If you're ever in Toulouse and looking for a great cappuccino, maybe you flew over after a few days of trying out the best Nola margarita list and you need coffee to cure that headache, go see my newest French friends at La Fiancée.
54 Rue Peyrolieres is a happening place, and its only been open for a month. The design is sleek and modern with a black awning, newly polished coffee machine, multiple slow drip coffee machines, and a goodie case filled with cookies and interesting things like lemon ginger cake with actual slices of ginger.
Olivier and Arnaud are the best of hosts. The cafe is two stories, with the most seating on the second floor, but in the shop front there's one table in the window where you can people watch and chat up the lovely Frenchmen behind the counter. Like pretty much everyone we've encountered in Toulouse, they're warm and willing to help however they can. They've taught me the Toulouse basics.
Coffee takes many a different form in France. A cafe is an espresso. Cafe au lait is an espresso with milk. Cappuccinos sometimes come with layers of coffee and whipped cream, and the sugar shock is enough to make your stomach start speaking French, even if you don't, within minutes. Not as yummy as it seemed at first sip.
Olivier makes cappuccino they way it should look, and he's brought a novel idea to France. He makes drip coffee, very similar to what you would see at the Lab in Lafayette, LA. There's some kind of percolator contraption that oozes coffee for 24 hours. I haven't tried that one yet, but Olivier says its great. In general, if you want coffee that looks like that big Starbucks blend you're used to this place provides it. If you're elsewhere in France ask for cafe American. Yep we have a special kind of coffee term because all the other kinds don't feed our need for caffeine.
I wanted to have a network in France and become a local, and luckily I found this place. They just opened. I just got here. It should be a happy engagement for La Fiancée and I.
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