Eliane French Bakery

I spent 2 years in France serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was tough, of course, but I loved it over there as well. One of the things that I loved was the food. The bread, pastries, cheese, crepes and so much more. I loved it.

Eliane French Bakery is located in Orem and I like to go there occasionally and buy some of my favorite pastries. Some of these favorites are chocolate eclairs, millefeuille, paris brest, and lemon tarts. The food is great there. It's not quite the same as going to a boulangerie-patisserie in France, but it's really close.

Anyway, I always love going there. Not only for the food, but also for the experience. The place is run by a Tahitian man (at least, I think he's Tahitian) and he likes to greet his customers in french and then switches over to english if needs be. Even though my french is getting rusty, it's fun to go in and order in french and talk with him a bit. I think today was the best experience I've had in there. I actually ended up ordering everything in english first because I didn't respond very quickly when he greeted me in french, so he switched over to english. However, when I was paying, I said something in french and he asked me if I speak french. After telling him that I had served in France, he got excited and started asking me how I liked the food over there and this turned into a fun conversation about pastries and cheese and crepes, all in french of course.

I think the best part was right at the end. We had been talking for a bit and he told me he wanted to show me something. He walked over to a big box he had on the counter, spun it around toward me and opened it up. Sitting inside the box was a large galette des rois (King Cake). It's a cake that is traditionally served around the New Year. There's a little porcelain figurine (feve) inside. Whoever gets the feve in their piece of cake is the king. Anyway, he seemed so excited to be able to show that to somebody who appreciated what is was.

I don't go to the bakery very often because I always want to buy a lot of stuff and its a little pricey, but it's always fun to go in. This, however, was by far my favorite visit.