My mom and I have been planning this trip since November 2020 when we came across another blogger duo (2foodtrippers) who had written a post on the 40 best pastry shops in Paris. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but we decided at that point to go on a Paris pastry trip. We planned to go after COVID had died down and it looked like that was going to happen around Summer 2021 due to vaccination efforts around the world. The delta virus surge did occur right before we were planning on leaving, but since we were vaccinated and took proper precautions, we decided to keep our plans. We even managed to get the health pass (Passe Sanitaire) that was required to go into restaurants throughout France. This rule happened to be enforced starting just 5 days prior to our trip, and luckily we kept on top of it and as soon as they introduced it, we applied and got the pass within a few hours.
We did not manage to go to all 40 shops, but we did try to follow their post as much as possible. We planned our days in such a way that we would tackle one arrondissement per day. Some places, however, were closed (temporarily or permanently) or had taken a summer vacation during the entire duration of our trip 🤷, so we had to improvise and discover a few of our own. Take a look at where we went:
- Day 1: Aux Merveilleux de Fred, L’Eclair de Genie, Une Glace à Paris, Maison Aleph
- Day 2: Hugo & Victor, Pâtisserie Michalak, La Maison du Chocolat
- Day 3: Stohrer
- Day 4: Fou de Patisserie – Babka Zana, Maison Angelina
- Day 5: Boulangerie Utopie, Boulangerie Chambelland, La Patisserie Cyril Lignac, Pierre Herme, Jean Paul Hevin, Yann Couvreur Patisserie
- Day 6: Philippe Conticini
- Day 7: Mademoiselle Angelina
- Day 8: Laduree
Aux Merveilleux de Fred
This store sells Merveilleux, a pastry made of meringue and covered by whipped cream and chocolate. These are so heavenly and airy, it is almost like biting into sweet clouds. They have different sizes, but we opted for the mini sizes so that we could try more than 1 flavor. They have 6 flavors – chocolate, speculoos biscuit with white chocolate, caramel, praline, cherry, and coffee. We went with the first 4 flavors mentioned here and they were all delicious. If we had to pick our favorite, mine was the speculoos, and mom’s favorite was the caramel (you will see as you go through this post, that she is a caramel fiend). But I don’t think you can go wrong with any flavor. We went here at the start of our pastry trip, and it was quite honestly the best pastry of day 1.
We did happen to go back during the last few days of our trip and buy all 6 flavors in the mini size, then proceeded to sit at a nearby square and gobble them all up.
This branch of the store is located in the heart of the Marais. We went on a Sunday, so there wasn’t a crowd at all, although it is quite a popular shop and lines can be expected. They have other branches in Paris as well as in other parts of France.
We visited the branch located at: 24 rue de Pont Louis-Philippe, 75004 Paris, France.
L’éclair de Genie
This shop specializes in éclairs, which is probably obvious from the name of the store. On display was a variety of eclairs all in different flavors and colors. It was a feast for the eyes and so hard to pick just a few to take home with us. They came in regular sizes or a box of minis. The box of minis has set flavors and could not be exchanged, and they were: pistachio, lemon yuzu meringue, salted caramel, and vanilla with pecans. We bought a box of minis as well as a regular size of the passionfruit + raspberry. They were so flavorful, but our favorite (from the ones we tried) was the passionfruit/raspberry flavor. On a separate day, we also tried the jasmine tea flavored éclair.
This shop is located at 14 Rue Pavée, 75004 Paris, France, but has multiple locations in Paris.
Une Glace à Paris
This is an ice cream shop that also sells ice cream cakes, glaces, and meringues. But don’t expect the usual flavors you get at your generic ice cream corner store. I tried the pistachio and orange blossom ice cream, and mom got the caramel croquant flavor (no surprise there) and they were both so delicious. Additionally, they sell Frenchie glace, which is a dollop of ice cream covered in a layer of marshmallow. It is almost like mochi ice cream, except that the covering is much softer, as it is made of marshmallows. This was our favorite dessert that we tried there and were so happy we went to this particular shop. We had almost skipped coming here as we were much more interested in trying pastries and didn’t think ice cream would be very unique. We bought the pistachio glace, and though the flavor of the ice cream was the same one that I bought, it tasted completely different because of the marshmallow covering. We did go back at a later date and bought 2 more Frenchie glaces in the strawberry-rose and mango-coconut flavors. Both were excellent, but my favorite is still the pistachio.
