What Maison Villaret is known for
Maison Villaret has baked in Nîmes since 1775 and remains in its sixth generation of family ownership on Rue de la Madeleine. Its signature croquant biscuits are joined by hand-shaped tuiles, calissons de Provence, nougats and chocolate-covered olives, sold in shop and shipped across France.
Maison Villaret has baked in Nîmes since 1775, and the business has stayed in the same family for six generations since, one of the longer continuous family tenures among French artisan bakeries still trading from their original city. Its bakers describe the work as croquants, pains et pâtisseries façonnés à la main, hand-shaped breads and pastries rather than machine-formed.
Its signature item is the croquant, a hard, twice-baked almond biscuit still made only in Nîmes on the same Rue de la Madeleine site. Alongside it, the fournil turns out tuiles, Provençal calissons, nougats and chocolate-covered olives, a range that leans on regional confectionery traditions as much as on bread itself.
The bakery has added online ordering with delivery across France and in-store pickup in recent years, extending a shop that opens seven days a week, without changing what it sells: recipes the family describes as part of Nîmes's own cultural heritage, un savoir-faire artisanal handed down through the generations.
Best for — Six generations of Nîmes croquant biscuits and Provençal confections
Where next
- Frigideiras do Cantinho — Braga
- Caffè Gilli — Florence
- Teufner – Die Bäckerei — Austria
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