Clotilde, of Chocolate & Zucchini has a wonderful write up about La Paume, a sour dough bread created by Alan Passard, a chef from a restaurant in Paris. I encourage you to read that article because it speaks to the richness of life folks in France are able to experience. I wrote a comment on her website which I am duplicating here because I feel if there is one thing that is still lacking in US, it is good quality bread. Don;t get me wrong, things are indeed getting better. But honestly bread is such a basic necessity that each town or village should be able to support a small bakery. Yet, there are no good bakeries around!! Enuough said. Here is my comment…

Bread is my favorite, and sourdough bread is my favorite among breads. So when I read about La Paume, my mouth started watering. Its almost impossible to get good sourdough bread here in Princeton. We have a wonderful little bakery in town called Witherspoon Bakery which bakes some delicous breads, but their sourdough breads are not the best.

I have tried to bake sourdough bread myself in my house, but lacking a decent oven, my breads always turnout slightly discolored pale cousins of what you have shown here. Alas, I wish I had access to a bread like the one described here! Or at least a recepie for baking something like this at home.