PAUL (Dijon)
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With a woodworked base, like a bureau with thick, petaly legs, the pastry case is three levels. It isn’t until you make it down this golden display, past the wall paper of an old town street and a free-hanging stained glass panel of autumnal leaves layered on a curly design, that you find three menus in skinny black frames. There are two sets: Le Parisien and Le Continental. What’s interesting though is the white tiling of the wall behind it all. If you pay attention, you’ll notice a slight variation here and there, vases, cornucopias, windmills, and other finely-executed depictions in burgundy. While these ceramic tiles might seem ignored, the fact that they are even there in a chain like this—when a roof beam right above them has been stamped PAUL in their signature lettering—speaks less to lacking awareness and more to incorporation. The seating in the back makes it fully evident that redecoration is not off the table. Most of the chairs are grey seats with navy and baby blue backs, but there are two ash booths and a set of ebony and ivory single-rung ladder backs (definitely yanked out of some type of storage). The vintage posters, always proudly claiming Lille, add some color and story while the black and white photos, hung in admittedly strange lines, accomplish half of the same. The ceiling is dropped in one spot, and here the punctures are all lights. But, this illumination closer to the glassed-off bakery occurs only in some spots of a sea sponge of punctures. Will the reason ever be known? Never. Maybe these holes let bakery fumes escape. Or maybe when plotted, the punctures map out PAUL’s master plan...all starting in the north.
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Drink: Espresso
It smelled great, looked great, tasted DASTARDLY. It actually has like licorice and alcohol and salt mixed together? Look, my palate was going haywire. There’s a sweetness at the end, but it can’t be better described than licorice. While I managed to drink it, I actually feared each subsequent sip. I thought about giving up several times…I think that alone tells you all you need to know.
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Price: Espresso=1.90€
Hours*: Monday–Saturday {7:30–19:15}; Sunday {CLOSED}
*Closed Easter Monday, April 1.