W C.
Yelp
First stop in Paris!
The two of us have always wanted to try the bread at Poilâne after reading the interesting New Yorker article about the owner several years ago. Luckily, this original location wasn't far from our hotel.
We got two slices of the miche sourdough, an apple tart, and three complimentary punitions. The bread is delicious, with a crisp crust and chewy sourness in the middle--we wished we had some butter on us to make it Next Level! We're not big cooked apple people, but we still enjoyed the tart, and two thumbs up for extra flakiness. The punitions are sables--none of us were having a "le wow!!!" experience, though they were fine. It's a butter cookie, everyone, calm down.
Our only complaint was the particularly rude woman who was helping us. Oui, oui, we KNOW that all service personnel in France are rude (this isn't our first French rodeo!) but one of us speaks French half-decently and she was still being rude. For no reason! Everyone else in the store seemed somewhat pleasant, so...pourquoi, Madame Grumpypantalons??
Anyway, happy to have tried this place once, but it doesn't need to be a "must stop" on repeat visits. You're damn right that we would be buying our bread here, however, if we lived in Paris.