Thursday, May 6, 2010

Madame Poupon and the trail of crepes

As mentioned in the last post, the perfect name for the Crepes Paulette trailer came to me out of the blue, but afterwards I puzzled over why the inspiration took so long to come. It's just so unmistakeably fitting, so apt, so poetically perfect...Here's why:

When Fred (1/2 of the Crepes Paulette team, and my husband) was a young boy, his parents were both teachers. His older siblings were already in school, and options for extended daycare were even slimmer then than now, so he frequently found himself in the company of Madame Poupon, the family's housekeeper. Fred says, " My first memory of Madame Poupon is the day that my mother hired her. I was late for preschool, and I was really mad at her." This initial problem must have worked itself out, though, because 35 years later, Madame Poupon still helps out at Fred's dad's home occasionally. "I've since forgiven her," Fred was heard to say.

Madame Poupon's mother couldn't speak French (only the regional language, Breton), her father was a goemonnier (a seaweed gatherer), and her brother was a small tugboat captain. All this to say that she was a real Bretonne, steeped in the local traditions of Bretagne (or Brittany), the Gaelic part of France. This region stands out in France in many ways, most notably for me in the lack of cheese production, but I digress. They do have several culinary successes though, two of which are the sweet crepe and the buckwheat gallette.

Which brings us back to why we here at Crepes Paulette have bestowed the honored name of Madame Poupon on our humble little trailer. To this day, Madame Poupon makes one GROSS of crepes (that's right, twelve dozen, or 144) EVERY WEEK to distribute to friends and family. I've met Madame Poupon on several occasions, and to me, this is a perfect illustration of her personality. Warm, determined, giving, tireless, and eager to do good. She's one in a million.

So, Madame Poupon, we hope that a little bit of your spirit will inhabit our trailer, and that her crepes can bring a little bit of crepe-happiness to our corner of the world, too. We salute you.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, that's wonderful, congratulations! I hope to see Madame many, many times in future!!

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  2. Very fitting! See you Saturday.

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