I'm A Baker In South Of France, Ask Me Anything

Since you like to know where people are posting from....
I live in a hot and humid environment - Atlanta.
During the summer I learned how to make croissant at home. I was angry because I knew it would be a long long time before I could ever get to France so I decided to make my own.


The heat and humidity really affects the dough (pate)

In summer It gets 95 plus degrees 35-37 c with a lot of humidity.

Temperatures are now cooling somewhat but I was stupid at first and though well if I have air conditioning it should not matter. It does.

I even took a le creuset pot and put it in the freezer then set it on my counter to help cool the area where I was rolling the dough.

Is there anything you can teach about days where it is really hot and how it affects your pastries? Is there anything that you do to adjust? Merci!

I was in the north of France in the early 90s and I passed through Paris. I saw young men in the streets in leather jackets and boots, trying to look tough, but their eyes were soft like poet's eyes, like mama's boys.

I thought that Europeans have maybe not experienced the roughness of the American streets. Everything seemed so settled and done, and I never felt threatened anywhere I went. In my American city there was a lot of crime and a lot of down and out people and a sense of things changing all the time, being torn down and rebuilt everywhere, sometimes seemingly for no reason except to erase the past.

When I saw the young men trying to look like tough American street motorcyle guys but not really inhabiting the role, I thought that all my artist and musician friends were trying to look like Europeans in their fashions and habits, it was fashionable to travel there and pick up little cultural tics and sayings, and to have stylish eyeglasses and shoes.

It is early and I'm on my first cup of coffee so I probably didn't write that very well. But I thought at the time that Europeans wanted to look like Americans in their fashions and Americans wanted to look like Europeans. That was a long time ago and a lot has changed since then.

Not quite so. French kids from Suburbia all want to look like US baseball players wearing caps, football teams jerseys and the latest Nike shoes

not forgetting the latest i-phones.

It all costs a whole lot. I have got no idea where they find the money to buy them, as a good lot of them are not working.

Maybe the parents?



Last Edited by Concorde Warrior F-BVFA on 09/26/2020 10:11 AM

Here I have more to add to my previous post. The only trip I ever took to Europe was in the early 90s. Wherever I went in the UK, France, or Austria, when there were bands playing, they were all playing American music. I mostly heard jazz or blues, if I was in a bar or at some street festival.

Today when I like an American band, when I go to see their tour dates, they are mostly touring in Europe it seems. I like the style of music which has horrible names like "Americana" or "roots" or "alt-country", no one knows what to call it. If you call it country music people think you mean the dreadful perversion out of Nashville today.

But Europeans LOVE that roots/Americana/alt-country stuff even more than Americans do, which is great. And I'm sure the bands love touring in Europe.

One thing I didn't know, that I found out from a friend, is that people in Ireland love the old classic American country music. And they would have clubs that would dress up in boots and cowboy hats and do line dancing in the pubs. I would love to see that.

Yes and that German record label, Bear Family Records, has curated and cataloged and preserved so many archives of 20th century American "roots" music, if I had ever had money I probably would have had some kind of subscription for their releases but I never had that kind of money to burn.

OP I wanted to ask you what you find evocative about American music and Western films, can you describe the feeling it gives you?

Here in Cannes in summer the temperature is around 28-30 degree Celsius, it's hot but compared to what you said about Atlanta it is different.

To be fully honest with you the summer temperatures don't affect my pastries in general, of course we have a "vitrine réfrigérée" like this one [link to www.google.fr] where my wife puts all the pastries, Pissaladières, Quiches and all that, it keeps them fresh during the whole day (in summer we close at 5 pm we decided this with my wife to keep a family life) 1nd it prevents them from becoming unsafe to eat because of the heat outside. We are very prudent with this, we are not here to make people sick.

In winter we also keep the pastries in the vitrine réfrigérée because the french legislation is like this, if we don't respect it we will have a fine or we can even be ordered to close the bakery, and to be honest I like this seriousness, a client who is not sick is a client who will come back with a smile.

And I like knowing where people from glp come from because I like how people from the other side of the world can talk with me, for now I don't have the time to travel, I am waiting for my nephew to be a "man Baker" (now he is the baby baker) so he can take care of my business. So thank you for telling me where you come from

I have never been to North of France to visit it, I just passed by there to go to Germany to visit my wife's parents who live there (they are French but they live in Dortmund)

And I agree with you, young French guys (my son included he's very young), they want Nike air max shoes and Ralph Lauren clothes he is so young and he already piss me off with his Ralph Lauren clothes

There is a Inter Milan Nike jersey on the wall of my bakery

I hope you are fine today madame!

