French breads

Pain a l'Ail – Garlic bread. In France, this may be any bread that is toasted and flavored with garlic.

Pain Campagrain – Under this name are sold quite a number of different high fiber breads; campagrain breads may use anywhere from two to five grains or more. The grains used include wheat, malted corn, rye, oats, barley, etc.; Some bakers may include sunflower, sesame and flax seeds and they usually name all the grains their bread contains along with the percentages.

Pain Ficelle – This is a long thin loaf that looks like a thinner and shorter baguette. Outside of bakeries and supermarkets the word ficelle translates as string and may be on your menu with other meanings.

Pain au Froment - Bread made from 100% wheat flour. Pain au froment with a percentage mark after the name indicates mixed flours. An example may be froment 75%, the other flour used for the remaining 25% will usually be indicated.

Pain Forgeron – A farmhouse style bread with added sunflower, sesame, and flax seeds.

Fougasse and Fougassette –Traditional breads that originated in the city of Nice and its surrounding villages. The fougasse was originally a crusty bread made of baguette dough brushed with olive oil and flavored with orange zest, that is still the tradition but many fougasse breads have changed beyond recognition. These breads without a change in name now come with a wide variety of recipes, and they have spread all over Provence. Fougasse's origins are claimed by the Italians and they claim it is based on their focaccio breads. In Provence, as elsewhere, no recipe is written in stone and most fougasse breads can have only the most limited connection to their Italian ancestors.

Pain Complet - Whole wheat bread.

Pain aux Noix - Nut bread; made with whole wheat flour and walnuts. Walnuts are France’s most highly rated nut. The French name for a walnut is noix, and that word just translates as "nut". All other nuts have unique French names while the walnut is “the nut.”

Pain Croute à Potage or a Potage son sous Béret - A bread crust used to cover soups, a béret is a beret, the head covering, in English. A bread covering, made to cover your soup or stew, may appear on the menu under various names, not just beret. A soup or stew covered with a bread covering may also surprise you when it appears on your table without any prior advice; this covering is only rarely eaten.

Pain Grillé or Toast – Toasted bread; toast

Gros Pain - A large bread that will be sold in a variety of shapes and sizes; this bread is traditionally sold by weight.

Pain Maison - Homemade bread.

Pain Nordique – see Pain Polaire.

Pain Parisien – Usually another name for a standard baguette; however the name is also used for breads shaped like a baguette but with different lengths and weights. See: Pain Baguette.

Pain Polaire, Pain Suédois or Pain Nordique - Polar bread, Swedish bread or Nordic bread; this is the traditional a rye flour based flat bread with dimples. In France, this bread is often served with open sandwiches

Pain Baguette - The most well-known of French breads. Breakfast in a French home without a baguette is hardly breakfast; croissants are saved for the weekend. A standard baguette is almost 70 cms long and weighs 250 grams.

Pain Cramique – A bread similar to the pain brioche, but including raisins.

Pain Baguette a l'Ail - Toasted garlic bread; made here with a sliced and toasted baguette.

Pain d'épice – Gingerbread is more appreciated in France than in any other country; it many of its producers are considered artists. Quite often French gingerbread will be studded with candied fruits; others may be on a menu when served with warm chocolate and or ice cream. Gingerbread will also used to create exceptional window displays and unique birthday cakes.

Pain Batard – A bastard; the name used in boulangeries that make their own bread, for any loaf that comes out of the oven in an odd shape.

Pain Beignets – French for a doughnut; however this a breakfast pastry and it is not anything like an American doughnut. American doughnuts are available in France and called a beignet Américain. The pain beignet is usually on French café menus alongside the more traditional pain beurré,that is the mornings’s baguette and butter.

Pain Perdu - French toast. In French, the translation of pain perdu means lost bread; indicating bread that is generally considered to stale to use. Despite the name, one of the few things you can do with any stale bread is to make French toast. The French version of French toast is bread soaked in milk with added sugar along with vanilla or another flavoring. The bread will then be dipped in eggs and fried in butter until golden brown. Needless to say, pain perdu is a popular at breakfast in private homes and as a light evening snack.

Pain Rassis – Stale bread; the bread that often becomes pain perdu.

Pain sans Levain, Pain Azymes, or Pain Juif – Unleavened bread and also the French name for the traditional Jewish matzo eaten during the Jewish Feast of Passover.

Pain de Campagne or Pain Miche - Country bread. These breads vary a great deal in the recipes and shapes used, and the flour used may be standard wheat flour, a whole wheat flour, or mixed flours. All real pains de campagne are made with a natural leavening, not with added yeast. The taste is milder but still somewhat similar to American sourdough breads.

Pain de Mais - Cornbread

Pain Beurrée or Tartine Beurrée – A sliced baguette, or any another French bread; served with butter alongside the morning’s café au lait, sometimes toasted. In a French café, this tartine beurrée is often listed on the breakfast menu and then will usually be offered with marmalade or jam on the side. N.B. The word tartine also indicates a sandwich, for example tartine au jambon , a ham sandwich.

Pain de Mie or Pan Carré - Sliced bread. Sliced bread is not particularly popular in France, except when used for sandwiches or toast. Despite sliced bread's lack of popularity it is sold in all supermarkets, where it is a small part of the bread sales. The same bread is also sold in oblong loaves that you may slice yourself.

Petit Pains - Bread rolls; there are, of course, different names for each shape and each recipe used for traditional bread rolls, but in a restaurant or supermarket the only name you will need for bread rolls is petite pan.

Pain Tresse – Braided bread; usually a pain brioche.

Pain Bis - Brown bread made with rye flour.

Pain Blanc – Standard white bread. The shapes may be different to those at home, but this is the name for France’s standard bread.

Pain de Seigle or Pan Noir - Rye bread.

Tartine - Not the tartine beurrée – Tartine is the French for a sandwich and tartine will be used interchangeably with the English word sandwich; however sandwich, the English word, is used more often. Many tartines are open sandwiches, but that is by no means a fixed rule; the ingredients in or on a tartine vary with the area, the season and the chef.

Pain de Son – A bread made with a bran flour.

Pain Boule or Boule de Pain – A round loaf. Before the baguette became famous, the boule was considered, by visitors to France, the “French bread”. Then and now some families still place a large boule on the French breakfast table, and outside the larger cities slices from a boule, rather than a baguette may be on your breakfast table. Pain Boulot is another name for pain boule.

Pain Déjeunette – A baguette about one third the length of a full-sized baguette. The name déjeunette implies that it is enough for the petit déjeuner, for breakfast. A déjeunette is often used instead of a baguette to make the traditional French breakfast tartine beurrée. Many sandwiches offered in French cafés and Tabacs will be made with a déjeunette.

Pain Brié - A classic wheat flour bread from Normandy; the bread is made with butter and has no connection to Brie, the cheese. My thanks to Frédéric Bisson for correcting my French spelling on this bread, Inever mastered the French accents, and also for noting the use of butter in the traditional recipe. It is the addition of butter that gives this bread its decidedly different taste.

Pain Doré - One of the names for French toast. See Pain Perdu.

Pain Brioché – Brioche is bread made with added eggs, butter and a little sugar; the shapes vary with local traditions. Brioché is also often the bread of choice when a recipe calls for bread stuffed with meats or paté. Toasted brioché is also the bread most often served alongside foie gras.