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• Croissants and pastries: the best bakeries in Paris

One of the great pleasures of a stay in Paris is to wander through the streets and spontaneously enter a small neighborhood bakery, attracted by the tantalizing smell of freshly baked bread, or the butter scent of the golden croissants, crispy on the outside and melting on the inside.

Pastries and bakeries in Paris are perhaps the most visited monuments! Did you know that until 2014, it was the prefecture that decided which bakeries had the right to take vacations in July, and which others were allowed to close in August: no way to leave the French, and the Parisians furthermore, without their sacrosanct wand, under penalty of riots...

What a pleasure to plant your teeth in the beautiful airy bread of a traditional baguette, or enjoy a simple but divine pastry - not to mention new fashion stores, whose minimalist look is inspired by art galleries: in these chic places, we appreciate refined delicacies as much with the eyes as with the taste buds!

Let's go around some of the best pastries in Paris...

The most Parisian: Boulangerie Alexine

Let's start with a small neighborhood bakery, the kind of bakery that we discover when we do not expect it, at the corner of a street. In the old fashioned way, the Alexine bakery has neither Facebook page nor website, but its reputation was made without the help of social networks! Appreciated by lovers of good bread and good pastries, it is always full.

To be discovered, to find the nostalgic pleasure of a Parisian bakery who contents in making excellent bread, and who finds its publicity in its location. Without worrying about blowing the trumpets of fame.

Alexine bakery - 40 rue Lepic, 75018 - Abbesses metro station

The most Rising Sun: Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki

Who would have believed it ? A Japanese pastry chef seduced the French - and all the other aficionados who came to make their pilgrimage to the Parisian shops of Sadaharu Aoki. In these shops with a zen look, we come to admire beautiful candies and cakes. The chocolates nicknamed "Makeup" take the form of small sticks carefully arranged by colors. One would hardly dare to eat them and only admire, so much their alignment is pleasant.

Cakes are not left out: some take a perfect rectangular shape to better show off their surprising colors. Matcha green tea is in the spotlight and lends its silky powdery texture to original creations. There is also another ingredient in the Far East pastry, the azuki bean, in cakes, tarts and mille-feuilles, which have nothing to envy to the French savoir-faire.

Pastry Sadaharu Aoki - 35 rue de Vaugirard, 75006 - Metro Rennes or Saint-Placide - Other shops: 56 boulevard de Port-Royal, 75005; 25 rue Pérignon, 75015; 103 rue Saint Dominique, 75007 - closed Mondays and holidays, open Tuesday to Saturday from 11h to 19h and Sunday from 10h to 18h

The most Norman: Aux péchés normands

Pastries in France need butter. A lot, a lot and a lot of butter. Without it, no croissants, no brioches, no pleasure! A bakery and pastry under the sign of Normandy is auspicious...

This traditional bakery in Paris will delight the nostalgic with its beautiful old-fashioned setting. We come to delight in mille-feuilles, pastries and fondant croissants (because of butter course!). We also stop at noon, for lunch on the run of a generous baguette sandwich, or a quiche (chicken, spinach-salmon), and there are of course breads that we nibble even without hunger, like the ficelle aux olives.

Large selection of breads and pastries without gluten.

Aux péchés normands - 9, rue du Faubourg du Temple, 75010 – Metro République - Open Monday to Friday from 6am to 8pm, closed on Saturday and Sunday.

The most Breton: Maison Georges Larnicol

It must be admitted, the Breton butter is well worth Norman butter ... The rivalry is secular and it is difficult to designate a winner! And if Norman butter makes very good croissants, it is a cake that only tolerates Breton butter: the kouign-amann. They are very lucky, those who do not yet know this delight, crisp on the outside and soft inside, because they will be able to taste it for the first time!

Georges Larnicol has made it his specialty. In small format, renamed "kouignette", kouign-amann should soon dethrone the macaron as a pastry fashion. The kouignette is sweet or salty, in many flavors: orange, raspberry, pistachio or rum raisin - and salted butter caramel, of course.

But the shop in the rue de Rivoli is also a gourmet paradise for its inexhaustible drawers filled with self-service chocolates. Not to mention the daring creations in chocolate, Egyptian sphinx, gothic church recreated even in its least gargoyles, or dragons more real than nature.

Georges Larnicol House - 14 rue de Rivoli, 75004 - Saint Paul Metro - 132 Bd Saint-Germain, 75006 - Metro Mabillon or Odeon - 7 rue de Steinkerque, 75018 - Metro Anvers or Abbesses

The most meringue: Au merveilleux de Fred

Here is another regional specialty: neither Breton nor Norman, the merveilleux is a pastry from the North of France and Flanders. It is a crunchy meringue coated with whipped cream and rolled in caramel chips,

praline or chocolate. Impossible not to have your mouth watering...Frédéric Vaucamps has made the merveilleux his vocation, and he is intractable on its quality. In his pastry shop in Paris, there is also the delicious cramique, raisin brioche, also from Belgium and Flanders.

Attention, the merveilleux is very popular: it is better to avoid going to this pastry in Paris on weekends, to avoid having to endure a long queues.

Au merveilleux de Fred - 24 Rue du Pont Louis Philippe, 75004 - Metro Saint-Paul - Several other addresses in Paris, see website.

The most Belle-Époque : Au Petit Versailles du Marais

An excellent bakery in Paris, in a period setting: all our wishes are fulfilled! In the Marais, the bakery has existed since 1860. We do not know where to look: the stall is enticing, but the ceiling of time, with its paintings on glass tiles, is beautiful.

At the head of this Petit Versailles: Christian Vabret, Best worker of France. The quality is there waiting, whether it's crispy baguettes whose crumbs are good for grilled wheat, or sublime pistachio croissants.

At the Petit Versailles du Marais - 27 rue François Miron, 75004 - Metro Saint-Paul - open Monday to Saturday from 7am to 8pm, closed on Sundays.