Rich pastries and happy customers reside in our next story.

Let's visit a pastry shop in Greenville, where producer Seraphim Smith met a French chef who's bringing old world recipes back to life.

[upbeat music] - When my friends told me about a pastry shop in Greenville run by a real French chef, I knew I had to visit.

Chef Marc makes a fabulous sourdough croissant.

And it's not just croissants that these people are queuing up for.

Just look at these beautiful confections and treats.

One of the things that I love about your bakery are these little pastries here.

What are these called?

- Macaron.

- [Seraphim] And what are your most popular flavors?

- [Marc] Well, I think birthday cake, but I do love the pistachio.

- I do too.

- Oh, yeah.

- And what inspired you to make this wonderful restaurant?

- I'm missing eating croissant in the morning, and I was missing a little cafe and bistro, like where I'm from, so that's why I decided to kind of recreate a little piece of France.

The idea is to bring back the traditional French food that has been forgotten.

Got so much history in France that you can always find a new recipe from, like, the past.

So, that's pretty fun.

- [Seraphim] While open for breakfast and lunch Thursday through Sunday, Piece of France also hosts a monthly wine dinner.

Hurry though, tickets sell out quickly.

Let's find out what the customers like to eat.

- The almond croissant is out of this world.

- I like the croissants.

I think the fruit tarts are also solid.

Yeah.

- [Seraphim] What's your favorite thing to eat here?

- Ham and cheese croissant.

- People have been saying they love the quiche.

They've been saying it is the best quiche they've ever had.

We have a quiche Lorraine, pretty traditional, you know, with ham and Gruyere cheese, and we got a Florentine one, which is pretty much spinach and feta cheese.

- Oh, that reminds me of that croissant that I had the other day that was spinach.

Was it spinach?

- Spinach and feta cheese too.

That was, I think, the best croissants I've ever had.

- [Marc] Oh, thank you.

It's a 72 hour process.

- These pillows of croissant dough will get their final rise in the oven from yeast and steam.

The steam will push outward when trapped in the pastry's many layers.

Extra flavor is derived from using a poolish and a sourdough starter called a levain.

Tell me about the levain.

- Oh, the levain is so interesting.

It's alive, it's a microorganism.

- [Seraphim] This sourdough starter is a living batter, and it contains enzymes, bacteria, and yeast, which are present in the air and flour.

The levain, along with croissant scraps, honey, and butter, are added to the poolish.

And this poolish?

It's been fermenting for several hours and is made from commercial yeast, flour, and water.

It's these extra steps of using a pre-ferment poolish and a sourdough starter which create the ultimate croissant, endowed with incredibly flaky layers and a moist, luscious interior.

And all those layers I mentioned?

Well, that's called lamination.

It's the creation of many thin layers of pastry separated by butter.

Croissants have been laminated since the beginning of the 20th century, and it's lamination that gives croissants their signature audible crackle when bit into.

The layers are exponentially created by doing triple folds to the dough.

Every time the dough is folded over itself, its layers triple.

This yields the desired amount of layers in three or four go arounds.

The dough sheeter uniformly rolls the dough to about a third of an inch.

Trimmings will be kept to add to the next batch of dough.

Croissants are actually pretty special because they are both a yeast bread and a laminated pastry at the same time.

This makes them seem as light as a cloud, despite being enriched with a grand amount of butter.

Et voila, the finished croissant is a work of art to be enjoyed by all the senses.

You can't make it to France any time soon, I suggest you come here so you can take home a piece of France.

Bon appetit, y'all.

- Piece of France Pastry Shop Cafe is at 115 Red Banks Road in Greenville, and they're open from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM, Thursday through Sunday.

To find out more, give them a call at 252-751-0192, or visit them online at pieceoffrancepastryshop.com.