The 10 Best Bakeries in Paris for a First-Timer
2025-01-29 · 5 min read
Paris is not a city where you go to a single bakery. It is a city where every neighborhood has at least one bakery worth entering, and the cumulative effect of a week of croissants, baguettes, and tartes is one of the most pleasurable eating experiences available on earth. These ten bakeries are the starting points for a first visit, but they are by no means the full story.
Du Pain et des Idées in the 10th arrondissement is the first stop. Christophe Vasseur's bakery produces pain des amis, a flaky, buttery bread that justifies crossing the city. The escargot pastries, spiral-shaped with pistachio cream or chocolate, are architectural achievements that also happen to taste extraordinary. The shop itself is a preserved 19th-century boulangerie, which adds to the experience.
Poilâne in Saint-Germain-des-Prés has been baking its iconic sourdough miche in wood-fired ovens since 1932. The large round loaf, scored with a signature P, has a nutty, deeply flavored crumb and a dark, thick crust that makes supermarket bread feel like a different food category entirely. They ship worldwide, but eating it warm in the shop is the correct experience.
For croissants, the competition is fierce. Cédric Grolet at the Opéra location produces some of the most photographed pastries in the world, but the Boulangerie Utopie in the 11th arrondissement bakes a traditional butter croissant that many locals consider the finest in the city. It is shatteringly crisp on the outside, impossibly layered inside, and costs about two euros.
Stohrer, which opened in 1730, is the oldest pâtisserie in Paris and still produces a baba au rhum that feels historic. Blé Sucré in the 12th has a devoted following for its tarte au citron. And Liberté in the 10th offers modern pastries with cleaner flavors and lighter sweetness that reflect the direction Parisian baking is heading. Every neighborhood discovery adds to the list, which is the point. Paris rewards the curious eater.
