Shinya Inagaki, 52 years old, a thin man with an eternal smile, has the air of a monk. This Japanese from Nagoya, who has been living in France for two decades, exercises his trade as an artisan baker as if it were a priesthood. He works alone, with oriental patience and industriousness. He seems happy in his tiny place – bakery and shop in the same space – on rue Trois-Frères, at the foot of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in the Montmartre district, one of the most iconic in Paris.

The bakery, Shinya Pain, is open to the public only from Thursday to Sunday, from half past five to half past eight in the evening. He sells six or seven varieties of organic bread and some simple cakes, like the little Basque cakes he takes out of the oven during La Vanguardia’s visit. Shinya has a loyal and grateful clientele, to whom he warns before the products of the day on his Instagram account, with almost 9,000 followers.

– What is the secret of good bread?

– I think that using flour from ancient wheat varieties. I buy it in Champagne and the south of France.

-I imagine that time and patience also count, don’t they?

– Exactly, that’s all. A long fermentation is required, a minimum of 18 to 24 hours. This is essential.

Shinya’s place is not out of place in a very cosmopolitan neighborhood and a tourist magnet. The gastronomic offer is varied. Very close to the bakery is Le Refuge des Fondus, opened in 1966. There is also a Korean restaurant, a typical Breton creperie and the inevitable pizzerias.

Shinya studied Economics at Nagoya University for four years, but he soon realized, when he finished his degree, that dedicating himself to that world would bore him. “I wanted to work with my hands”, he confesses. After working in a tea room and learning how to make bread (the Japanese usually have it as an aperitif), he felt an irrepressible desire: “France is the country of bread. My dream was to go to France.” Without speaking French, he landed on an organic farm in Saint-Lô (Normandy), whose owner, to whom he is still very grateful, taught him all the secrets of the trade. “He was a farmer and baker – he remembers -. I learned from A to Z”. Then he attended classes and got his official degree. In 2020 he opened his own place in Montmartre.

France suffers from a structural deficit of bakers, just as it happens in Italy with pizzaioli. There are thousands of vacancies. Young people are reluctant to take this path. It’s a hard job that requires early mornings and working on holidays, and forces you to endure high temperatures. Shinya is not an isolated case. Other foreigners have opened bakeries in France in recent years, perhaps fascinated by the possibility of residing in a country they admire and exercising a stable profession that favors social contact. During the confinement due to the pandemic, the daily visit to the bakery to acquire the fresh product was the only way out of the house for many people, especially elderly women. Bakeries continue to be a good business. Its average annual turnover is close to 500,000 euros. The baguette, moreover, is a prestigious product, an example of French know-how and which has even entered the Unesco heritage.

– Are you happy in France? Don’t you feel homesick for your country?

– I really like living here. The people of Montmartre have been very nice to me. It is great. It’s not just producing and selling. There is human contact.

– What do you miss about Japan? It’s much cleaner than France, isn’t it?

– Nooo!, heh, heh, heh. Well, yes, it’s true that in Japan everything is very clean, very air-conditioned, very well organized, people are punctual. France is different.

– And what does his family think of the fact that he is here?

– My parents accept it. If the child is happy in France, they are happy too.

Shinya admits that, of the three days that the trade is closed, he only gets to really rest on Mondays, since Tuesdays and Wednesdays are already used for preparation. But Eastern stoicism and good humor always accompany him. He finds it funny, for example, that his street is called Trois-Frères (three brothers). “With me there are four”, he says jokingly. There couldn’t be a better integration.