The pastry case at Tapisserie.
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Joann Pai/Eater
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In Paris, where corner mom-and-pop shops jockey for space with temples of haute-patisserie, pastry is part of everyday life. It isn’t uncommon to see lines of Parisians picking up fresh tarts for Sunday brunch with the family or schoolchildren racing to their favorite bakery for a goûter (literally a “taste,” or petit snack). Across the city you’ll find a whole spectrum of intricately composed and elaborately decorated pastries that taste as special as they look: simple laminated viennoiseries like croissants and pain au chocolat, eclairs made with light choux dough, buttery sablés, and an ever-growing array of French and internationally inspired cakes, tarts, cookies, and brioches.
All of these wonderful pastries are primarily sold at patisseries, shops dedicated specifically to sweet baked goods made with dough — as opposed to breads, which are sold at boulangeries. You shouldn’t count on picking up a great baguette along with your eclairs or vice versa, but some unconventional shops do excel at both bread and pastry.
The city is thick with pastry shops and competition is fierce. These 15 bakeries are among the greatest that Paris — and therefore the world — has to offer.
Note: This guide is organized by arrondissement, spiraling out from the 1st.
Lindsey Tramuta is a journalist, author, and podcaster based in Paris since 2006 who contributes regularly to The New York Times, Eater, Condé Nast Traveler, Bloomberg, and other international publications. Her first book, The New Paris, looked at the evolving French capital, while the most recent, The New Parisienne, deconstructed the myth of the Parisian woman and showcased more than 40 women influencing Paris’s present and future.
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