This place is a must-try when in Paris and has multiple locations. We went to the one in the Marais at: 15 Rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie, 75004 Paris.
Maison Aleph
Maison Aleph is sort of a new-age pastry shop, specializing in pastries known as Nids. They are round kadaifi nests stuffed with exotic flavors. The nests themselves almost taste like Baklava, but the stuffing is very flavorful and unlike the gooey sweetness of Baklava. We bought 4 Nids – the raspberry pistachio, rhubarb almond, coffee cardamom, and hazelnut. We almost bought the caramel, but I had to get my mom to calm down and try something else (since we still had 2 entire weeks’ worth of opportunities to buy caramel-flavored items).
This shop was also located in the Marais at: 20 Rue de la Verrerie, 75004 Paris, France.
Hugo & Victor
I was quite hungry when we walked into Hugo & Victor so we thought we’d stop by very quickly and buy a croissant, but we were greeted with much much more than we bargained for. This place is a haven for all sweet tooth-y people everywhere. They had croissants, tartes, pavlovas, mille-feuille, cakes, cases and cases of chocolates, ice cream and glaces. I’m pretty sure I’m missing a few. We ordered a croissant and the Tarte Webster (lemon tart with meringue on top). The croissant was tasty, flaky, and perfect to split between the two of us since it was so huge. It was the perfect croissant and I highly recommend trying this place out. The lemon tart has just the right amount of crunch to it and the taste of the lemon was so subtle and didn’t overpower the pastry.
We went to the store, located in the 6th arrondissement: 40 Boulevard Raspail, 75007 Paris, France.
Patisserie Michalak
This shop is known for its chocolates and hot chocolate according to the bloggers I had mentioned previously. However, when we went into their store, the pastries looked so appetizing, we went for those instead. They did not have hot chocolate, and only had coffee but we aren’t sure if the hot chocolate is only seasonal or dependent on the location. We ordered the Péché Mignon and the Chou Abricot Vanille which are fruity entremets.
The store was empty when we walked in, so we thought we would sit outside to enjoy our goodies. This move happened to drum up more business for the store since everyone who walked past us, looked at our pastries and decided to buy some for themselves. I think we deserved a free pastry for getting them some customers 
.
We went to the store in the 6th arrondissement: 8 Rue du Vieux Colombier, 75006 Paris, but there are other branches all over Paris.
La Maison du Chocolat
We happened to walk past this store as we were going to Patisserie Michalak. This place was on our list, but at a different address. Since it was on our way to the metro station, we thought we’d drop in and check this one off of our list. However, the chocolates are quite expensive for the size, so if you don’t plan on blowing your entire budget in one place, you can buy individual pieces or a box of 6 for €10. We chose this option and bought a box of 6 assorted pieces of chocolate which were very creamy and delicious. The flavors inside this box were: raspberry ganache, passion fruit ganache, dark chocolate ganache, dark chocolate ganache with pieces of Ghanaian cocoa, almond hazelnut praline with milk chocolate, and almond hazelnut praline with roasted almond. The chocolates were pretty good, and though I enjoyed the taste, the size of each piece was so small that it wasn’t worth the money. They do also sell other assorted chocolate boxes varying in size and price, ice cream and chocolate from Michalak.
However, regardless of my opinion, this is a great place to buy gifts to take back home and also has stores in multiple locations across the city and at both CDG and Orly airports if you want to do some last-minute shopping. The location we went to was in the 6th arrondissement: 19 Rue de Sèvres, 75006 Paris.
Stohrer
We walked into this store on another gloomy cloudy day and found it empty again, that is until we walked in. After that, the store was buzzing with customers. We have a bit of running joke (lately) that we are like real-life influencers without a gigantic number of Instagram followers. Anyways, this store is famous for the Baba Chantilly which is a pastry soaked in rum with cream piped on top of it. It tasted great, according to my mom. I liked the top half with the cream, but I am not a fan of rum, so the part of the pastry soaking in rum was a little too strong for me. Therefore, I only contributed to eating the top half of it. They also sell other pastries, éclairs, chocolates, gelis, and smoked salmon (which I thought was random for a bakery).
This shop is located in the 2nd arrondissement at 51 Rue Montorgueil, 75002 Paris, France.
