FranceLink

Raymond Berthillon, founder of celebrated Paris ice cream parlour, dies aged 90

Berthillon, a baker, began his internationally-renowned Île St-Louis business in 1954 and is credited with reintroducing the sorbet to France.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

To support Mediapart subscribe

The founder of the Paris ice cream brand beloved of the city's international tourists, Raymond Berthillon, has died at the age of 90, according to a newspaper death notice, reports Reuters.

A visit to the Île Saint Louis in the heart of Paris and a stone's throw from Notre Dame is on many a tourist itinerary, partly for the architecture, the gift shopping, and the chance to take pictures of the cathedral, but also because it is the home of Berthillon ice cream.

Along the picturesque island's narrow 17th-century streets, queues stretch all day and well into the night at the family-run company's handful of outlets, surrounded by the Seine river.

The son of a baker, Berthillon took over his mother-in-law's cafe hotel La Bourgogne on the island at the age of 30. La Bourgogne remains the centre-piece of the Berthillon ice cream empire to this day.

Berthillon's death on Saturday was announced in Monday's Le Figaro newspaper.

Read more of this report from Reuters.