I had my best ever pain au raisin at the café/patisserie Paul last Thursday, moist and rich under a dark sticky glaze. Only it wasn’t a pain au raisin, it was and ‘Escargot Raisin’ and that Gallic touch made it taste all the better. The morning was chilly when I visited and I sat upstairs in the small and rather cramped room – the seating round the edge, a cross between settles and choir stalls was not the most comfortable. Paul sits looking towards St Paul’s Cathedral in a sort of friendly French – British tete-a-tete; and the outdoor seating will be perfect in fine weather. French pastries and English architecture, a little bit of much needed entente cordiale.
Photo: Paul, Paternoster Square, London, May 2017