Fou de Pâtisserie
Walking into Fou de Pâtisserie was like walking into Honeydukes. I did not know what to expect or what was popular here. Fou de Pâtisserie sells pastries from other popular patisseries or boulangeries such as Babka Zana, Pierre Herme, L’Eclair de Genie, Maison Angelina, Jacques Genin, and many more. It worked out perfectly for us since we had just walked to Babka Zana hoping to try their famous Babkas and it was closed. We bought a pistachio Babka (from Babka Zana), a pistachio hazelnut cookie (by Nicolas Haelewyn), and a Mont Blanc (from Angelina, which we plan to attend specifically for their tea service later in the week).
The Mont Blanc which we took home to eat is quite rich and since we shared it, we were able to finish it in one sitting but it put us into a food coma right after. I have described it a bit more during our visit to Mademoiselle Angelina since we had it again, so please look below for more details.
The pistachio hazelnut cookie, which we ate before the Mont Blanc (and quite possibly also contributed to the food coma) consisted of a chocolate chip cookie, with caramel and almond/hazelnut praline and topped with toasted pistachios, hazelnut, and milk chocolate. It was an amalgamation of flavors in our mouths and made me sad that I only had half a cookie. I am quite the cookie monster and can eat several cookies in one sitting, so just having half a delicious cookie did not cut it for me.
The pistachio Babka was a cinnamon roll topped with chopped pistachios. It was quite good and it wasn’t as sweet as a Cinnabon. But as bready pastries go, it was excellent.
Fou de Pâtisserie is also a great place to buy gifts since many of their pastries come wrapped in gift boxes ready for travel. There are multiple locations in the city, but we went to the one at 36 Rue de Martyrs, 75009 Paris, France.
Boulangerie Utopie
This boulangerie is known for its carbonized bread and croissants. We bought a carbonized sesame roll (sweet puff pastry and a cake rolled into one, cooked with sesame seeds) and a sesame pastry (made of black sesame mousse with lime confit placed on a sesame biscuit). They had a variety of other bread and pastries, but we were interested specifically in their carbonized products. When we tasted both, we loved them instantly. The sesame roll was flaky like a croissant on the outside and tasted like sweet cake on the inside. It also had a subtle taste and smell of sesame and both the sesame and the sweetness of the cake complemented each other very well. The sesame pastry was made up of a crumbly sesame biscuit topped by a light sesame mousse. The sesame was not at all overpowering and tasted very good especially in combination with the lime confit.
This store is located in the Oberkampf neighborhood at 20 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Paris.
Boulangerie Chambelland
This store was recommended for their pan de sucre. They had 3 varieties of pan de sucre and we bought the type that had chocolate and fleur d’orange. We also bought their focaccia herbs en Provence bread that we thought we could have for lunch. While the pan de sucre was good, we weren’t as impressed by it. It is not something that I would travel to Paris to try. On the other hand, the focaccia bread was quite tasty and made a perfect pairing with all of the sweetbreads that we had bought.
This shop is located in the Oberkampf neighborhood at 14 Rue Ternaux, 75011 Paris.
La Pâtisserie Cyril Lignac
This store located in the Bastille neighborhood is made up of 3 individual shops: a chocolatier, a patisserie, and a restaurant, all facing each other. When we visited, the chocolatier was closed, but the restaurant was open and since we went specifically for the pastries, we did not eat at the restaurant. The pastries here are all impressive and it was difficult to choose which ones to buy. We went with the recommendations to try the kouign amon, the Equinoxe pastry, and the tarte au citron. The pastries were all beautifully presented and it was very hard to eat them and destroy their beauty. But sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do!
The kouign amon was like a big flaky muffin and while tasty, did not hold a candle to the other two pastries we bought. We tried the tarte au citron first which tasted amazing. The French seem to really like their citron since it seems to be a staple in all patisseries. My mom was most excited for the Equinoxe pastry. My naive self thought it was because of how the pastry looked, but she later informed me that it was because it had caramel in it 🙄. It had a caramel mousse center surrounded by a vanilla bourbon mousse placed on a speculoos biscuit and covered by a carbonized velvet spray layer. It was so divine that I think it is one of THE pastries to come to Paris for. And it looked pretty spectacular too.
