OUR PATCH SEPTEMBER 2016
PARIS!
So why would a couple who had successfully run a bakery just south of Notre-Dame, near Place d’ Italie, for 20 years suddenly decide that their future really lay in King Street?
Keiko laughed.“ Well, for 20 years we had done the same thing, and we needed a change!”
In an odd way, moving to London was coming home. Although Alain is French and Keiko is from Tokyo, they actually met in London.“ I was a student and Alain was working in a restaurant,” said Keiko.
“ So we met in London, and we were married in Westminster … but in the register office, not the abbey!” For a while they lived in New York( where their son was born) before coming back to London, then settling in Paris.
The working hours at Sainte-Anne wouldn’ t suit everyone. Alain begins work between midnight and 1am, with Keiko strolling to join him from the couple’ s home in Stamford Brook a few hours later.
There’ s a touch of theatre about the shop; you can watch Alain and his baking staff beavering away behind a glass wall as you meander your way to the not-so-secret garden through the bi-fold doors at the back; a square courtyard with an awning, backed by a wall covered in jasmine, which releases its scent every time the wind whiffles through.
It contains a motley collection of unmatched pastel-painted chairs and salvage tables; a welcome sanctuary from the bedlam of King Street.
It’ s hot work in the shop; and it got even hotter in August when a new, bigger bread oven was installed during
So why leave Paris? Well, for 20 years we had done the same thing and we needed a change!
the couple’ s annual holiday( he nipped back to France, she to Japan) to keep pace with growing demand.
From yummy mummies to business dealers, bread aficionados to wifi surfers, the regulars love the place, and you can order special-occasion gateaux and tartes, puff pastry slices and wedding cakes too.
Organic flour comes from a Gloucestershire mill, the milk is English, the chocolate Belgian … but there’ s simply no alternative to the creamy, slow-churned French Charentes butter to create the croissants.
There is free wifi, and a lovely tendency to surprise unsuspecting diners with extra‘ amuse-bouches’, unexpected bonus mini slices of, for instance, hazelnut mousse cake topped by wafer-thin slivers of chocolate, served out of the blue in a tiny porcelain dish.
With barely 25 covers, most of the trade is take-out. Just don’ t tell anybody about it; it’ s the place everyone in the know wants to keep to themselves! It opens Tue-Sat 7am-7pm, Sun 8am-6pm. Patisserie Sainte-Anne, 204 King Street, W6 0RA. 020 8563 2046. Visit: www. patisseriestaineanne. co. uk
TOTALLY THAMES FESTIVAL OFFERS A DIP IN THE RIVER
Wet, wet, wet: swimmers step forward
It isn’ t often that residents are encouraged to fling themselves into the river. But there’ s a rare opportunity to get wet on
Wednesday( September 7). As part of the month-long Totally Thames season of events, celebrating our beautiful river, the Thames River Swim takes place.
It’ s not a race or a competition, just a chance to join like-minded water lovers in a 1,500-metre swim at Hammersmith, timed to coincide with a beneficial tide.
Provided you’ re an experienced swimmer, turn up at the Black Lion pub in Black Lion Lane before 5.30pm with your cossie and towel and join in the group swim until 8pm. The tide will assist you heading towards Chiswick Eyot, then provide a helping hand as it turns and you return towards Hammersmith.
At least 100 swimmers will pay £ 6 a head for the invigorating experience. Register in advance( www. totallythames. org) secure in the knowledge that support boats and the sea cadets will escort.
Naturally you will need refreshment afterwards as you dry and change in the pub, where you can also book a place at Cristiano’ s Italian supper club, featuring seasonal dishes. Email info @ theblacklion-hammersmith. co. uk for reservations.
The third Totally Thames festival includes arts, cultural and archaeological events, with river installations, cabarets, concerts featuring specially composed works, angling and tall ship cruises.