French Baker Comes to Wood Hill

By Lisa and Madeline

On Monday, April 24th, Victor, the owner of La Maison Navarre, a bakery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, came to Wood Hill.  With him came large white boxes copiously filled with flaky pastries varying from croissants and brioche. The pleasant bread smell was so overpowering that some students started to drool.  Bellies grumbled and crazed eyes started to appear on everyone. Victor, however, was used to smelling and seeing these delectables. His bakery, La Maison Navarre is a proud French bakery that serves authentic French food.  They sell all sorts of pastries like pain au chocolat, but their specialty are macarons.  Many seem to enjoy this tiny French treat in particular.  Perhaps it is the flavored ganache that is sandwiched between two crispy biscuits that appeals to many people.  Whatever it is, La Maison Navarre are professional macaron makers. However, they do not serve just pastries. They also make savory foods like quiches, and are opening a wine bar.  This wine bar, according to Victor, will be paired with charcuterie, which is basically assorted meats. Victor is not worried about the wine bar since his restaurant have much dexterity in their cooking.  In fact, they have a 4.9 star rating in reviews.

La Maison Navarre is some of Victor’s proudest achievements.  In the presentation, he explained that he was trying to major in industrial business while he was at college in Paris.  However, he found it very pleasing to make food. To him, the food environment was very comfortable to work with. That’s why he decided to instead put all his time and money into baking and making food.  Along his journey into the food world, he worked with Charlotte. Charlotte lived most of her life in Lyon, France, which is a place known for its food. In Lyon, you can have many gastronomic experiences. Before she met with Victor, she worked at some of the most famous chocolate businesses.  Together, they were a dynamic duo. Confident in their skills and wanting to bring some very good French food to the United States, they moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and started a bakery there. Why in Portsmouth? Well, Victor explained that a lot of his family lived there, so he felt that it would be nice to have their bakery there. During the presentation, Victor used this story to show that not everyone exactly gets what they expect in life.  You have to just go on with what you get. Destiny was a big topic in his presentation. After Victor finished his very inspiring speech, he answered some of the questions we had. He gave really great answers to all of them.

When we tried the food, we were amazed to see how good it was. You had four options of pastries to try. The brioche with sugar on top, brioche with chocolate on top, bread with chocolate inside, and a light croissant. Those with gluten-free allergies received macarons. These macaron flavors ranged from salted caramel to chocolate raspberry.  The croissant had an incredible bread flavor, and it's chewiness was satisfying for the mouth. The bread with chocolate, or the pain au chocolat, was the perfect balance of sugary and bread flavor.  Both pastries were incredibly flakey, so it would make a nice crunch if you bit into the bread.  The brioches too tasted like a croissant, but denser. The sugar topped brioche had a nice tingling sugar sensation, while the chocolate topped brioche made jaded chocolate lovers giggle with joy.  All in all, I could see how all these pastries were delicacies in France.

This was a very great and well organized presentation from Victor. He talked very well and gave an outstanding story about how he came to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was a great discussion about how life can lead to very different outcomes from that you expect. Also, those pastries were amazing. No other bakery in America will ever make something come close to it. We hope that Victor and Charlotte may come to Wood Hill next year!