Paul: Where bread talks for itself

The traditional French bakery Paul comes to Pudong - By Kacey, Jun 13, 07



When I was younger, my mum used to go on about how it was so frustrating spending "hours over a hot stove" to see the product demolished within minutes. When I was "demolishing" my onion bread roll from Paul, I nearly choked when the manager, Francis Mouly, told me that it had been baked for seven and a half hours. Ok, so finally there is some good bread in Pudong. Since being in Shanghai, I have failed to find some really yummy and more importantly fresh bread and I had come armed with my assailant (my French friend); if anyone knew good French bread it was her.

Paul have over three hundred branches in France alone and have only now ventured to China. This branch is one of the first to open and they plan to open several more in Puxi soon. Opened a mere three weeks now, Paul already seems in place in the centre of Thumb Plaza; a complex of shops, restaurants, cafes and bars. This modern style complex has a nice, clean atmosphere about it, with benches to sit on and arty monuments and water features. With Nike, KTV, Pizza Hut, Coconut Bar and a huge variety of Asian Restaurants to name a few, the complex or 'Plaza' is a really nice place to spend a few hours. Set well away from the river side of Pudong, it is a fair way from Puxi and probably makes for a nicer place to go for those actually living in Pudong. However, I for one would make the trip across the river just to taste what Paul has to offer.

Founded in 1889, the bakery started as a small family business in the North of France in a small town near Lille, it only became "Paul" a few years down the line when the family bought out another bakery with this name. All the methods and recipes remain intact, and follow the traditions passed down through the ancestors. The manager explained that keeping the traditional recipes and ingredients (they import their flour from France) was extremely important to them. I was told that the huge variety of breads and pastries within the shop are influenced from all parts of France, for example the olive bread is very traditional of Southern France and the sesame bread; the North. There seems to be a lot of passion behind it all, talking to the manager, he told me about the importance they place on "marrying" the flavours of the breads. Personally all I knew was that my roll tasted good, married I don't know.
The bakery has been decorated in the style of a quaint French cottage with a wooden ceiling and bunches of wheat on the walls. Walking in, I was overwhelmed by the amount of bread on show, the variety was huge. There are your usual French baguettes (no huge surprise), but then there are loaves and an endless variety of rolls, from onion to bacon, from sesame seed to cereal! The breads are presented in woven baskets and the display fridge hosts a delicious variety of pastries, croissants and cakes. Outside are a few tables and chairs with parasols giving a relaxed cafe feel about the place. I bought a 'grille aux pommes' and a rhubarb tart along with three rolls for 67 kuai. Paul offers a short lunch menu with a variety of salads for about 59 kuai (although why someone would choose a salad from a bakery I do not know!) and sandwiches for about 39 kuai along with pizzas and quiches. You can get bread rolls for 5 kuai, and I would strongly recommend the onion or olive roll; they were scrumptious. Larger loaves and baguettes cost about 18 to 20 kuai, which I think is a reasonable price considering I picked up a plain baguette from Franck cafe for 20.

Paul was a breath of fresh (or should I say French) air in comparison to the breads and pastries on offer elsewhere in Shanghai and is definitely worth a taste, even if you do have to cross the river!

Paul - 1/F, Thumb Plaza, No 8, Lane 199, Fangdian Lu, Pudong
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