


I suspect that you're lucky enough to have had the proper savoury pancake from some regions of France (e.g. Brittany). This isn't known as a crepe in French, but as a galette. This word also has other meanings, as a type of cake, tart or biscuit (British English)/ small crisp cookie (US English). Wikipedia has an article discussing many types. French Wikipedia lists many more. Here's a related picture from Wikipedia for comparison:



Galettes are not widely found outside France. In fact, even in France they are not easy to find outside Brittany, Normandy, the Loire region and the Vendee. I have been able to get them in the UK in the past. I've never seen them in the US (checking your profile), but haven't tried to find them either.

  • 2
    Not Brittany, but definitely at a good creperie in Paris. Also in Wellington, NZ, but now they I look at their menu, you're absolutely right, they listed them as galettes. I had no idea how hard they are to find. I bought some buckwheat flour hoping to make some, but it was a lot lighter color. Next time I'll get proper farine de blé noir. Any chance you have a favorite recipe for galette batter? Jun 4 '20 at 6:42
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    @OrangeDog That as well. It has multiple meanings in French too. See the wikipedia article I linked, which shows tarts, cakes, waffles, and pancakes, and mentions an etymology that works for both, and look at the galette complète (ham, cheese, and egg with the pancake folded over at the edges) in particular. There is no other common term for the buckwheat pancake in English, which is why they're sold under the French name. In Brittany and neighbouring regions the buckwheat pancake is probably the more common meaning.
    – Chris H
    Jun 4 '20 at 14:59
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    Also to be found in Québec: festivaldelagalette.com
    – Alan Munn
    Jun 4 '20 at 19:25
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    (+1) Buckwheat galettes are associated with Brittany and extremely common there but they are in fact increasingly easy to find all over France. They are certainly very common in Paris.
    – Relaxed
    Jun 4 '20 at 21:28
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    I'm originally from Quebec (I left for the US in my 30s, 30 years ago). When I grew up, they were just crepes de sarrasin. When I was a kid we'd get them at a restaurant in downtown Montreal named La Crepe Bretonne. We made them at home as well. We had a field at a place in the Eastern Townships. My father grew buckwheat on it for a few years (it's a good cover crop and it pushes other plants away). One year we cut it and actually took it to a mill. Never again after that. To me, a gallette is a flat cake. We used to buy them from a patisserie that were made with almond flour
    – Flydog57
    Jun 5 '20 at 3:33



It was either a Crêpe au Sarrasin or Galette de Sarrasin.



The 3 cousins

There are 3 cousins:


Crêpe au Froment

From Mizina / Getty, found on elle.fr.


Galette de Sarrasin

From journaldesfemmes.fr, a Galette from the recipe.


Sarrasin: Crêpe or Galette?


Crêpe au Sarrasin

From Kampouz.com; Kampouz is Breton for Crêpe au Sarrasin.


Galette de Sarrasin

From cuisineaz.com, illustrating a recipe for crêpes.

Brown Crêpe or Galette?



In my experience Crêperies tend to use the Galette de Sarrasin in preference to the Crêpe au Sarrasin; if you have allergies I'd advise checking with the staff just in case.

What's in a Crêpe?


Contextual clues can be quite useful, though:

  • If you see a street vendor, especially around Chandeleur, which sells crêpes, you'll get the froment kind. The lightweight nature of the crêpe, and its sweet and therefore sticky filling, makes them easy to eat on the go.
  • If you walk into a crêperie, then crêpes will refer to both. You can check for clues in the menu: froment goes with sweet filling whereas blé noir/sarrasin goes with salty filling. It's quite likely you'll get a Galette de Sarrasin even if it's named Crêpe.

Other Galettes


  • The Galette des rois (FR), also known as Galette Parisienne: a specialty of Epiphany in the northern part of France, which is a plate-sized cake filled with Pâte d'Amande (Almond Paste/Marzipan).


  • Matthieu, welcome and thank you very much for this quite comprehensive description of Crêpes and Galettes. However, we have a very basic rule that we have to enforce: Answer the question. Can you please check out How to Answer, re-read the question and edit your post to include an answer to the question about color? I would really hate to see this post removed as “not an answer”.
    – Stephie
    Jun 6 '20 at 13:33
  • @Stephie: Oh god that's embarrassing. I got so caught up into explaining the difference that I forgot about the original question as I labored over the answer. I've added a TL;DR at the top which lasers in on the answer to the question :) Jun 6 '20 at 18:12
  • Lovely, thanks!
    – Stephie
    Jun 6 '20 at 18:13
  • @Stephie: And now with pictures, to illustrate the contrasts I only talked about ;) Jun 6 '20 at 18:24


So it is impossible to say which one exactly was that you ate. If you are so inclined, you can gather several different whole grain recipes and test them, and see which one reminds you most of the crepe you were served, or maybe which one you like most - sounds like a very fun experiment to me. Don't forget to also include "atypical" gluten free flours such as teff or plantain, they tend to take the conversion quite well and produce a nice variety of results.



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