Flâneur Friday: A Croissant Taste Test

My Velib Vendredis have become pretty much non-existent for two reasons: 1. The weather hasn't been very nice 2. I'm less apt to bike half way across the city now that I'm pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I still bike between places I'm familiar with in my area, but I'm not so eager to wander aimlessly on a bike anymore. I have, however, been walking a lot more. Spring weather is starting to peek through, and I'm trying to get at least 30-40 minutes of walking in a day on the days I don't run. Hence, Flâneur Friday: pictures from one of my walks during the week. Flâneur is the French word for strolling about aimlessly, without a destination in mind. We don't really have an exact translation for this in English, which is a bit of why I love it.

This week treated us to a glorious, warm and sunny Tuesday, which meant, of course, a picnic with friends. We decided to also have a blind croissant tasting, similar to the macaron taste test we did almost a year ago. More on the tasting later, but first some pictures from my hour long walk to Parc Monceau, which is still one of my favorite parks in Paris!

Petit Palais

What an entrance to a park, huh?

Parc Monceau

Onto the fun part, eating lots of croissants! We kept this one pretty low key, people were welcome to bring croissants from their favorite corner bakery, or they could choose a bakery off of this list for the "Best of Paris" croissants. I ended up being the only one who went to one of the list, Douceurs et Traditions.

All of our first thoughts were, "Can you really say anything bad about a croissant?" Which is true..all of these croissants were better than anything I've had in the US. But, when you eat 6 croissants back to back, there is definitely a difference. Some are overly buttery, some doughy, some flaky, some dry and better for sandwiches rather than eating plain, the list goes on.

By the way, the prettiest looking ones were not the winners!

My personal favorites are ones that have a bit of a crisp on the outside, flaky in the middle, with the butter taste present but not overpowering. Apparently, most people agree, because first and second place were only 1 point apart, but the two of the them were clear winners over the other four.

The winner? Kelly's local bakery in the 'burbs (she doesn't know the name, sorry!) Second? Mine: Doucers et Traditions (I actually rated this as my favorite). 3rd-6th? all local corner bakeries. The conclusion? Well, you won't go wrong no matter where you buy one in Paris, but if you're really looking for the best, I'd stick to the list above. The price difference between croissants is not as drastic as macarons: all of these ranged between 1-1.50 euros each. Interestingly, the Douceurs et Traditions ones were only 1euro, despite being on the list and located in a pretty posh area of town!

Look out! Now that we've started this, we have all kinds of ideas for more tastings: baguettes, eclairs, lemon tarts, etc! I've got a few more months left to cram them all in! :)