Where to find the best pastries and patisseries in Paris.

One of the highlights of any visit to Paris is sampling all the delicious pastries. In some neighborhoods, there’s a pastry shop or patisserie on every corner. And many of the shops are gorgeous with beautiful décor from the turn of the century. No one minds if you buy a single cookie -- in fact, many customers will wait in line quite some time to do so. The only trouble is, they’re often too pretty to eat.

The macaron is a favorite Paris sweet and it’s available in most of the patisseries.  Not to be confused with a coconut macaroon, a macaron is a sandwich cookie.  The cookie part is made with meringue and almond flour and filled with some wonderful, flavored butter cream. 

Macarons were invented by Laduree, which opened in 1862.  The outer shell is crisp and light and the center is at once chewy, creamy, and smooth.  They come in hundreds of flavors -- with many of the most famous patisseries introducing new flavors every year or season.

Other irresistible pastries are the financier, which is a little teacake, and the Madeleine, which is a small, shell-shaped sponge cake that comes from Lorraine. 

Laduree is known around the world for their macarons. They have six shops in Paris and ten in Japan, Switzerland, Great Britain, Ireland, and Monaco. In France, their little celadon boxes are as famous as Tiffany blue boxes are in America. Each year, they introduce a new flavor, and their selection -- which includes jasmine-mango, blackcurrent-violet, and chestnut -- is dazzling. If macarons don’t strike your fancy, there’s caramelized puff pastry, praline cream, almond pralines, and crunchy hazelnuts or almond sponge cake with pistachio cream, raspberries and meringue. Pinch me. The Champs Elysees location is gorgeous. Have lunch in the tearoom there and you’ll feel like an aristocrat.

Pierre Herme is generally acknowledged to make the best macarons in Paris. He’s even written a book on the subject. He’s a fourth-generation pastry chef whose family comes from the Alsace region of France. When he was 14, he went to apprentice at Lenotre, and then worked at the famous Paris food store Fauchon. In 1998, he opened his own pastry shop in Tokyo. He introduces a new collection each year with some of the most exotic flavors available. Try caramel and fleur de sel, or litchi-rose, jasmine, and passion fruit. His chocolates are also fantastic -- especially the truffles.

Dalloyau has been in business since 1802, and today they have 31 shops employing 100 pastry chefs. But their history goes back to the court of Versailles. They are best known for the Dalloyau, which is a almond meringue-filled praline cake. The Opera is another delicious concoction of layered almond biscuits, chocolate ganache, coffee syrup, and butter cream, topped with a layer of dark chocolate. They serve a light lunch menu in their tea rooms and they currently have six shops in Paris, and shops in Kuwait, Korea, and Japan.

Gerard Mulot makes superb macarons, but he’s also known for his chocolate fondant, caramel mousse, raspberry tarts, lemon tarts, and little cakes. There’s almost nothing you can’t get here. The croissants and brioches here come in a variety of flavors. He makes delicious breads and sandwiches, and fabulous chocolates too. At lunch, try a croque monsieur or a slice of quiche Lorraine. He now has a shop in the Marais, not far from Place des Vosges, in addition to his patisserie on rue de Seine.

If you love pain au chocolat, or chocolate croissants, Jean Millet in the 7th makes the best.  Flaky and buttery, with a rich chocolate filling, they are superb.  His crepe Suzette, palmiers, beignets, and madeleines are incredibly light.  The pastry chef here, Denis Ruffel, has received the Meilleur Ouvrier de France or MOF-- the designation awarded by the French government to master craftsmen.  

Stohrer, which opened in 1730, is the oldest continually operating pastry shop in Paris.   It was opened by Louis XV’s pastry chef, and the pastries here are still exceptional.  They invented the Baba au Rhum, which is one of their most popular items.  If you like raisins and custard, try the Ali Baba instead.  Their éclairs were recently named the best in Paris by Figaro, the newspaper.  The murals on the walls and ceiling were painted by the same artist who decorated the original Paris Opera House.