Let Them Eat Éclairs: A Pastry Tour of the Marais

I came to this amazing city for five weeks, to experience it, to live in it, to wander through it, and also to study pastry. As an amateur.
For myself.
Another dream I got to check off.
Life is short, and you have to check things off quickly and as often as you can.
Living in Paris.
Waking up in the morning and knowing where your metro is, getting to your pâtisserie, stopping by your boulangerie in the evening to pick up the baguette, going to the weekly market and knowing what fruits and vegetables are in season.
Here.
Now.
And every day, I cross the Rue de Rivoli, stand in front of the grand, magnificent Hôtel de Ville, never failing to be amazed, all over again, walk down to the river, say bonjour with two kisses on the cheek, and start my lesson.
(I’ve taken enough lessons here by now that most of the teachers know me.)

And after five weeks, I decide to set out on a pastry tour of the Marais, the neighborhood where Jews once lived and which today is an upscale, very touristy district. There are still Jewish businesses here (mostly on its main street, and in the textile and accessories trade on the edges of the neighborhood).
That’s why I decide to weave French Jewish history into my sweets tour as well.
A boulangerie, I remind myself, is mainly a place for bread and morning pastries.
A pâtisserie is a place for showstopper cakes.
And me, more than anything: boulangerie.
Because out of all the amazing pastries that flood it morning, noon, and night, what I love most are the morning pastries called viennoiseries.
This city is paradise to me.
Some days I don’t eat anything.
I mean, I eat: pastries.
All day.
And cakes.

When I first got here, I naively thought I could work my way through every pâtisserie and boulangerie in the city and taste them all, but the longer I stayed, the longer my list got, and I realized it was a lost cause. This city is so full of them: dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands.

So I’m only aiming for the ones whose names have traveled far, the ones that left their mark, stood out in their field, and brought real innovation to the world of French sweets.
Sometimes they’re tucked away in small, hidden alleys, sometimes on big streets crowded with tourists, sometimes on squares or street corners, and together they weave a sweet story of French baking in the sweetest city in the world.
I gather them up, lay them out on a map, and set out armed with curiosity, a camera, and a very big appetite.

The Pastry and Boulangerie Tour Map of the Marais in Paris

Walking route: 1.5 km
Metro: Saint-Paul (line 1)

Aux Merveilleux de Fred

I start at a small pâtisserie not far from the river, modest and quiet.
Here they make cookies called merveilleux (marvelous).
They’re really two meringue cookies, joined together with cream.
So far, that’s basically a kind of macaron.
Fred takes this beauty and wraps it in a sweet, delicate whipped cream, then sprinkles it with white chocolate shavings, bits of meringue cookie, toasted coconut, crunchy roasted nuts, and more.
When you bite into one, all that wonderful meringue hits your mouth along with the delicate cream, and the crunch of the nuts or chocolate just melts away, exactly the way meringue should.
God, I could eat 10 of these and not even notice.
Marvelous.
These cookies are named in honor of the women of the Revolution, who fought shoulder to shoulder with the men they loved, and even in those times didn’t forget to be feminine, romantic, and to dream of butterflies, flowers, and love.
Those women were the Merveilleuses.
Like the meringue, I melt too.
From the stories. From the taste.
Fred is also a world champion when it comes to brioche. He makes family-size or individual ones, round or elongated.
A brioche is really a bun rich in eggs and butter that behaves like a dreamy little cake.
I leave Fred’s and turn left, and two minutes later, right on the corner, is the Holocaust memorial museum.

Address: 24 Rue du Pont Louis-Philippe

The Holocaust Memorial: Mémorial de la Shoah Paris

Like many Jewish buildings here, the Holocaust memorial museum is under extremely heavy security. Seriously heavy.
Metal detectors and a thorough search, just like at the airport. No less.
The museum itself is small and excellent, and right at the entrance you’re greeted by a photo of Simone Veil, who was recently buried at the Panthéon in an impressive state ceremony.
Simone Veil was the health minister of France, a Holocaust survivor, and best known for her fight for women’s rights.
Veil was also Jewish.
The names of those who perished are engraved on silvered walls, and the short visit through the museum painfully connects reality to history.
I also step into the memorial tent at this museum, which reminds me of the one at Yad Vashem.

