An Insider’s Guide to the Most Mouthwatering Bakeries in Paris
With more than 1,300 boulangeries and a profound baking culture, Paris has always been an awesome place for your morning pain au chocolat or baguette. But the lovable boulangerie de quartier might rely on additives and premixes. After a recent monthlong stay in Paris researching a book on bread, I found that a new generation of artisanal bakers across the city is replacing commercial yeasts with carefully nurtured sourdough starters, sourcing heirloom wheats stone-ground by small mills, and embracing creative techniques and cross-cultural flavors. Their creations are worth traveling for, as I happily discovered.
“The new-concept bakeries have a short range of products, a disruptive approach and strong personalities,” said Christophe Vasseur, whose bakery, Du Pain et des Idées, by the Canal St.-Martin, helped kick-start the artisanal bread movement more than two decades ago. Now, tattooed bakers are “rock stars,” as the newspaper Le Figaro called them. “This situation brings a new general appreciation of artisanal bread — which is such a great thing,” said Apollonia Poilâne, the chief executive of the namesake family bakery, which has locations in Paris and London and still sets a mark of bakery excellence with its sourdough miches.
As crowds flood Paris for the Olympics and restaurant reservations become elusive this summer, these six boulangeries will satisfy your cravings for the crustiest boules and baguettes, the airiest brioches and the flakiest viennoiseries — even if you have to consume them on a park bench (or if you are lucky, in a stadium).
A baguette de tradition at the following bakeries costs just over 1 euro, and a loaf of bread is usually priced at €10 to €15, or $11 to $16, per kilo (just over two pounds). Breakfast viennoiseries starts at €1.60 for a croissant. Individual pastries are priced between €5 and €8.
11th arrondissement
Utopie, for the award-winning baguette
Raised in a rough Paris suburb by his Guadeloupean mother, the head boulanger at Utopie, Xavier Netry, had to drop out of school to support her by working in bakeries. He went on to become one of most prominent Black bakers in France, winning the annual Paris baguette competition last April. Now queues start early outside the pint-size Utopie in the 11th Arrondissement for his crusty sourdough-starter-leavened creations, be it the golden baguette de tradition (currently being supplied to the Élysée Palace) or aromatic green-tea loaves punctuated with crispy puffed rice. But don’t miss Utopie’s pastries, as its owners, Erwan Blanche and Sébastien Bruno — both Maison Ladurée veterans — have serious patisserie cred and adventurous palates. Case in point: their sesame-lime composition, a striking orb of black sesame mousse on a crumbly sable base with a bright citrusy accent of lime confit.