This store was located at 24 Rue Paul Bert, 75011 Paris, France, but has other locations in the city as well.
Pierre Hermé
We happened to walk into a Pierre Hermé stand inside Galeries Lafayette. Since it was on our list of places to visit, we thought we’d buy some macarons at that time. We bought a box of 4 macarons – passion fruit, ispahan, praline, and mogador.
I won’t go into each flavor, but I will say that these are the best macarons I have ever tasted. The flavors are not only in the ganache filling, some of them appeared to have a layer of cream or jelly (I’m not even sure what it was) baked into the macaron shell. The middle layer of the ganache seems to have 2-3 different layers within itself. It was so intricate and perfect that I can’t seem to find better words to explain it.
Pierre Hermé also sells pastries other than macarons such as Ispahan croissants, 2000 feuilles (because 2000 layers is much better than 1000) and many more.
Pierre Hermé has many locations in the city, but we visited the one inside the Galeries Lafayette main building.
2000 Feuille
Pâtisserie Yann Couvreur
This patisserie has many stores in Paris, but we happened to find it inside the gourmet building of Galeries Lafayette. We ordered the Merveille, which is a multilayered pastry made up of light chocolate mousse, hazelnut praline with fleur de sel, and meringue. This divine pastry consists of two crunchy meringue layers with a hazelnut praline center enclosed in a light chocolate mousse and covered by a mirrored chocolate glaze. It is then further decorated with hazelnut halves and chocolate chunks. When you cut into this sinful dessert you see all of the beautiful layers constructed with such painstaking detail and the crunchy meringue melting in your mouth with the chocolate, hazelnut, and salted pralines is truly heavenly.
We also asked to try their Madagascar Vanilla Mille-Feuille, but they said it could only be eaten there at their attached restaurant and couldn’t be taken to go. Since we already had quite a few pastries that day, we decided to come back another day to eat it. We even went back the next day (and the next day) and on our last day in Paris, and each time they informed us that they had already run out. According to the 2foodtrippers blog, they only make 50 mille-feuilles a day, so only 50 people are lucky enough to taste it. So don’t be like us and completely ignore that fact, when you get a chance to eat it, do it sooner rather than later.
Pâtisserie Yann Couvreur has multiple locations in Paris, and we visited the one inside the Galeries Lafayette Gourmet building.
Jean-Paul Hévin
Jean-Paul Hévin is known for their hot chocolate and macarons. Since we had just bought macarons from Pierre Hermé, we only bought 2 macarons from here, the chocolate and the creme brulee flavor. They were divine, but I do think I liked the Pierre Hermé macarons slightly more because of how intricate each macaron is.
Jean-Paul Hévin has a separate store that was closed during our trip, so we went to the store inside of Galeries Lafayette Gourmet.
Philippe Conticini
They are famous for their boule cake marron, but since they didn’t have it, we bought the Paris-Brest pastry and the Tarte Saint-Honore instead. We had heard that the Paris-Brest pastry was a must-try when coming to Paris, and it was absolutely worth it. It was a donut-shaped choux pastry cut in half and filled with praline butter that almost tasted like very creamy peanut butter but so so much tastier than regular peanut butter. I am not sure how I will go back to eating peanut butter after this.
The Tarte Saint-Honore consist of a sweet tart shell with creamy salted caramel at the bottom, followed by vanilla and salted caramel cream topped with chantilly mascarpone and crowned with a caramelized choux pastry ball. It was so delicious and I have currently run out of words in my vocabulary to describe how amazing all of these pastries are.
Again we went to the Philippe Conticini store inside of Galeries Lafayette Gourmet. Their actual store was closed during our trip and has multiple locations in Paris.
Mademoiselle Angelina
We went to Angelina to have their Mont Blanc again along with attending their tea service, except we never ordered any tea. We instead ordered a hot chocolate (which was the best my mom said she had ever tasted), an iced hot chocolate, and the Mont Blanc. The Mont Blanc is made of a meringue base, filled with chantilly cream in the middle and topped with chestnut cream piped in the form of vermicelli noodles. It was so exquisite and I’m hoping she learns how to make this in the future. They do also have other desserts on their menus such as Mille-Feuille and an apricot flavored version of their Mont Blanc.
