Tasting the heart of France at Paul
Baguettes and other Gallic breads come to SA in style with the introduction of Paul
"All I did was steal some bread." It can be said that Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables elevated the humble baguette, giving it a place in the moral and social fabric of France, when his protagonist Jean Valjean was arrested and thrown in jail for stealing a flûte. Today, the country’s famous bread shops, brimming with buttery croissants and crusty loaves, are among its most widely recognised symbols of heritage. It is these veritable pieces of France that Maxime Holder, chairman of bakery-café brand Paul, has brought to SA. Holder’s family has been in the boulangerie business for five generations. "It is very common in France that the man makes the bread and the lady [wife] sells it, and that was the story of Paul, over three generations. After World War 2, my grandparents bought a bakery from the Paul family on the Place de Strasbourg in Lille. It was quite famous and they didn’t change the name. "My grandfather died when my father was 17 and he worked with his mother and decided to de...
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