Lafayette--Carmel, CA

After a hike down at Soberanes this past long weekend, my brother, sister-in-law, and I naturally found our way to Lafayette Bakery in the Barnyard.The three of us chose one or two pastries each to sustain ourselves after our not-so-strenuous hike and sat outside with coffees. My brother cut each of the 5 pastries in thirds so we would all get some of each.We had the quiche Provençale, the lemon buchon, a chocolate log, an almond chocolate croissant, and the apricot pinwheel. They were excellent. The quiche is perfectly fluffy, which is how I like it, not dense. The lemon buchon was also airy with a light lemon custard. The chocolate almond croissant caught me off guard with the almond filling mixed with the chocolate but it was delightful. The apricot pinwheel was also lovely, a nice pastry cream and delicious apricots inside a beautiful pinwheel. Lastly, the chocolate log is my favorite, whenever I'm in Carmel for errands or whatever, I always stop by Lafayette for this treat and an espresso. It looks to me like a ladyfinger cut in half lengthwise, filled with a chocolate ganache and then dipped in chocolate. It's heaven.I went back the next day…for research, if you will and had the brioche filled with custard and it was fantastic, I love the caramelized sugar on top of the pillowy brioche. I also had the mini croissant (that I took home and had with cold cuts and cheese) and the pan au chocolat, which was excellent. I’m normally not a fan because I feel they really undermine the “chocolat” part of the pastry but this was perfect.Well now that I feel like I've gone to pastry confession, I will leave you saying, I do highly recommend Lafayette bakery. French friends of mine swear that their baguette is just like those in France and I've never had anything there I didn't like.I don’t know too much about the bakery and unfortunately didn’t have the chance to speak to anybody but they opened in 2016 and the owners are French, beautiful r rolling French accents and sophistication as demonstrated by their delicate and appetizing pastry cases.