This branch of Angelina is located at 19 Rue de Vaugirard, 75006 Paris, France, in front of the Luxembourg Museum (in the Luxembourg Gardens). The entrance is free and you do not need a ticket to the museum to eat here. The main branch of Angelina is located at 226 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France.
Ladurée
Ladurée is known for their macarons and that is exactly what we got. However, we were already obsessed with the Pierre Hermé macarons, that we didn’t think these could live up to those. So we only ordered 2 macarons – Passionfruit and Caramel 🙄, mostly because the Champs-Élysées branch that we went to were out of all of the popular flavors, which was unfortunate because I really wanted to compare flavors. They are great macarons and are comparable to other famous macaron stores in Paris. The store that we were at had plenty of seating inside and out, so we decided to order our macarons to our table and a scoop of ice cream each. I ordered the Damascus Rose flavor, and mom ordered the chestnut flavor, and these were so flavorful and honestly way better than the macarons. We went to the Ladurée at 75 Av. des Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris, France, but it has multiple locations all over Paris.
On the last day of our trip, we happened to go to the Ladurée near Place Vendôme at 14 Rue de Castiglione, 75001 Paris, France. They had way more flavors, probably because we went earlier in the day, as well as customizable macarons. Again we bought only 2 macarons this time, the mango jasmine and a champagne infused one, which were much more flavorful than the initial 2 that we bought.
That being said, between all of the different macarons that we tasted (Pierre Hermé, Ladurée, Jean Paul Hévin), the structure, texture and taste were all fantastic and pretty consistent. The only reason I favor Pierre Hermé over the rest is that his macarons go one step further and appear to have more than 1 layer of filling which gives them a bit more depth than the other macarons. But you really can’t go wrong no matter which you choose.
Honorable Mention:
- Salon de Thé in the Grande Mosque of Paris: When we visited the Grande Mosque (tickets cost €3), we decided to go to the restaurant attached to the mosque for tea and sweets after our visit. The sweets that they have are similar to baklavas and mostly made of pistachios and nuts and each cost €2. They also have an extensive menu, drinks, and desserts. To go with our sweets, we also bought the mint tea (also €2 each) that is brought around by servers every few minutes on trays full of tall shot glasses containing piping hot mint tea. It is sweet but very refreshing and a great accompaniment with your box of sweets if you choose to buy any. That is the only item that is brought around to all tables, all other items will have to be ordered separately.
- Fête des Tuileries: Located at the entrance of the Tuileries Garden is a summer funfair full of amusement park rides. Entry is free, but there is a cost for all of the rides and any food you may purchase. We bought some churros with Nutella and it was crispy and soft and delicious. There was other food available such as cotton candy, Belgian waffles, popcorn, etc. However, please note that this appears to only be available in the summertime.
Out of the 40 pastry shops recommended, 16 were either closed permanently or temporarily for the summer holidays, 4 were too far away and we didn’t feel like traveling too far, and we went to 20 places (actually 19, but 1 shop did have pastries from other popular pastry shops). Given the 10 days we had in Paris, I am quite happy with how much of that list we were able to finish. We also wanted to spend some time going to the sights and we were able to accomplish all of that as well.
If you only have a few days in Paris and have to go sightseeing as well, the places I definitely recommend trying are: Aux Merveilleux de Fred, Pâtisserie Yann Couvreur, La Pâtisserie Cyril Lignac, L’Éclair de Genie, and any of the macaron shops mentioned in this post. If you do not have time to go to any of the places I mentioned, go to Galeries Lafayette Gourmet (35 Blvd Haussmann, 75009 Paris) as they carry pastries from various patissiers.
Patisseries we went more than once: Aux Merveilleux de Fred, Angelina, Une Glace à Paris, Pâtisserie Yann Couvreur, La Pâtisserie Cyril Lignac, L’Éclair de Genie, Pierre Hermé, and Ladurée.
5 comments
I love this post about paris! ✨😍 We actually visited a few recommandations of yours, like the Maison Angelina and Pierre Hermé.🍡🥠 Thanks for this inspiration!
Thank you so much Anna. This was indeed a memorable trip and very happy to have made some wonderful new friends.
What a sweet trip and narration.
Thanks to your suggestions.
+To the bucket list.
Thank you Prabhavathi
A lovely description of the entire trip. Could actually visualise the whole trip💝. Glad things worked out for the duo and you all enjoyed it thoroughly
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