While our hotel (Chateau Versailles) had a perfectly decent continental breakfast included with it, we were craving French pastries. So we went down the road looking for a nice local boulangerie. What we found was one location of a small Quebec chain, Premiere Moisson Boulangerie.
Walking in, the first thing we spotted were two large display cased filled with all varieties of pastries, both savory and sweet, with all sorts of croissants, millefeuilles, muffins, tarts, and the like. The second thing we spotted was the queue, with several people all lined up waiting to order from the display cases.
Carol and I opted to start out with the same thing, Pain au Chocolate and a large bowl of cafe au lait. I was quite pleased with the pain au chocolate, the pastry was nice and flaky on the outside and buttery and soft on the inside, with just enough chocolate to make it sweet without overpowering it. I’m sure that if I explored more, there are better croissants to be had in Montreal, but theirs was pleasing enough. The cafe au lait was brewed strong and served in a generous bowl. All in all, a very nice execution of my standard “European-style” breakfast.
We also rather enjoyed the other item we tried, the “Filouze”, a nice chocolate-chip filled pastry that was a pastry approximately halfway between a Pain au Chocolate and a Palmiere. Very tasty.
So I’m rather impressed with both the quality and selection of their pastries, and will definitely be going back when in Montreal (this is what Panera *should* be like).
Premiere Moisson Boulangerie
1490 rue Sherbrooke Ouest (and other Montreal area locations)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
there is no way in hell that Panera's pastries will ever approach that of an American pastry, let along a French-Canadian pastry. Too many unskilled hands touching it combined with frozen dough does not make for a similar experience.
Panera chocolate pastries are to these pain au chocolat what hostess apple pies are to well, an apple pie
We will be traveling to Montreal and staying in the Chateau Versailles in May! I will enjoy a stop here and have a treat in your honor! Thanks for the tip!