Breizh Cafe

Breizh Cafe
109 Rue Vieille du Temple, 75003 Paris, France 
+33 1 42 72 13 77

As soon as friends, relatives, and co-workers found out we'd be going to France for our honeymoon, they all told us to go eat a crepe. It's one of those touristy things that you just have to do while you're there. While we saw plenty of vendors selling them on the street on carts or at stands, the best crepes we had were at a small cafe called Breizh Cafe.

In France, there are two types of crepes - sweet and savory. Sweet crepes are made with wheat flour and are slightly sweetened while savory ones, often referred to as galettes, are made with buckwheat flour. The name "galette" comes from the French word galet, meaning pebble, as the first versions of these crepes were made on a large stone heated over a fire.

One afternoon after some sight-seeing, we took a rest break and stopped into Breizh Cafe to try one of each of these two types of crepes. The sweet crepe with wheat flour came served with fresh banana, caramel, and vanilla ice-cream. The buckwheat crepe came served with buckwheat honey and buckwheat ice cream.

Both crepes were delicious. The wheat flour variety is what most people are accustomed to eating. The batter was really light and thin but flavorful. The buckwheat crepe was different but also tasty. I liked it mainly because of the texture, which was slightly toasty, crispy, and chewy. The buckwheat gives it a flavor similiar to a really intense, almost bitter, hoppy beer.

I didn't realize so many different products could be produced from buckwheat. After doing some research, I learned that buckwheat is actually the seed of a flowering fruit that is related to rhubarb and sorrel. The plant also has flowers which attract bees which produce honey. Who knew.

In any case, if you're ever in Paris, definitely hit up Breizh Cafe. You can certainly try a crepe from one of the stands or carts, which are perfectly fine and very convenient, but the ones at Breizh are a step up in my opinion and worth a trip.