The breathtaking Jura mountains...
My last post mainly talked about Ireland and was written from my parents’ house in France. Right now I’m writing about France, but my current location is my hometown of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Phew… after what seemed a never ending intense work cycle in January and February, we’re finally allowed to relax a bit and spend some time with our families and friends, so here I come blogging again. There’s so much to catch up here… in December we spent the holidays with my parents and brother in France. We celebrated Christmas in Geneva, Switzerland – they live right on the Swiss border – then we travelled to Paris for New Years and then we spent my birthday in Amsterdam. Needless to say, food was VERY RELEVANT during this whole trip. I might have material for a whole lot of blogs in the next days. Oh dear.
The thing is… I really, really love French food.
Now, by French food I don’t mean the unfortunate stereotype of posh restaurants and snobby waiters. Of course that French food can be very good too (although I think snobbery and food don’t fit together…). Anyway, here I’m talking about real, everyday food. Street food. Cafè food. The food you eat at your friend’s place. The recipes mothers teach their kids.
Every single time I go to France something that never ceases to impress me is the sincere passion these people put into their food. Their ability to make something as simple as a baguette so amazingly delicious. Each little detail shows how much commitment these people have towards what goes on their plates. Serious business.
So, on to the beginning: croissants and baguettes, Saint Genis Pouilly. If you ever find yourself there – only likely to happen if you’re a physicist working at the nearby CERN labs or if you’re a hopeless driver and while in Geneva took a wrong turn, then a wrong turn again and somehow ended in France, in the middle of nowhere – your bakery of choice should absolutely be Sébastien Brocard. Want to know why? Because of this:
Look at how crackly this is. And oh-so-buttery.
And this:
Chewy crumb, crackly crust... yum!
I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. The baguettes are truly, truly excellent, but the real star here is the croissant. There’s no way words are going to describe the subtly sweet, buttery taste of that shatteringly crackly beauty. So please, PLEASE, if you find yourself in the middle of a bunch of pastures, cows and eventually some CIA-looking bunkers – either High Energy and Particle Physics labs or cheese making factories – make sure you take another wrong turn and end up at Sébastien Brocard’s. This is the second best pâtisserie I’ve been to in all of our France trips. Next posts are gonna talk about Paris, Amsterdam and Brazil… see you later!
