de monnaie, on tient le paquet par en dessous, mais dès la porte du magasin franchie, on le saisit par la ficelle, et on l’écarte un peu du corps.”
We will come back later this year with other photos of our delicious French moments in Paris and France. Stay tuned!
English-French Vocabulary
(f) for féminin, (m) for masculin, (adj) for adjective and (v) for verbs
- coffee = café (m)
- chocolate = chocolat (m)
- delicious = délicieux (adj,m) / délicieuse (adj,f)
- pastry chef = pâtissier (m) / pâtissière (f)
- pastry shop = pâtisserie (f)
- rose = rose (f)
- vanilla = vanille (f)
