Pâtisserie Alexandres. - Salon de thé Montauban, Pâtisserie, chocolatier, Glacier

Bonbons Flingueurs are the box to leave with: roasted Albias hazelnuts enrobed in milk chocolate, made as a Montauban souvenir and named for the film line about never leaving Montauban. They come from Alexandres, a pâtisserie, chocolatier and glacier whose Faubourg Lacapelle branch adds a seated salon de thé.

Less sugar, by design

The house style is restraint. The founder spent years opening French pâtisseries in Kobe, Japan, and reduced the sugar in his cakes for Japanese palates; that restraint came home with him and became part of the Alexandres signature. The pastries are recognisably French, but they finish cleaner than the classic versions.

The fruit is local. The kitchen works with Tarn-et-Garonne produce, including apples and strawberries, and with nuts from the region such as Albias hazelnuts. That regional sourcing is what keeps the less-sweet approach from tasting like an absence: the fruit has to carry more of the flavour.

A boutique that became a tea room

Alexandres opened its first Montauban boutique in 2002 and added the seated tea room in 2012. The house is named for the founder's maternal grandfather, a pâtissier in Moissac who first put him beside a bench as a child; the final letter of the name nods to the second names of the founder and his two sons.

The two branches do different jobs. The original city-centre boutique remains a counter for pâtisserie, chocolate and ice cream, while the Faubourg Lacapelle branch has the seating and a small savoury kitchen, for eating in or taking away. Alexandres has been a member of Relais Desserts International, the association of roughly a hundred pastry and chocolate artisans across nineteen countries, since September 2008.

What to expect from the counter

Expect fresh pastries, chocolates, ice creams, pure-butter viennoiseries and a short savoury list. Ice cream is a proper category here rather than a summer sideline, since the house is a glacier as well as a pâtissier and chocolatier, and the tea room is where all of it can be eaten sitting down.

The through-line is that lighter hand. Polished French desserts, chocolates and viennoiseries whose richness is balanced by restraint, grounded in Montauban and the fruit and nuts of the Tarn-et-Garonne. Take the Bonbons Flingueurs for the chocolate, a seasonal fruit pastry for the kitchen at its most local, and an ice cream in summer.