PAUL is a French bakery chain that exists in dozens of countries. As a Parisian I have eaten there dozens of times, usually at train stations between connections. I never thought of it as a special experience. Then I visited the PAUL in La Marsa, Tunis, and understood that the same brand can be a completely different thing depending on where you are.

I started at the PAUL on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Grab and go service, tourist traffic, a chicken salad in a plastic box with cold, sparse chicken, a Perrier, and a cannele pastry from Bordeaux. Total bill: 14.50 euros. Food quality: around 6 out of 10. Efficient but nothing memorable.

Then I went to La Marsa in the northern suburbs of Tunis. The PAUL there operates as a full sit-down restaurant. Before I even ordered, the table received complimentary starters: fresh bread, harissa, a grilled pepper and tomato salad called mechouia, and local white cheese. In Paris you pay for bread. Here it arrives as a welcome.

I ordered a red fruit milkshake, a pain perdu, and a massive prawn and avocado salad with portions that would serve two people in any European context. The total bill came to roughly 20 euros for a feast that would have cost three times as much in Paris, if it existed at all.

The experience in Tunisia was a 9 out of 10. Not because the food was technically superior, but because the whole context was different. Hospitality, space, generosity of portions, table service. The same logo, completely different soul.

If you are in Tunis, go to La Marsa for the afternoon. Have lunch at PAUL and then walk along the coast. It is one of the most pleasant half-days I spent in the country.