A neighbourhood bakery, and a wood-fired oven brought back to life
Maison Dupain is Claire and Thomas Dupain’s bakery, on the right bank of Rouen, since 2016.
Twenty years asleep, then the fire
In 2016, Claire and Thomas took over an old neighbourhood bakery. At the back of the bakehouse, a 1920 wood-fired oven had lain cold for twenty years.
They lit it again. It now runs six days a week, and every loaf in the shop is baked in it.
- 1920the year of the oven
- 6 daysa week, the oven is lit
Thomas, six years on the road
Thomas learnt his trade with the Compagnons du Devoir, the French craft guild, then spent six years on a tour de France of bakeries.
He bakes with a natural sourdough starter and organic flour stone-ground in Normandy, and lets time do the work: 30 hours of fermentation for the miche before it goes into the wood fire.
Claire, from restaurant kitchens to the shop
Claire comes from restaurant pastry. She makes the house pastries, from the Normandy apple tart to the Paris-Brest, and the cakes to order.
She also runs the shop.
A day at the bakehouse
Everything is made here, by hand, every morning. Today the team is five people. It also delivers to three neighbouring restaurants.
4 am
The bakehouse lights up: the first loaves are shaped and go into the oven.
7 am
The shop opens, with the morning’s bread and pastries on the counter.
5 pm
Second batch: the traditional baguettes arrive still warm.
7:30 pm
We close (1 pm on Sundays). The sourdough keeps working for tomorrow.
Come and taste
The miche, the 5 pm baguette, the Isigny butter croissants: the full menu and its prices.