I agree, one of the cool things about most European cities is that you can wake up and say to yourself, “hey I’d like some fresh bread with my breakfast,” and walk a block to get some (as opposed to driving your car to some monstrosity of a supermarket in order to wait 15 minutes in line to buy stale bread).
Bakeries....are a dying breed in CT.....if we had a *real* bakery I’d drive miles....[Panera and Whole Foods don’t count.]
One of the delights of living in Istanbul was to go to a street vendor in the morning and buy some "simits." These look like bagels, and are covered with sesame seeds. Delicious. They were baked overnight in regular bakeries, then distributed in plastic bags to the street vendors. They'd display them on little portable tables. Now when I'm in Detroit I buy some at the Middle East markets.