lsanderson | A Town Fights to Save an Oasis of Baguettes (Reply)

‘WHERE THEY BELONG’ Marc Ounis at the bakery he and his partner, Verlaine Daeron, opened in Colebrook, N.H., in 2001 after moving from France.
By DAN BARRY
Published: May 31, 2009

COLEBROOK, N.H.

A French couple came to town several years ago in search of something. Here, amid the swelling mountains and struggling businesses, the Red Sox hagiography and Yankee taciturnity, they were looking for just the right place to sell madeleines.

And croissants. And tarts. And long, thin loaves of French bread that all but dare you to tear at their heel before you’re out the door.

The couple converted a run-down building near an abandoned gas station into Le Rendez-Vous, a cozy bakery whose blend of bread, coffee and conversation soon charmed this rural community. After a while it seemed that the owner, Verlaine Daeron, and her partner and baker, Marc Ounis, had always been here, and always would be. More