If Bill and I were to open a boulangerie (bakery) I’d want to call it Cake & Bake. The French would understand the words and any Americans who grew up in the 1960s watching TV commercials for the meat coating called Shake & Bake® would get the added connection–“and I hepped”.  I’ve wanted to be a baker since childhood perhaps to be surrounded by all of that wonderful bread right out of the oven. There’s something almost magical about mixing some dry ingredients with a bit of water, popping it into the oven, and then coming back 30 minutes later to a delicious baguette.

The likelihood of our actually doing this is zero for several reasons: 1.) to obtain our visa we had to agree not to work in France; 2.) neither of us has any desire to work; and 3.) to be successful in this job you have to get up every morning around 2 AM to make sure you have fresh bread to sell at opening time. No thanks! The bakers in France have already perfected the process to an art so we will be content to enjoy their labors each morning on a stroll to get a croissant and a café.

(Update: Since first writing this post I’ve discovered that there already is a bakery with this name in Wisconsin. Let’s make that reason number 4 in the list above.)