People enter the bakery du pain et des idées because it’s a beautiful store, they buy the bread and viennoiseries because they are mouthwatering, and finally, they come back because it is simply delicious!
Christophe Vasseur couldn’t have dreamed of a better spot to open his bakery. I’m not referring to the location; there are many perfect locations in Paris, but the décor of this place is stunning! Built in 1870, it looks straight out of Marcel Proust’s books: all the murals, the mirrors, and the painted glass ceilings are originals. Un vrai bijou! (A real gem!)
After working many years in the fashion industry, the call of bread was stronger. Vasseur found this old bakery on the brink of bankruptcy and opened his own on February 22, 2002, working with his hands and his dreams! He found the furniture in flea markets to recreate a bakery of the early 1900s!
In 2008 Gault & Millau, the famous gourmet magazine elected his bakery the best in Paris.
Vasseur is a baker, a poet, and a writer; he created his own bread and called it le pain des amis (Friends’ bread) and wrote a book about his philosophy around how to make bread, le Pain de la Terre à la Table (The bread from earth to table).
Unlike other bakers, Christophe Vasseur doesn’t open on weekends, sells a limited selection of bread and viennoiseries to guarantee exceptional quality, and he kneads the dough by hand. He’s proud of his ancestral method of work that he believes guarantees the taste and the preservation of the product while remaining healthy.
Christophe Vasseur uses only organic flours, extra-fine butter, filtered water – to get rid of the chlorine, limescale, and heavy metals – fresh eggs, and fresh fruits for the viennoiseries. There are special items sold according to the day or the season but there are the usual ones as well. The escargots are my favorite! They are made of puff pastry dough shaped into a spiral, filled with custard and rum raisins. They also prepare them with chocolate chips and pistachio custard, hazelnut and coffee, and more.
I can only advise you on one thing, go to du pain et des idées and taste the products, you are going to love them!
As stated on their website, or should I say as the baker in Marcel Pagnol’s La Femme du Boulanger (the baker’s wife) says: “I’m going to make you bread as you’ve never seen before, and in this bread, there will be love and lots of friendship”.
Du Pain et des Idées
34 Rue Yves Toudic, 75010 Paris
📞 +33 (0)1 42 40 44 52
Monday-Friday: 7am – 8pm
