Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf

In the spirit of A Year in Provence comes the romantic tale of a woman, a baker, and their loaf

"[T]he printed page alone will evoke the crackling noises and the toasty aroma of cooling loaves in Jean-Claude Choquet's boulangerie."
—William Castle, The Boston Globe

Overcome by a passion for French bread, Sara Mansfield Taber travels to Brittany in search of a loaf that, like the lifestyle which must surely accompany it, is perfect in its simplicity. After many months of seeking, she tears off a hunk of pain trois rivières made by Gold Medal Baker Monsieur Jean-Claude Choquet of Blain, Loire-Atlantique. It "smelled like heaven and
tasted a mile deep." It tasted honest. Here was her loaf.

A deliciously satisfying mixture of history, science, travel narrative, and romance (could anything be more powerful than bread love?), Bread of Three Rivers reminds us that nothing, no matter how basic, is as simple as it would
seem.

"Bread of Three Rivers . . . is a work dripping with charm and more importantly is a homage to artisan French baking and the culture that
sustains it."
—Sophie Herron, Slow Food

Sara Mansfield Taber has taught at the University of Minnesota and the graduate writing program at Johns Hopkins University. In 1996 she earned a William B. Sloane Fellowship in Nonfiction to the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference. She lives in France and Washington, D.C.