Just your neighbourhood boulangerie and where locals go to for breakfast. The husband spent many a breakfast here with his mum in the 16eme where she used to work.
While the humble Bechu doesn’t get the same type of hoo-aha like Du Pain et des Idées or Poliane that makes it to everyone’s boulangerie eat list, it serves up wonderful croissants and pain au chocolat.
With a beautiful terrace that’s a perfect way to start your summer holidays. I suppose the best part about Bechu is that the crowd is mainly local and you’re not flooded with the tourists. It’s daily Parisian life and where everyone starts their day, whether grabbing something to go à emporter or dining in sur place. (one of the few words I learnt travelling in France on my own while ordering food! This was 15 years ago when I was learning French from Café creme textbook with additional classes at Alliance Francais Singapour, I never it’d ever come into handy marrying into the French culture. I remember I used to think how odd when people introduce themselves and then tell the class their reason for learning French is because they have a French boyfriend – I guess I got lucky learning the language before I met the man!)
Everyone was also going for the beautiful pastries and cakes that I reckon is really good too judging from the queues.
For you croissant lovers, I leave you with some funny tidbits on how to eat the buttery flakey pastry.
American Journalist Robert Forrest Wilson explains:
The croissant is of a crisp, flaky texture, and if one attempts to eat it dry,
it explodes into flying fragments at ever bite.
It is however, not eaten dry – it is dipped into coffee (or in my husband’s case, always hot chocolate)
It is not only good form in Paris to dip one’s croissant
but practically necessary. It is a bun specialised for dipping.
Why don’t the French like cake? Mainly it’s the crumbs. Imagine, the embarassment of a French courtesan who, glancing down, finds her lover, while browsing her décolletage (cleavage), sporting a mustache flecked with reminders of afternoon tea.” – John Baxter, The Perfect Meal: In Search of the Lost Tastes of France
Other lovely nuggets from his book includes how these pastries got their name.
The oblong financier, getting its name from the resemblance to a gold bar, the cannelé (with groove down the sides) literally translates to “channeled”.
Bechu Paris
118 Avenue Victor Hugo, 75116 Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 47 27 97 79
Some day if we ever came back to France to live and relocated to Paris, I guess we’d be having breakfast here. :) Given that it is the neighbourhood where we’ve bought our first and very own pied à terre.
Are you on Instagram? Follow along for real time updates of latest Macau discoveries this month! I am finally done with work travels and getting back to wandering Macau. :)
