Le Moulin de Rosa - Laurent Watrin — Restaurant in Paris

Long time pâtissier, Laurent Watrin recently passed over his corner Moulin de Rosa to M Jacques. It is still the only boulangerie along the southern tail of Rue de Turenne. Just two blocks from Place des Vosges, it stays busy not only from local lunchtime crowds but tourists spilling out from Rue des Francs Bourgeois and you will be lucky if anything is left by 4pm. But quality is what brings you back. They use 2 ribbons of rich Valrhona in their flavorful pain au chocolate, made especially flaky by the high end Lescure butter for consistently crunchy bites when oven fresh. Their viennoiserie sets the bar for others in the neighborhood. Other carefully crafted pastries showcased in the window change daily but the lemon layer cake is superb. The multi fruit and seed bread is my favorite although often disappears by late afternoon. It is so dense with goodies that they recommend slicing it for you with their electric cutter as home knives will likely crumble the bread. In case they’ve run out try their dense norvégien multi grain which is filled with various seeds and whole grains and to me has character and complexity rather than bread without anything inside, although their crisp baguettes are as...

Le Moulin de Rosa is an amazing local bakery, one that you dream of when you think of the Parisian experience. It is inviting from the outside and when you enter, your senses are overwhelmed by the choices and I just wanted to try everything! A mind boggling selection of baguette sandwiches and we tried several and all of them were amazing. If you go later in the afternoon and they run out, don’t despair like I did and ask them if they might make you one (or two!) in my case fresh! We took them on the plane back to New York and it was a nice reminder of our trip. The apricot tart is probably the best I have ever had, and as someone else mentioned, the small tigre treats with chocolate in the middle should not be missed. But this is not one of those boulangeries that offer everything and everything is giant portions. The selection is well-curated and it is absolutely French in every lovely way. Laurent and his colleagues take great pride in their bakery and I will be dreaming of the yummy goods until we return. A must stop if you visit Place de...

Addendum: Picked up the traditional baguette and it was, hands down, the best one I’ve had in Paris, after 10 days of trying different breads. Perfection! When I go back tomorrow, I’m going to try the “seeded” baguette. It looks remarkable.

(Two days earlier: “I stopped by this lovely boulangerie and tried a “Paris Brest” (my friends told me I had to try this pastry because it was bicycle-related!). It was delicious, and Monsieur Watrin was friendly and welcoming. Now that I’ve seen the different Google Map posts about the bread, I will have to return for a baguette and round loaf. Since I’m in Paris for two months, I have plenty of time to try...