La Provence is the rare bakery that succeeds at bread and pastry

I’ve now twice been to La Provence at 500 Hazeldean Rd. in Kanata. In the back of my mind, I suppose I felt I needed a broader range of experiences to comment on their products.

I enjoyed the pastries and the breads were surprisingly crusty and expertly baked. From time to time you land at a bakery that does one or the other very well but seldom both. Hard to understand why that is but these exceptions are few and far between. 

Lucky locals have been enjoying the goods from La Provence for 20 years now and based on my experiences, if I lived in Kanata, I would make La Provence a no-brainer destination.

This is old school French baking in both the baking and the decorating with a broad assortment of sweets like the caramel butter cream carrot cake that adds a decadent twist to the humble carrot cake. 

The one disappointment of this collection was the coffee cream cake that was uncommonly short on coffee flavour. An important note if you’re planning on ordering a birthday or wedding cake.

I had ordered individual mousse cups and both the raspberry and lemon versions were bright in flavour and freshness but I wasn’t expecting a significant cake presence in the centre. It’s clearly a personal preference but when eating something like a mousse, crème brûlée or a crème caramel, I don’t want anything to interfere with that silky texture.

If you find yourself in that part of Kanata, do yourself a favour and stop in for breads and pastries, and if it’s a gift-giving occasion, La Provence is in the same mall as Anna Stubbe Chocolates. That’s one lucky strip mall.