Cost of baked goods

Stacy == It's interesting that sometimes we have to go to different bakeries for different types of items. Kaiser (around the corner from my apartment) is great for bread. However, it's not great for pastries.

I go to other places if I need a fancy dessert - but tend to do something with ice cream and fruit these days. It's less expensive and probably healthier. Anyway, that's my rationalization.

I've never bought a baguette at the grocery store; I actually was thinking more of the pain au chocolat there, which in this case is as good (or better) than those at the surrounding bakeries. The bakeries vary in the quality of their products, too. In my neighborhood, for example, one has better baguettes than the others but their chocolate eclairs leave something to be desired. A different one has excellent eclairs but crummy pain au chocolat.

What surprised me most when I first came here was pain de mie. I thought, "With good baguettes to be had, who would want plain old square sandwich bread?" It seems to sell fairly well, though.

Stacy: There are a lot of grocery stores where you can buy bread for less. But, they simply aren't the same and a baguette usually isn't worth the calories.
When I buy grocery store bread, I usually choose one with a bit more fiber.

We had an "artisanal" bakery around the corner - and when it closed, the entire neighborhood went into mourning. We were certain good bread days were gone forever. When a Kaiser bakery opened, people became immediate converts. The store had to reconfigure its doors so people could enter by one and exit by another. Lines wrap around the block and I steer clear of the bakery when school is dismissed on Wednesday afternoons.

The children are adorable but the wait is eternal - or should that be infernal?

It's interesting looking back through these posts. I don't go to the bakery often, but I have four of them within 2 minutes' walk (in fact, one is literally a stone's throw from my apartment) and they all seem to be doing well. The closest one charges €1.10 for a pain au chocolat and €0.85 for a baguette. Up the street at the Shopi supermarket they have a streetside bakery window, and although they don't bake their own goods on site, they're reasonably good and priced a little lower than the neighborhood bakeries.

I see that my aforementioned bakery artisanale in the 7th (at the corner of rue du Bac and rue de Verneuil) is now a Kayser bakery.

Richard -- Baked items everywhere are expensive. I've been appalled by the cost of some cakes I've bought in DC. The difference is that these items cost approximately the same in Paris but are DELICIOUS and worth the calories.

Although -- I guess we can all go to the cheap of cheap markets and buy pre=packaged goods. (:

At 1.60 to the dollar it has to be expensive but it is still the best.

Stacy - are you and others feeling France's inflation taking even more of a bite out of your salary ...not to mention the (non) dollar. Other than baguettes, even bread feels expensive. Other the other hand, it's so much better than bread in the US ... and that includes MOST boutique bakeries.

This morning while in Poujauran, I noticed that their baguettes (arguably among the best in Paris) are €0.80.

Their large macarons are only €2! I saw them for nearly €4 at another bakery not far from there, which I felt was a bit excessive, and they didn't even look that great.

I'm currently sampling Poujauran's small macarons and they're not bad. My favorite so far is a large café-flavored macaron from a bakery on rue du Bac, just off the Bd St Germain. Yum. LaDuree's cassis violette is also at the top of my list.

Stacy, this is normal, the "cheaper" area you go, the cheaper things are. The 7th is a touristy area. I am shure in the 16th it will be even more expensive. If you try to buy a bagette in a other country, such as in New York, or Chicago, or Detroit, or they suburbs, the price will be MUCH more expensive.

BP Chuck

Chuck, you're probably right, but even my nearby boulangerie artisanale in the 15th wasn't as expensive as the one on my street in the 7th. The 13th arrondissement was even cheaper.

FYI, baguettes in NY sell for $1.10 to $1.40. They are usually about 25" long and should weigh 8 ounces. But beware, if they weigh more than 8 oz while you are getting more for your money it's not the light crispy baguette that we have learned to love.

Stacy, I would say, if they bill them selfs as a "boulangerie artisanale", this is probably at least 10% more than a "simple" boulangerie, and a baguette is probably the same.

BP Chuck

It's interesting to see the price differences from neighborhood to neighborhood. A pain au chocolat at my corner "boulangerie artisanale" on rue du Bac is €1.10, and a 250-gram boule is €2.50. I forgot to check the price of croissants.

I think I only paid 70 centimes for a baguette when I lived in the 13th.

Oftentimes things in touristy areas are overpriced and overrated. There were many advantages to living in a "real" neighborhood that I miss!

you can find baguettes for 0.75 cents,
Banette for 1 euro
croissants for 0.80
pains au chocolat for 0.85
etc...

in the boulangerie that is in my quarter (not very touristy but DELICIOUS), there is always a lot of people who buy his bread here:

Rue Sophie Germain
75014 Paris
Metro: Mouton-Duvernet, ligne 4

the "flûte Gana", in a lot of good boulangeries (for example in Rue Daguerre, metro "Denfert-Rochereau"), is delicious too!

Frenchgirl

The only thing I can tell you off the top of my head is a baguette at my corner bakery is €0.90 and a baguette artisanale is €1.25.

I'll try to remember to look tomorrow at the prices of the other items you mentioned.

Can anyone tell me how much these items cost in Paris right now - croissant, pain au chocolat, bagette, and boule?