Most Amazing Breads...Paris to Prague

Between Trier and Cochem, I'm going to guess that your boat will make a stop at Bernkastel because of all the tourist shops. There is a great bakery on the main street that runs parallel to the south side of the river. Sorry, I don't know the name of it, but it's on the SW corner - either at the end of the bridge or a block west. You'll see racks of bread as you walk in the door and they have a few tables as well. Last summer, my husband and I enjoyed delicious sandwiches and hot chocolate there on a rainy day.

I haven't been to Germany or Prague, but I am confident you can walk into virtually any bakery in Paris and find great bread. Should be heaven for a bread fan. And it is all very fresh. You often see people walking down the streets munching on plain baguettes. I've had "breakfasts" there that consisted of cafe, orange juice, 1/2 of a baguette and a croissant. There is so much bread -- but save room for pastries too!

The one thing that almost all European culinary traditions have in common is great bread. Small take-away bakeries are still fairly common from one end of the continent to the other, even in some of the nastiest corners of the former Soviet Empire. The typical breakfast spread on the continent usually offers a selection of fresh breads (and cheeses, meats, mueseli, etc.). Seriously, with so many selections, you can't go wrong.

Germany has seriously wonderful breads. Hearty taste, good substance and healthy too. We also have fabulous cheeses too. Bakeries are on every street corner and any of the street markets which are everywhere, will also have delicious products. Personally, I find French breads to be tasteless in comparison to something with lots of whole grains and seeds. Guess I just don't care for white bread that much.

I agree that the breads of Germany can be more interesting and tastier than the typical French white loaf, but a good crusty sourdough has it's own virtues. Probably the only place I was dissappointed with the bread was Greece, it tended to be bland, poor texture, and unremarkable. Of course, if you stick to Pitas in Greece, the magic returns.

Do seek out the Poilane bakery in in the 7eme in Paris. Their house bread, the Pain Poilane, is justly famous and featured on cafe menus in Paris. The quarter round is large but you will not regret buying it if you love bread.

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions. I have heard time and time again that all the bread in France is wonderful and I am glad to hear that reconfirmed. A friend just returned from Germany and actually challenged the french bread with the German bread as Jo mentioned...it will be great fun (and delicious I'm sure) to try bread at every stop along the way!

Thanks Adam for referring the Polaine bakery in Paris...we will definitely check it out. Thanks too Maggie for your suggestion in Bernkastel, Germany. Even without the name the directions are clear and for a good bread my fiance will enjoy the challenge...a bread scavenger hunt :-)

Any others come to mind, please let me know!
Thanks again for helping me with this surprise for my fiance!

I know someone that had terrible bread in Paris!! He said the bread was dry and hard enough to break a tooth, and noticed other people having trouble eating the bread too. He wasn't in Paris that long, and he could have just had bad luck and went to a big tourist joint. I have not been to Paris yet, so I have no personal experience yet. But this is one bad thing I heard, and I was very surprised to hear that since I've heard mostly good things about French food.

IMHO the best bakeries are in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic. But of course I understand that opinions differ because this is a subjective matter. Some people even think that the best bread is American cotton like one.

In 8 recent visits, I've never had bad bread in Paris.

For the six months I was in Germany as a student we had brotchen or a pretzel every day for breakfast. The Gasthof that we stayed in had a huge basket every morning. It was mostly brotchen but there were a few real pretzel and some pretzels in roll shape. We would dig through the basket to get those pretzels. They were wonderful with unsalted butter and himbeer jam. Ah. Wonderful

In Germany, when you buy brotchen (small breads) they are meant to be eaten that day. They have a hard crust on the outside, but oh so tender and soft inside. Unfortunately, they don't last more than a day, even if you wrap it up in saran wrap. If you wrap it up, it gets too soft on the outside and tastes stale. If you don't wrap them up, they get hard as a rock. So, only buy what you think you will eat that day. Also, there are no preservatives in their breads--a good thing. There are also some wonderful dark breads that must weigh at least a pound. All of these breads are great with cheese and a bottle of wine. Have fun in the bakerei!

Good Morning Everyone!
Thanks so very much for all the wonderful suggestions. We will certainly enjoy eating our way through the carbs of Paris, Germany and Prague..breads, pretzels and dumplings :-)!
I think and hope these ideas will be a fun and tasty surprise for my fiance.
Thanks again.

Hi Jil, I know that you're on your holidays now, but other bread foodies, might like to hear about some fabulous bread I had in Austria. Austria, like Germany, has a variety of fabulous bread. Brotchen of various shapes and sizes -- love the flat brotchen that were made with caraway seeds -- they're good for hiking, soft pretzels, schwartzerbrot, etc. Good bakeries were everywhere and made fabulous bread products. I was never disappointed.