In Bihorel (Seine-Maritime), on the heights of Rouen, Cyril Hervieux and his Bouldam – the Boulangerie des amis in the long version – is a bit of an address that we pass around among lovers of good products.
No flashy signage or large panels to indicate the path that leads to this pavilion where this craftsman like no other has installed his oven in a laboratory of only 12 m2.
“It's small, but quite functional,” assures the man who has swapped his role as a manager in the insurance world for that of a baker every weekend for almost a year and a half.
With around a hundred regulars who must place an order before being able to come and pick up the fruit of his labor… at his window.
Also read “Is Macron’s bread good?”
: a village in Mayenne tastes Elysée bread every Friday
“Generally speaking, I have a passion for cooking.
And I was already making my own bread, for myself or for a few friends.
But it was not satisfactory,” remembers Cyril Hervieux.
So, as he obviously doesn't like to do things by halves, he decided to take his CAP as a baker at the turn of fifty, without wanting to make it his profession.
“I have a lot of respect for this profession where we have to get up at dawn and carry out physical tasks.
Just by doing an internship during my training in a traditional bakery, interrupted by Covid, I understood that it was not a rhythm for me, especially by continuing to work on the side.
»
And since Cyril Hervieux does not want to thread baguettes like others do pearls, he finds his pleasure in carefully making special breads (country, seeded, spelt, etc.), all organic and full of nutrients.
To achieve this, he uses almost exclusively flour from a local miller, the Moulin de l'Arbalète, located in the Pays de Caux countryside, right next to Auffay.
Also read: One job is okay, two is better!
A narrow range that he completes with some sweet treats (his cocoa bread for breakfast is a hit), some of which are made from recycled bread using a “crumbler” which crushes it in order to transform it into raw material. first, to make cookies in particular.
“And then I try to regularly offer new products like the rye-lemon bread that I imagined for the holidays,” underlines Cyril Hervieux who admits: “With each batch, I find the same magic.
It's a pretty indescribable feeling that I never get tired of.
Always with the doubt that it won’t work as we imagined.”
His approach has just earned him the gold medal of the Eco-défis label, a distinction awarded by the Rouen-Normandie Metropolis and the Normandy Chamber of Trades and Crafts to reward those who work for the preservation of the environment and climate.
“In a way,” he says, “it validates everything I have put in place, even if I don’t do it to get rewards but to give meaning to my activity.
And I believe that my clients are also attached to it.
»