Walk into any pastry shop in Paris in August (if you can find one open), and you will see fresh summer fruit tarts on display. But behind the scenes, the chefs are already thinking ahead to the busy Christmas season. Pastry shops are always one step ahead, managing stocks and preparing for the crunch so that customers always have their products right on time. In this piece I visit the pastry kitchen of the Grande Epicerie de Paris in August, where, with the help of giant industrial freezers, they are preparing Christmas pastries in the heat of summer.