Address: 17 Rue Geoffroy l’Asnier

Le Petit Versailles du Marais

Getting back to the small streets and my tour is fairly quick. Like in life. Reality is stronger than anything. Two more minutes and I’m on Rue Tiron. Battles between the revolutionaries and the royal guards once broke out on these narrow streets. Horses galloped, demonstrations were held, and heads were cut off. You can still see a building or two from that period still standing.

Today, a pleasant quiet reigns on these streets, with shops run by designers and artists, and relatively light tourist traffic. The pastry chef here, Vaubert, holds the title of MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France), the highest honor a craftsman can receive in France. It’s a title for excellence, and every pastry chef dreams of earning it. Every four years, the title holder must sit a set of rigorous, professional exams, and if they pass, the title is renewed.

In general, the French take these titles very seriously. At dinner with my Parisian friends, long, deep discussions often break out about pastry chefs, chocolatiers, and chefs. They’ll debate the new flavors of Pierre Hermé’s macarons at length, taste them, roll them over their tongues, and try to decide whether they beat the previous collection. I’ve heard similar debates about Claire Damon’s mille-feuille or Yann Couvreur’s lemon cake. I wish we did that too. Vaubert is best known for his morning pastries, his baguettes, and his palmiers (the caramelized puff pastry ears).

Address: 1 Rue Tiron

Rue de Rivoli

From Vaubert I head out and up to Rue de Rivoli, another minute, one green light, and I’m on the other side of Rivoli, the busiest and most commercial street in Paris. Rue de Rivoli starts near Place de la Bastille and ends at Place de la Concorde, the gateway to the most famous avenue in the world: the Champs-Élysées.

Along Rivoli you pass major landmarks like the Louvre, the fashion museum, and the Tuileries Garden, and from here you can also turn toward the charming Village Saint-Paul and the small, beautiful Place des Vosges. At number 14 Rivoli, I stop and step into Larnicol.

Georges Larnicol

Larnicol is a chocolatier from Brittany, in France. Brittany is famous mostly for its excellent butter. That’s where the wonderful crêpes and galettes come from, and there, they like their sweets salty. To their pastries and special biscuits, they add a delicate touch of salt that brings out the flavors. Here I taste an almond chocolate spread with sea salt. Amazing.

Here I also try the famous Breton kouign-amann, a laminated yeast dough (like a croissant) rich in butter and loaded with sugar, baked at a very high temperature that melts the sugar into caramel and turns the pastry a deep, caramelized, wonderful brown.
Larnicol is also a MOF, and he has branches all over France.

Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue

This is the Marais synagogue, and it too is locked up tight. In general, it’s worth knowing that in France you can’t just walk into a Jewish institution or synagogue. You need to arrange a visit in advance, and often it doesn’t work out. The synagogue on Rue Pavée is 120 years old, and it blends beautifully into the charming local architecture. Only a Star of David and a Hebrew inscription carved into the stone give away that it’s a synagogue.

Address: 10 Rue Pavée

The Éclairs of Christophe Adam (L’Éclair de génie)

Right next to the synagogue is a small, sweet shop whose outside murals are a bit childlike, and they pull me straight into a fairy tale.
This is a branch of Christophe Adam, a superstar in France. Aside from the fact that he’s devastatingly handsome, Christophe Adam took the classic éclair and put it at the center of the pastry world.

He dressed it in bold shades of raspberry and apricot, painted it in gold, copper, and silver, and drove the French crazy for it.
The long lines at his shops show it’s not just the French who are obsessed with him. Adam makes a point of putting together summer collections with light, tangy, bright flavors, and a heavier winter collection. The best part is that you can buy a box of 4 mini éclairs in different flavors and enjoy the best of every world.

From the éclair boutique, I continue on for another minute or two and turn into the most Jewish street in the Marais.

Address: 14 Rue Pavée, 75004 Paris, France

Rue des Rosiers

Here you’ll find kosher restaurants, a kosher bakery, a Judaica shop, a soap shop, Eyal Shani’s “Miznon,” butchers, delis, and one falafel shop that draws tourists from all over the world. Every weekend, you can see very long lines of tourists and locals waiting to get a falafel, which they eat with a fork. This falafel is pretty good, but personally, I still prefer the falafel from my favorite spot back home.

