L’Autre Boulange opened over 25 years ago, it is owned by a jovial man with a handlebar moustache who has always baked with organic flour and a traditional wood oven. The man loves his job and his flan has been voted number one in Paris. His pastries are reminiscent of your grandmother’s—the one who bakes with talent using basic ingredients and simple recipes. At L’Autre Boulange the pastries are consistently good—I think often of the Tarte Tatin there—and are very comforting. L’Autre Boulange also makes good sandwiches for under 5€; the rosbif (that is French for roast beef), pickled dill and mayo sandwich on corn bread is delicious. For 7,10€ you can get a sandwich+drink+dessert, a perfect lunch to eat in the Jardin de la Cité Prost right around the corner.

L’Autre Boulange
43 Rue de Montreuil
75011 Paris
tel: 01.43.72.86.04
Metro: Faidherbe-Chaligny

Tues-Fri: 7.30am-1.30pm / 3.30pm-7.30pm
Sat: 7.30am-1pm
Closed on Sunday, Monday and in August

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Franco-British couple Mr. and Mrs. Rose had a child. They called it Bakery. A Rose Bakery was born in London. Then they decided to move to Paris and they gave birth to a second, and recently a third, Rose Bakery. Rose Bakery is the name of their very successful—hence the new addition to the family—bakery/restaurants. The third Rose Bakery restaurant is in the hands of chef Kaori Endo, a 34 year-old Japanese cook who just published a book of recipes and who will be on T.V for eight cooking shows. At Rose Bakery they use quality ingredients, lots of organic and carefully chosen goods for their savory tarts, quiches, healthy salads (lentil salad, carrot salad, potato salad, baked beans, duck pot-au-feu…) and their delicious desserts (carrot cake, cheesecake, vegan fruit cake, lemon cake, green tea-raspberry cake, banana nut bread, scones, muffins, brownies…) They serve breakfast during the week and brunch on the weekend (eggs, pancakes…). In other words, Rose Bakery is a perfect place for breakfast, lunch, brunch and afternoon tea and pastries. It’s healthy, good, pretty and it is located in two great areas of Paris.

Rose Bakery 3rd arrondissement
30 rue Debelleyme
75003 Paris
tel: 01.49.96.54.01
Metro: Filles du Calvaire

Tu-Sun: 9am-6pm (kitchen closes at 4pm)
Closed on Monday

Rose Bakery 9th arrondissement
46 rue des Martyrs
75009 Paris
tel: 01.42.82.12.80
Metro: Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Pigalle

Tu-Sun: 10am-6.30pm (kitchen closes at 4pm)
Closed on Monday

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Created in the late 19th century, Ladurée—inventor of macarons—is one of the oldest Parisian tea houses. Today it counts several tearooms/pastry shops/restaurants in Paris and abroad. Ladurée is to Paris what sourdough bread is to San Francisco, catfish to New Orleans, BBQ to Texas and fried green tomatoes to the southern United States… It is part of the Paris’ culinary identity. As if Ladurée needed any publicity, Sofia Coppola’s visually stunning movie, Marie-Antoinette, made the Parisian tea house famous all over the world. Now the lines are even longer and sometimes stretch all the way around the street corner as if we were in cold war-era Russia. If you plan on eating at Ladurée on the Champs-Elysées I highly recommend reserving your table online. You can choose your day and time, and avoid the ridiculous wait in line. The online reservations will soon be extended to the other tea salons. Ladurée serves breakfast (morning pastries, bread, eggs any style, French toast, fresh fruit salads, juices…), brunch (it is served on Saturday and Sunday from 10am until 3.30pm and will cost you 35€) and lunch as well as dinner (main dish at 29€, menus at 34€ and 42€, club sandwiches from 15,50€ to 23€). Pastries and teas will coast you around 7€ each.
If you are visiting Paris in winter and wish to warm up in a cozy and elegant atmosphere, Ladurée is the place to be: it is sort of overheated and makes you kinda melt. And then you melt some more when you see the list of pastries.

