Oh là là!
A new French bakery opening too close to your home is both the best and the worst thing that can happen to you I guess because,
a) Yay, a French bakery, imagine all the tartes, croissants, mille-feuilles, éclairs and quiches I’m going to be having, but
b) How am I going to fit into any of my clothes when I put on (at least) 20 kg?
Honestly, I was starting to worry when I read that there’s a serious shortage of butter around Europe (caused by a shortage of milk, which, if I understood correctly, has caused the price of butter to skyrocket).
Then this morning as I was scrolling through my Facebook, I saw a post on Expats Facebook group that a new French bakery opened in Zagreb this morning and I was very happy that my daily butter needs will be satisfied. Then I saw that the place looked familiar, realised that it’s practically 5 minutes from my home and then I got ecstatic – my own French bakery! The dream! I’ll pretend I’m in Paris every morning.
I stopped by La Marquise this morning and was welcomed by the smiling owner, Céline.
“We’ve been living in Croatia for about eight months now, and, as my husband and I had experience in pastry making, we decided to open an Artisan Boulangerie & Patisserie,” Céline told me. “We’ve already had 20-30 people stop by, and we only posted it on Facebook, so we’re happy with the turnout.”
She said that most people ate savoury things, like quiches, because it was still fairly early for cakes (even though that’s impossible, I could eat cakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner).
Then she invited Sebastien, her husband, who is also the pastry chef, from the kitchen.
“I have worked with pastries in Europe and in Canada and now that we’ve moved here, I decided to give Croatia a try as well. This is our first shop, but we will be opening shops at Bukovačka cesta, Petrinjska and at Bundek soon,” Sebastien told me.
I wanted to eat everything, but, alas, had to choose, so I took a quiche Lorraine and it was divine.
Divine I tell you!
I’ll be stopping by for cakes tomorrow (and the day after that, and all the days after that, probably).
“We’ve stacked up on butter, so we’ll have croissants throughout winter as well,” Céline assured me after I shared my butter-related concerns with her.
We wish you the best of luck, Sebastien and Céline, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other often.
Like Marquise on Facebook here and stop by Rebar 25/Dolčić 5 for your dose of French baked goodies.
Mon – Fri: 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday: 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Sunday: 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.
