Aux Desirs de Manon - one of famous Parisian patiserie

From Wikipedia : A pâtisserie is a French bakery that specializes in pastries and sweets. In France, it is an official title that only bakeries that employ a maître pâtissier (master pastry chef) may use. The pâtissier is an artist who wants his or her creations to be as individual as they are, which is the reason for so many variations in French pastry shops and in pâtisserie recipes. Often found in partnership with a boulangerie (A baker bakes and sells bread), pâtisseries are a common sight in towns and villages in France.

Therefore, one of my mission was to explore on patisserie in Paris. This was a shop named 'Desirs de Mamon' -- This was a good example of a mix patissier & boulangerie together in one shop since people packing for buying baguiette for dinner (even it was raining so hard that day) !!!

In France, baguette always be purchased just before meal (such as dinner or breakfast), and they never use it on the second day [unless you don't mind really stale hard bread which is as hard as a brick]. They're cheap enough to simply buy a fresh one whenever you need them since the bakeries [boulangeries] are everywhere.

Here there was also a lot of tasty sweet pastries ... but I selected 'Tarte Tatin' which was an upside-down apple tart in which the apples are caramelized in butter and sugar before the tart is baked ... Too bad, picture could not express the taste of it since it was easily melted in my mouth and the flvour of it was full of apple & brandy !!!




Then we also had 'croissant au beurre' which was butter croissant. I have to say 'nothing compares to croissants made in France' ... I have read one book mentioned that 'The French butter and flour is the secret for making croissant' and now I definitely agree to this statement ... The crosissant (not only from this store) was crunchy on the outside, but inside was not so soft and light but filled with air. The taste was so full of great butter aroma (but not as queasy buttery feeling as I have ever tasted before) ...

Aux Desirs de Manon, Paris
129 Rue St Antoine, 75004 Paris
Tel : 01 42 72 32 91
Metro : St Paul