French Patisseries

How could I resist French patisseries while I was in France. It was pastry chef's dream to look round. When I was a pastry chef in London restaurants, I did think about working in French patisseries in either in London or France. But I talked myself out saying I prefered Italian patisseries and desserts so working with Italian restaurant and Italian chefs were fine.... To be honest, I just love good cakes and desserts, I wouldn't care which, those days, I just didn't have gutts to do anything. Anyway, as usual, when I had some visits to patisseries/bakery, I bought 2 cakes each time. It also took me ages to decide which one to buy. They all look wonderful, I wanted to eat all of them. I was very impressed even small village bakery/patisseries had wonderful products. I just couldn't keep my eyes off. Then I understood why French pastry chefs(who I used to work) were soooo proud of themselves. I remember most of them actually, when they introduced themselves, they always mentioned they were French. I thought that time, "what a twat, did they really need to say that???" Anyway, they were just proud of their products and what they did. And, French do have fabulous patisseries!

This is pain aux raisins from local spar. It looks good!

 These are from one of local bakery. These were one I bought and cained them straight away!

Rasberry and strawberry tart and caramel tart. They both were devine. What I love the most was the pate sucre. Baked till brown, crispy and thin which I love and that was how I was taught to bake. In England, local bakeries tend to use short pastry(even home bakers too) and roll out really thick. I don't like thick pastry. And, underneath the fruits, there was crem patisserie. They were delicious. Really light considering how it was made. Well, caramel tart, base was almost like brandy snaps with nuts, caramel in the middle, topped with butterscoch cream. It was very sweet, but loved it! 

next one I had was...........

Chocalate eclaris from the small bakery in the chestnut village in Collobrieres. Again, even chox pastry was baked till brown! Chocolate crem patisseirie was really chocalatey and didn't taste cheap and nasty ready made custard cream(which often been used round here.). I was very pleased. Breads looked fantastic also.

Next photos are from patisseries in Cavalaire. I didn't buy anything from there, I didn't want to eat too many cakes and clogg myself up again. But I had sugar come-down(always makes me grumpy a bit...☹)

And this is the other local bakery/patisserie shop. Again, I bought 2 cakes from them.

And these are ones I bought and I really enjoyed my tart au citron♥♥♥

Every time I see those photos I can still hear Marcus saying " you have lots of photos of cakes!" yes, I have and  I can look at them all day......

Finally, they are the last cakes I had in France. Pear and frangipane tart and cherry cake form cafe in the airport. I was very happy with my last cakes. Since then, I haven't touched any cakes here. Nothing here inspires me to eat(yet). Instaead, I'm now very motivated and inspired to bake and make some scrummy things!!! I've got a few days off next week, spend some time baking!!!!