Breakfast at Lek's

What started me on an epicurean search for the perfect croissant was breakfast at Lek's. "Lek’s" is not a breakfast or brunch place. Lek is the nickname of a friend who is a Paris denizen.

On a visit to the famed city of lights, my friend and I were privileged to have stayed in Lek's parents-in-law's studio apartment, in a 150-year-old building on the summit of Butte Montmarte. This building, with the apartment's window on the second floor, was seen in the movie "French Kiss", in the scene where Kevin Klein was giving Meg Ryan some money after her personal things were stolen. The ground floor of the building was also the setting of a scene in a recent French comedy film titled "Le Nouveau Jean Hide" which we may never get to see in North America.

Lek, her husband and son live about a hundred steps down, at a midpoint of the hill. Every morning, Lek insisted that we go down and have breakfast at her place, a charming vintage apartment that she has filled with art deco. This apartment building has appeared in a postcard in the 50s, featuring a photograph from the series on Les escaliers de Montmarte (The Stairways of Montmarte) by Rene Jacques. Lek's apartment also would have been the setting of a class B movie. The production designer had scouted the place and had discussed rates with the residents. One scene would have involved two women running naked in the apartment — this was a warning because Lek happens to have a young teenager with exploding hormones. Fortunately or not, the filming did not proceed because of lack of funds.

So every morning without miss, my friend and I would go down to Lek's. That would mean walking around the lively Jewish creche, past numerous touristy restaurants, the famed Basilica de Sacre Couer, the viewing deck where tourists witness the lighting up of Paris, and the funicular station. Beside the station are the hundred and more steps leading to a small park with a carousel, the one that you saw in the French film Amelie, and the subway station. Going down was easy and we were glad that the invitation was for breakfast and not dinner. At night we took the funicular right to the top (there are no other stops).

Breakfast always consisted of croissants and they were the best that I have tasted — buttery and flaky. I could tell that they were good by the multi layers of crust that peeled off and dropped as crumbs on the table, if not the floor. Lek lectured that good croissants were made with pure butter, not with margarine as substitute. And they should be light, never having the texture of bread. Lek said that after tasting her croissants we would be asking for them all the time. But we didn’t have to --- ask that is --- because she served them everyday.

Lek, like the croissants, didn’t disappoint. One day, we had crepes; another time, baguettes and pain du chocolat. But the croissants were always present. With the plain croissants we also had marmalade and sometimes eggs and bacon or sausage.
She called them "my croissants" although she didn't bake them herself. She bought them. Every morning, before we appeared at her door, she would go down the stairways of Montmarte to the boulangerie Le Gastelier (her discovery), then go up to her home. We commended her efforts. But to her the early morning trips were her exercise.
It didn't worry Lek that there was too much food. Still a typical Filipino, she would pack the leftovers for our baon so that we wouldn’t have to spend more money for lunch. Wherever we went --- from Versailles to Champs-Elysee, on the Seine, in the Louvre --- we carried a lunch bag, courtesy of Lek. Her hospitality was well-documented in some of our photos, showing us holding that bag.

On arrival in Toronto, I searched for a similar croissant. Not one has yet passed the mark. Perhaps I shall ask Lek to Fedex me my supply. Or better still, revv up my spending on my air miles card for another trip to Paris.

(Note: a few French-style bakeries have opened in Toronto since 2000 and I have judged the croissants from two of these bakeries as the best.)