Paris Corner

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any bakeries find that adopting a vaguely Gallic appellation is a great way to gull customers into buying what amounts to high-priced sawdust. But at the newly opened cafe, La Boulangerie, you’ll get nothing less than the genuine article—fresh, organic baguettes, quiches and pastries, all prepared under the watchful eye of French bakers. There’s much to choose from to accompany your hot cappuccino, apart from the complimentary bowl of madeleines, the little shell-shaped cakes fabled for rousing Proust to a breakfast-time epiphany in The Remembrance of Things Past. Classic French favourites, for instance, like the flaky brioche, croissants, pain au chocolat and apple-puffs.

Those with a sweeter tooth can treat themselves to eclairs filled with fresh chocolate or coffee-cream, or the coffee-and-almond-flavoured opera cake—a show-stopping Parisian indulgence. And, for those preferring the savoury, there are bagel sandwiches, and quiches with leek, tomato or chicken fillings. La Boulangerie’s virtues are more than just gastronomic: a social service project two years in the making, it trains impoverished youth from slums and villages in baking and catering, concluding with a six-month internship in the kitchens of the city’s finest five-star restaurants.