One of my favourite aromas is that of freshly baked bread and I am lucky enough to wake up to it every morning. I live next to a boulangerie and even with all my windows closed the smell wakes me up. However, I don’t ever buy croissants and the like from there or viennoiseries as the French call them. Oh no, anyone who comes to stay with me in Paris is treated to viennoiseries etc from Dominique Saibron which I go and buy each morning. It’s the full red carpet treatment for my house guests. This is truly a hidden gem of a boulangerie and patisserie in the 14th arrondissement, around a 15 minute walk from my bijou palais, and also has an outpost in a small town, you might know it, called Tokoyo, Japan! Dominque is worth the walk and everything is good there, award winning in fact, his baguette came third in the annual best baguette of Paris competition. So when on Worker’s Day – May 1st – I found myself in need of a sweet treat as I was actually working on a public holiday dedicated to workers I knew where to head to.
Le Lieu/Location
Dominque Saibron is located on the corner of a big boulevard and he has a terrace for those who wish to eat breakfast there or lunch. The shop just invites you to want to buy everything on show from the cakes, macaroons and viennoiseries with my favourite of the latter being the tournicoti – imagine the pastry of a croissant in the form of a pain au raisin without the raisin but filled with either chopped pistachios, chocolate or praline (the rose kind).
L’ambiance/Good Vibes
Now a word to the wise, if you want your pick of viennoiseries or cakes you need to get their early. This place is incredibly popular and if you arrive and you see that there isn’t a queue snaking out of the door it means there is nothing left to buy. I have yet to come here when there isn’t a queue and it is better to get here around 8am or 4pm outside of peak hours. On Sunday it is busy all the time. I obviously got here late around 4pm on a public holiday and the queue was out the door, all the seating both internally and on the terrace taken. There is only one queue – the amount of people who try to be sneaky and pretend that they haven’t seen the sign and then fake indignation when told to get to the back of the queue never ceases to amaze me.
Les Patisseries/ Cakes
I came for a sweet treat and my favourite creation of his is the rose eclair but given the time of day, I had to make do with the selection that was left. I chose the chocolate raspberry tart which I took away with me.
A pastry shell par excellence, dark chocolate ganache with a hint of raspberry running through it and crunchy chocolate nibs with a dusting of silver glitter to top it all off. A very fitting sweet treat reward for this hard working worker!
Where? 77 Avenue du Général Leclerc, 75014 Paris
How? Line 4 (metro stop Alesia) and a two second walk to the queue.
Pricey? Around €3-5 for a cake and the price of bread, croissants etc is strictly controlled by law.
Open when? 07:oo to 20h Tuesday to Sunday and public holidays!
Website: http://www.dominique-saibron.com/
