Cafes|Café Maa in Paris creates confusion with cardamom, rice cakes and pickled vegetables.
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Café Maa in Paris offers Finnish food and pastries.
The cafe’s best-selling products are ear tree and rye bread.
Cultural differences can be seen, for example, in the drinking of coffee and the use of cardamom.
The cafe has a calm atmosphere and the use of computers is limited.
of Paris at the core, just ten minutes’ walk from the historic Notre Dame Cathedral, there is a cafe whose hit products are completely different from what you would expect in the French capital: ear wood and rye bread.
The cafe’s high ceiling, open tables and wooden surfaces offer customers a respite from the hustle and bustle of a city of millions. The walls are decorated with the works of Finnish artists, and in the display case there are familiar favorite treats, decorated to the last detail.
Café Maa is the cafe of the Finnish Institute – Institut finlandais in French. It was founded by a Finn Alexandra Marschan-Claude in 2022.
The Finnish Institute in France is located in the center of Paris in the Latin Quarter.
“We sell here, for example, baked potatoes, rye bread, rice pies, beef dumplings and ear trees.”
You can also get lunch in the cafe. On cold days, especially soup and risotto made from dried Finnish mushrooms, on warm days, salads. The fish, on the other hand, is fine in any weather, says Marschan-Claude, who has come to visit Finland.
Finnish nature and the four seasons are present in the menu, which changes according to the season. Potatoes are currently on display, for example in the form of potato salad.
Berries are also used according to the season. For example, Marschan-Claude decorates rye breads with dried berries, such as blueberries or cranberries, and when the summer season starts, with strawberries.
“I try to get Finnish berries and the Finnish forest well on display. It’s important to me and for the French it’s something different.”
Marschan-Claude likes to use fresh vegetables and berries as a filling for slices of rye bread.
Alexandra Marschan-Claude has lived in Paris for over 30 years.
Marschan-Claude himself ended up in Paris after his French husband. Before founding Café Maa, he worked as a cook for Finnish embassies, among other things.
According to Marschan-Claude, the French especially value the Finnish way of “sticking to the genuine product” and preserving the original taste of the raw materials.
“I try to include a little French flavor, but for the most part I try to make the food Finnish. Our food is colorful and has flavor, but it’s not strongly seasoned,” he describes.
In addition to products imported from Finland, Café Maa uses a lot of fresh vegetables produced in the Paris area.
“Now we have, for example, strawberry-rhubarb kiissel. Both are ingredients that can also be obtained from France, but the strawberry-rhubarb kiisseli is not something that would be sold in a French cafe.”
They clearly like Finnish classic products, as the cafe’s best-selling products are korbuusti and rye bread. In addition, according to Marschan-Claude, the pancakes served with whipped cream and berries and the crumb pie have aroused special admiration.
Its instead, sometimes cardamom, rice cakes and pickles cause surprise.
“People here are surprised a lot by the fact that there is a lot of cardamom in Finnish desserts and pastries. I like to use it a lot too. I put cardamom in pancakes, of course it’s in ear buds and sometimes we put it in chocolate cake too.”
Rice pies, on the other hand, are confusing because some expect them to be sweet and contain more flavor.
“Rice pie is something that people either like or don’t like at all. For others, it doesn’t taste like anything, even with egg butter on top. It’s kind of like a wonderful salty food,” says Marschan-Claude.
Some of the cafe’s customers have thought that rice pies are sweet instead of salty.
The cafe also pickles a lot of vegetables.
“We have pickled cucumber, fennel and onion. Here, people don’t pick so much, but they’ve been liked, even though it’s new to them.”
Cultural differences can also be seen in drinking coffee.
“In Finland, people drink much more coffee. The French may come to drink one espresso and then a cappuccino, latte or specialty coffee in the afternoon,” says Marschan-Claude.
According to him, it is currently fashionable in France to use citrus flavor in coffee.
The French in addition, Café Maa is also visited by many tourists and to some extent by Finns.
“We have a metro station nearby and the door to the museum is opposite us. A lot of tourists come through it. There are also a lot of people who live nearby and come every day.”
According to Marschan-Claude, Finns living in Paris get lost in the cafe especially after runeberg tarts and salmon soup.
“Finnish students come here who might be homesick. It is wonderful for them that they can speak Finnish and eat Finnish food. It’s a pleasure to offer that experience to them.”
The premises of Institut finlandais were originally designed by the Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa, but they were renovated in 2017–2018. At the moment, there are works by the Finnish visual artist Nanna Sude at the back of the coffee shop.
There are also customers who want a quiet cafe, says Marschan-Claude.
The cafe has a rule: only two tables are allowed to use a computer, and no Wi-Fi connection is offered to customers. On Saturdays, computers may not be used at all, and on weekdays they are prohibited from 2 p.m.
The staff’s hope is that people come to the institute’s premises to read, enjoy Finnish food or see Finnish art.
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