Ladurée
6th arrondissement
Ladurée Bonaparte
21 Rue Bonaparte
75006 Paris
tel: 01.44.07.64.87
Metro: Saint-Germain-des-Prés
open 7/7
M-F: 8.30am-7.30pm
Sat: 8.30am-8.30pm
Sun: 10am-7.30pm
*Chocolate counter, open 7/7
M-Sun: 10am-7pm

8th arrondissement
Ladurée Royale
16 Rue Royale
75008 Paris
tel: 01.42.60.21.79
Metro: Madeleine, Concorde
open 7/7
M-Th: 8.30am-7.30pm
F, Sat: 8.30am-8pm
Sun: 10am-7pm

Ladurée Champs-Elysées
75 Avenue des Champs Elysées
75008 Paris
tel: 01.40.75.08.75
Metro: George V
open 7/7
M-F: 7.30am-11pm
Sat: 7.30am-12am
Sun: 7.30am-10pm
*Restaurant, open 7/7
M-Sun: 7.30am-12.30am

9th arrondissement
Ladurée Printemps Department Store
62 Boulevard Haussmann
75009 Paris
tel: 01.42.82.40.10
Metro: Havre-Caumartin
M-Sat: 9.35am-7pm (until 10pm on Thursday)
Closed on Sunday

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Paris is such a tease!
I happened to stroll by a very pretty pastry shop, Le Pain de Sucre in Paris, with its perfect looking pastries and jewelry-like glittering marshmallow cubes on sticks. It felt like a very sophisticated and tiny factory where macarons are made for visual delight as much as for gustative bliss. Imagine a sour cherry/pistachio macaron: two deep lip-smacking red round meringue-like domes tenderly squeezing a mouthwatering dark green layer of pistachio. If you want to be lured into a world of ambrosial pastries and luscious color combinations, all you have to do is walk down rue Rambuteau. You don’t need the address, as you pass by the Le Pain de Sucre something will instinctively attract you, pull you in, whisper to you until you push open the front door and step in. The tarts are what I like best at Le Pain de Sucre.

Pain de Sucre
14 Rue Rambuteau
75003 Paris
tel: 01.45.74.68.92
Metro: Rambuteau

Th-M: 10am-8pm
Closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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You can now get your late night macaron on at Pierre Hermé’s newest Paris store:

Pierre Hermé - Publicis Drugstore
133 Avenue des Champs-Elysées
75008 Paris
Metro: Charles de Gaulle - Etoile

M-Th: 10am-11pm
F-Sun: 10am-12pm

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Pierre Hermé is one of the most talented and talked about pastry chef in the world.
The front of his pastry shop on rue Bonaparte looks like a jewelry store, the inside like a casket of very precious highly talked about edible jewels. Sometimes the window displays some sweet original pop culture items such as the series of Voltron (Goldorak for the French) character made out of chocolate.
Among the amazingly colorful and tempting pastries are the very popular macarons:
Here are a few of his macarons’ flavor (all subject to change):
-Chocolate
-White truffle & hazelnut
-Mogador passion fruit & milk chocolate
-Fleur de Sel caramel
-Chocolate & foie gras
-Pistachio
-Chocolate and caramel
-Black truffle
-Balsamic vinegar (“tradizionale di Modena” aged for 25 years)
-Olive oil & vanilla (that’s right)
-Eglantine, fig & foie gras
-Grapefruit & campari
-Passion fruit & chocolat

These macarons are so pretty, such a treat to look at. The powder blush effect of some of them gave me a sweet flashback into the early 80’s when I would stand against the bathroom door and watch my mother get pretty.
Aside from THE macarons (the ones that will leave your tourist friends speechless because they never tasted anything like this before) there’s all the other marvelous pastries, precious sculpted goods, that i won’t attempt to describe because no words will suffice. But if you get a chance, try the Tarte Sarah. It’s a lip-smacking, finger-licking wonder made out of chestnut, passion fruit and Matcha green tea cream in a perfect pate sablée crust. And do not leave Paris without trying his Carrément Chocolat chocolate cake. It is simply the best I’ve had. Ever.

Pierre Hermé shops:
72 Rue Bonaparte
75006 Paris
tel : 01.43.54.47.77
Metro: Saint-Sulpice
M-Sun: 10am-7pm
Sat: 10am-7.30pm

185 Rue de Vaugirard
75015 Paris
tel : 01.47.83.89.96
Metro: Pasteur
Tu-W: 10am-7pm
Th-Sat: 10am-7.30pm
Sun: 10am-6pm
Closed on Monday

4 Rue Cambon (Macarons & Chocolates only)
75001 Paris
tel : 01.58.62.43.17
Metro: Tuileries
M-Sat: 10am-7pm
Closed on Sunday

Publicis Drugstore (Macarons & Chocolates only)
133, Avenue des Champs-Elysées
75008 Paris
Metro: Charles de Gaulle - Etoile
M-Th: 10am-11pm
F-Sun: 10am-12pm

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