Do you know the man with Muffins who lives on Drurey Lane?!?!?

It's strange, when I listen to this kind of music
Or this one
There is some feeling that it's from far away, that life there must be good too, maybe better, that the American dream is for everybody and that it can turn men and women into wonderful stars that everybody will remember. It is hard to describe, but I love living "le rêve Américain" through music.

It really annoys me to not be able to describe it correctly like I want, my vocabulary is limited, my wife helps me a lot on this thread I thank her for this I can tell you that when someone ask me for a recipe, it's the words of my wife, not mine, I just speak in French and she type in English for you folks, she just want some kisses in return and me like a French gentleman I offer flowers and kisses

I like muffins (we don't make some at the bakery though, maybe we should) but I don't know who you are talking about and where is Drurey Lane? If it is in America sorry I have never visited this country unfortunately..!

4h15 in the morning and I am talking about the american dream on internet and my nephew has made a wonderful Pissaladière, aaahhh he is becoming a man Baker soon he will not be a baby baker anymore I can see it!

But eating a Pissaladière full of onions at 4h15 in the morning it is a little heavy for the stomach

Last Edited by FranceBakerCorsica on 09/26/2020 10:18 PM

And the movie "hell on the border" is great, I LOVE American movies like this, And actors like Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, these men are respectable!

It's an old nursery rhyme. The poster was having fun with you.

OK I see, I could not understand it then, my English is not That good I have to train with you folks!!

If you want to check out some new music,
this guy Charley Crockett has some videos that are pretty cinematic in their production.

Here's his videos page, maybe skip around and check a few out, some are better than others obviously.

I think he fits what you said about giving you the feeling that anyone could invent their own life and be the star of their own movie.

Charley Crockett

[link to m.youtube.com (secure)]

Last Edited by Vision Thing on 09/27/2020 07:35 AM

My favourite Italian football team is Lazio Roma. I also like A.S. Monaco and OGC NIce. Both teams, with a preference for A.S. Monaco but I am still cheering for Nice also.

I am fine but the weather here is really atrocious where I live. Been like this the last 3 days and the whole week will be like this, strong winds and very wet. The sky is dark with clouds really thick and low, visibility maybe 2 kms maximum.

Sending you a song by my old pal Tino Rossi. I remember seeing him doing his morning exercise running around on the boulevard in Neuilly sur Seine. He was such a charming man and a hero of Corisca, after Napoleon Bonaparte of course.

I can still sing a lot of his songs by memory.

This is for you.



[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

The music from many of his songs was composed by Monegasque composer Vincent Scotto.



Last Edited by Concorde Warrior F-BVFA on 09/27/2020 08:44 AM

Hello folks how are you today it is almost 3 o'clock in the morning!

Why would that happen..? It doesn't really make sense..

Thank you, I will take a look at your link!

Yes he was a man from Ajaccio, people still listen to him a lot on the island, nowadays singers from corsica it's crap...

If you need a recipe of bakery I'm here folks.

Hello, have a super day!!!

BEEN A FEW DAYS...THERE IS A GROUP IN THE FORESTS OF SOUTHERN FRANCE THAT IS CALLED 'ACT UP' ..I THINK AND THEY ARE ANITI MODERN ELECTRONICS...THEY HAVE TRAILERS OR CAMPERS THAT RUN MODERN KITCHENS..BUT, THEY MAY BE GAS OR SOLAR POWERED. ARE YOU FAM. WITH THEM???UH.

I haven't heard of these persons, I like technology on my side, so I am not sure me and these people would get along.
In my work I use an oven with wood like a hundred years ago, I use traditional French bakery recipes, but hey, technology is not that bad.

In France we have all kinds of groups of people who are against this or against that, we like to BE AGAINST, it must be our revolutionary roots that are still here, except today we are revolutionary on the wrong direction, instead of kicking our President's ass (he has turned the country into an African hell hole) we prefer to revolt against technology or machismo...

Maybe in Corsica you are more immune to the Globohomo stuff? Lots of difficult terrain and people who live closer to a life where you need physical strength. That is my impression from the time I spent in the 13th and 11th departements.

Ah I just read this. I have a good connection and thoughts from visiting the South of France. From 2000 to 2010 every year I went back for a couple weeks to month, mostly the Marseille area. This is fun you made this thread. Nice break from the social insanity.

et les remixes! Take it easy on that dough. This one keeps hitting the accelerator.