Pâtisserie des Flandres

Pâtisserie des Flandres was founded on 16 December 1997 by Benoît Rousseau in Erquinghem-Lys, a small town near Lille in France's Flanders region. The business built its identity around gaufres fourrées, filled waffles finished with soft brown-sugar-and-vanilla cream, a specialty of the northern French/Flemish border area. Rousseau expanded the product range over time to include classic thin butter waffles alongside newer items, including savory appetizer waferettes launched in 2004. The company remains a family operation, now run jointly by Benoît and his son Antoine Rousseau, and has grown an export business that sends roughly a fifth of its production to North America, China and Japan. The brand trades online and to professional buyers under the site name lagaufre.fr ('the waffle'), underscoring how central the filled-waffle format is to the business rather than a broader general pastry line.