A bad baguette from a supermarche is 20 times better than most of anything that can be had in bakery in average US city. I know many cities have wonderful bakeries here in US but there is something about a baguette in Paris/France. Must be the water...

{pain au chocolat so that you are sure to get the right thing}

It's pain au chocolat. And, no, you don't pronounce the T.

I guess it is really "Pan o shok-o-la" ;-)

"The price of a baguette, a standard loaf of French bread is regulated by law"
That was in 1978.... it is not regulated now.

In my outer Paris neighborhood, in a boulangerie a baguette costs 0.90€, same price for a croissant. Pains au chocolat and pains aux raisins cost 1.00 or 1.10€. The pastries mostly start at 2.00€.

kerouac - pain used to be subsidized by the government I believe - is that still true? Prices seems so so low for a baguette compared to other prices.

I'm a bakery fanatic and when in France will camp out with a pastry and cafe in a bar at 7 am every morning to catch up with my journal. This has led me to untold numbers of bars and patisseries in the morning complete with their usual early morning denizens. I have never even considered cost, just quality and it is a wonderful ongoing survey. I just don't see much of an issue with cost.

My only concern is when I have to discard my "emergency pastry"--you know the extra treat you bring home for when you crave a little something extra late at night. Sometimes I'm just too full and those delicate beauties are just too fragile to keep long. Can't wait--five weeks in bakery heaven is coming soon!

We will be staying in the 9th arrondissement. But we will be there for 10 days and are planning to take the metro around town a lot.

If you have googled "bakery" in the ninth you probably came up with "Rose Bakery" which is really a tea room, not a bakery. There are several and one in the ninth. Indeed the prices are high but it is not where you would pick up a baguette. This may be the cause of your confusion. Try googling "boulangerie".

PalenQ, as Pvoyageuse wrote there has been no price control for bread since 1978. The very last part of France where flour is subsidized is French Polynesia, which has to import nearly 100% of the food it consumes.

Thanks everyone for the French correction. I don't speak French. But I must admit they probably get that all the time. I still got the "pain au chocolat" even though I asked for the croissant. (Frankly, I don't see how anything with chocolate in the middle could be a "pain". hahahahah) :)

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that the OP concern was the number of euro signs they saw as a cost guide, not that it is euros.

I agree that "Tuscanlifeedit has nailed it!!"

The windows of the patisseries are like artwork. Perhaps it is the bigger cakes, etc that warrant so many euro signs. I will admit that I am a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to food, however, every dollar or euro you spend in a French bakery will be more than worth it.

<<in my city I can pay $2 USD for a pretty lousy cupcake.>>

Yeesh, that's getting off cheap. Given the new American fetishization of the cupcake and the insidious purveyor that started the craze (rhymes with twinkles), the going price is nearer to $3.50 for one whose "cake" element tends toward dryness.

We will be staying in the 9th arrondissement. But we will be there for 10 days and are planning to take the metro around town a lot.>>

Hoai, if I have understood you correctly, you are worried about how much breakfast is going to cost you every day if you eat it in a cafe. Kerouac may well know different, but for a fruit juice, cafe au lait, and pastry, it's likely to cost you in the region of €5, if you buy it as a package. [look for "petit dejeuner"] perhaps slightly more if you want something different. As you are staying in one place for 10 days, you will have the chance to try a few different places until you find the one you like best. most of these neighbourhood cafes and bakeries are not going to be on forums - you are likely only to find the expensive ones there.

it's likely that the breakfast offered by your hotel would cost more.

Well, you can get a decent jelly doughnut for $0.65 at most supermarkets in the US...but they don't even come within a light-year of a yummy <i>tarte rouge</i> at a typical Parisian boulangerie...well worth the money.

(We're leaving for Paris soon and my mouth is watering in anticipation just reading this thread. Our typical breakfast in our hotel room: coffee, pastry, and an orange and some strawberries picked up Wed & Sat at the place Baudoyer market across the street.)

SS

I agree with annhig -- you can get a 'French breakfast' in many cafés for 5-6 euros if you are not in the tourist center. Lots of cafés put signs out front advertising the cost and contents of their breakfasts.

The chain places like Brioche Dorée, La Croissanterie, Pomme de Pain and many others advertise breakfast specials even cheaper than that.

There is a big difference between Entenmann's and a real patisserie.

@StCirq<<<It's pain au chocolat. And, no, you don't pronounce the T.>>>

How does one pronounce your User Name?

LL, surely you know how to pronounce Saint (as in Yves Saint-Laurent), but if you don't, click here and scroll down to Camille Saint-Saëns, then the audio button and listen for the pronunciation of Saint: http://www.pronunciationguide.info/t...st.html#French

Cirq is pronounced Seerh, sometimes with an almost unnoticeable q sound at the very end, depending on whom you're talking to.

@StCirq<<<LL, surely you know how to pronounce Saint (as in Yves Saint-Laurent)>>>

I do. But a lot of tourists, who also think that they do let themselves down as soon as they open that thing between their chin and their nose!