Three years after we first lit the oven on Rue des Tanneurs, we are opening a second bakery across the river. It took longer than we hoped and cost more than we planned, but the keys are finally ours. Here is how it happened, and what changes for the regulars who have been asking for months.
Why a second shop
The short answer is the queue. On Saturday mornings it reached the corner, and by ten we had nothing left but a few sad croissants. We tried baking more, but the kitchen is small and the oven only holds so many trays. Every week we turned people away, and every week a few of them told us they lived on the other side of the river and would happily walk less.
So we started looking. We visited eleven places in four months: a former pharmacy with beautiful tiles and no room for an oven, a corner shop with a landlord who changed the rent twice in one meeting, and a garage that would have needed a new floor, new walls and, frankly, a new garage.
The place we chose
The twelfth visit was the one. It used to be a small café, so the water, the drains and the ventilation were already there. The front room is twice the size of our first shop, with a long window onto the street that catches the morning sun. Behind it, there is enough space for a proper bakehouse: two ovens, a cold room for the dough, and a bench long enough for three of us to shape loaves side by side.
We signed in March and spent the spring with plumbers, electricians and a very patient inspector. The ovens arrived in June, on the hottest day of the year, carried in by four people who did not stop smiling once, which we still do not understand.
What stays the same
The bread does not change. Same flour from the mill in the valley, same slow fermentation, same sourdough starter we have been feeding since the first day. Half of it now lives in the new shop, which felt strange to split, a bit like moving a pet into two homes.
The team does not change either. Léa takes charge of the new bakehouse, Samir stays with the original one, and the rest of us move between the two depending on the day. If you have a favourite face behind the counter, you will still see it, just not always in the same place.
What changes
With two ovens, we can finally bake through the morning instead of all at once before dawn. That means fresh bread at noon, not only at seven, and a second batch of croissants for the people who, like us, are not morning people.
The new shop also has a few tables by the window. Nothing fancy: coffee, a slice of something, and a place to sit while you decide whether you need one loaf or two.
Opening day
We open on the first Saturday of next month, at seven. The first hundred customers get a small bag of our hazelnut biscuits, and the original shop keeps its usual hours, so nobody has to choose. Come and say hello, and if you have walked past the windows covered in paper all summer wondering what was going on, now you know.