A Lettre Gourmande from France

French bread for kids

Name: Pain perdu (French toast)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 8 slices of stale bread (baguette, country bread or brioche), about 2 cm thick; 2 eggs; 250 ml milk; 2 tablespoons caster sugar; A few drops of vanilla extract; A pinch of cinnamon (optional); A knob of butter, for the pan; To serve: jam, honey, fruit or a sprinkle of sugar

French bread for kids: bread plates in the Middle Ages, the bread that started a revolution, the birth of the baguette and a bread for every region.

Golden French baguettes piled up on a market stall, with a small chalkboard price label — Baguettes at the Edgar Quinet market, in Paris. Photo: Paul Asman and Jill Lenoble, CC BY 2.0 (cropped)

Bonjour!

It's Nathalie! It's getting rather cold now, autumn has well and truly settled in, and I think it's the perfect time to introduce you to my brand-new letters, all about one very special side of France: its food! So welcome to your very first "Lettre Gourmande" (Gourmet Letter)!

Recently, on my walks in the fields, I have often seen farmers sowing their wheat: it will grow slowly, all winter long, and will be harvested next summer, to become flour.

Today, I'm going to tell you about a food that French people eat almost every day. It is crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and when you walk past a bakery, or when it comes out of the oven, its lovely smell makes you hungry straight away… Have you guessed? It's bread, of course!

Read it in French

C'est Nathalie ! Il fait maintenant plutôt froid, l'automne est bien installé, et je pense que c'est le moment idéal pour te faire découvrir mes toutes nouvelles lettres dédiées à un aspect tout particulier de la France : sa gastronomie ! Bienvenue donc dans ta toute première « Lettre Gourmande » !

Récemment, lors de mes promenades dans les champs, j'ai souvent vu les agriculteurs semer leur blé : il va pousser doucement, tout l'hiver, et sera récolté l'été prochain, pour devenir de la farine.

Aujourd'hui, je vais te parler d'un aliment que les Français mangent quasiment tous les jours. Il est croustillant à l'extérieur, moelleux à l'intérieur, et quand on passe devant une boulangerie, ou qu'on le sort du four, sa bonne odeur donne tout de suite faim… Tu as deviné ? C'est le pain, bien sûr !

Nathalie

In this letter

A very long history
Bread for the people
The birth of the baguette
At the boulangerie
Bread at the table
A bread for every region
The words of bread

Bread and baguette facts

The first leavened breads, nice and puffed up, come from ancient Egypt, more than 5,000 years ago.
In the Middle Ages, there were no plates: food was put on thick slices of stale bread called "tranchoirs" (trenchers).
Around 1840, Auguste Zang opened a "Viennese bakery" in Paris and introduced Parisians to the kipferl, the ancestor of the croissant. That is why croissants are called "viennoiseries".
The word "baguette" appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, and since 2022 the skills to make it have been on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Every day, 12 million French people go to the boulangerie, and more than six billion baguettes are made every year.
Since 1993, a baguette sold as "une tradition" can only contain flour, water, salt and yeast or sourdough.
Every year, the winner of the competition for the best baguette in Paris delivers bread to the President, at the Élysée Palace, for a whole year.
The word "copain" (friend) comes from the Latin "cum panis", "with bread": a copain is someone you share your bread with.

French words to learn

Français	English
le pain	bread
la boulangerie	the bakery
le boulanger / la boulangère	the baker
le blé	wheat
la farine	flour
la levure	yeast
le four	the oven
la croûte	the crust
croustillant	crunchy
moelleux	soft
rassis	stale
une tartine	a slice of bread and butter
le goûter	the afternoon snack
la nappe	the tablecloth
saucer	to mop up the sauce
partager	to share
un copain	a friend
une région	a region

Free printable: French bread word search

Find 16 French words about bread, from "baguette" to "quignon", in this word search from the Discovery Sheets that come with the letter. Print it on A4.

Download the PDF

Recipe: Pain perdu (French toast)

In France, stale bread is never thrown away! When a baguette has gone hard, it becomes pain perdu, which literally means "lost bread": slices soaked in milk and egg, then fried in butter until golden. It is called French toast, or even eggy bread, in England. It makes a delicious goûter or breakfast, and a clever way not to waste food. Brioche makes an extra soft pain perdu, and a slightly stale baguette makes a crunchier one: try both and choose your favourite!

Prep 10 min · Cooking 10 min · Serves 4

Ingredients

8 slices of stale bread (baguette, country bread or brioche), about 2 cm thick
2 eggs
250 ml milk
2 tablespoons caster sugar
A few drops of vanilla extract
A pinch of cinnamon (optional)
A knob of butter, for the pan
To serve: jam, honey, fruit or a sprinkle of sugar

What you need

A shallow dish
A fork or a whisk
A frying pan
A spatula

Method

In the shallow dish, beat the eggs with a fork. Add the milk, the sugar, the vanilla and the cinnamon, and mix well.
Dip each slice of bread into the mixture for a few seconds on each side: it should be soft, but not falling apart. The staler the bread, the longer it can soak!
With an adult: melt the butter in the frying pan over a medium heat.
Cook the slices for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until they are golden and a little crunchy.
Serve warm with jam, honey or fruit… bon appétit!