Yann Couvreur

A while back, right in the middle of the street, the pastry world’s wonder boy, Yann Couvreur, opened a dazzling pâtisserie. Absolutely dazzling.
The design, the counters overlooking the street, the pastries, the food. Couvreur took classic pâtisserie and gave it modern touches.
I taste a beautiful, wonderful lemon tart, on top of which Couvreur decided to place a few cilantro leaves.

How was it? I’m not sure. The tart itself is amazing, but the cilantro thing needs more testing. Then again, why not? Even in cooking, lemon goes wonderfully with cilantro.

Address: 23bis Rue des Rosiers

Pierre Hermé

Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t know what a macaron is? Who hasn’t heard of Pierre Hermé? I think the first thing every tourist does the moment they land in Paris is track down a Pierre Hermé shop. His boutiques aren’t large, but walking in feels like entering a museum, maybe even a temple. Everything is meticulous down to the last detail: the gorgeous cake display, the colors, the packaging, the lovely, stylish staff.
An amazing experience, every single time.

He too has seasonal collections and a wild range of flavors, some of them pretty unusual. I’m obsessed with his passion fruit and white chocolate macaron, which he gave an exotic name: Mogador. Pierre Hermé also invented a pastry he calls the “double mille-feuille.” Not a thousand layers, but two thousand. The cream is rich and caramel-flavored, topped with caramelized almonds. Rich, delicious, and definitely special. Did I actually feel 2,000 layers instead of 1,000? I don’t think so.

The city has a serious rival to Hermé’s macarons: Ladurée, or maybe it’s the other way around (Parisians are split between Ladurée and Hermé).

Address: 18 Rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie.

Une Glace à Paris

Right across from Pierre Hermé is a small ice cream shop, which has a few other branches too, and in my opinion, it’s the best in the city. I know tourists love lining up for ages at Amorino, but this place… this place is wonderful. Today I taste the lavender.

Address: 15 Rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie.

Maison de la Prasline Mazet

From Pierre Hermé, I continue to Rue des Archives, home to the French National Archives. It’s an impressive building with a large courtyard. In front of the yellow facade, I stop and walk into Mazet, who are masters of all things caramel. Chocolate and caramel, candy and caramel, cookies and caramel. Everything and caramel. It’s delicious here, and beautiful too. Another package makes its way into my backpack, which keeps getting heavier.

Address: 37 Rue des Archives

Pain de Sucre

From Rue des Archives, I turn left onto Rue Rambuteau, a main artery that starts near the Église Saint-Eustache in the 2nd arrondissement and ends at the elegant Rue Françoise Berge in the Marais. Here’s a couple’s story of sweet and savory. He handles the savory items and loves using herbs like tarragon and rosemary. She’s in charge of the sweets. They also have a small spot facing the street, where you can comfortably nibble on the veal and tarragon pastry I ordered while watching the street go by.

Address: 14 Rue Rambuteau

Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme

Near the couple’s pâtisserie is the museum of French Jewish history. Here too, I have to open my bags, pass through detectors and barriers, and enter a grand building with a sizable sunny courtyard. The museum holds items that trace the history of the Jews in France.

There are reconstructions of synagogues from across Europe, broken gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions, art pieces, Judaica, and a Chagall painting or two. From the museum, I head back to Rue Rambuteau, which is just a minute’s walk away. I have one more sweet stop left.

Address: Hôtel de Saint-Aignan, 71 Rue du Temple

Pralus

Pralus’s facade is pink, as if it wants to tell the story of its nougat and praline. The pink nougat and praline, nestled respectfully inside Pralus’s round, pinkish brioches, melt in the oven’s heat as the brioche rises into a shiny, golden-brown dome, and pool at the bottom. And when you bite into the brioche, you have no idea where all the celebration in your mouth is coming from.

Bastille Day fireworks. No less. What a treat. What a wonderful combination.

Address: 35 Rue Rambuteau

The Anne Frank Garden

By now I’m tired and pretty full, just a few more meters down Rue Rambuteau, left through a green side entrance, and there I am, in the charming, quiet Anne Frank Garden.

Address: 14P Impasse Berthaud

Looking for more information about the Marais?

• First, let me recommend a few excellent walking routes:
  • The first one I recommend is a walking route through the central and southern Marais.
  • The second is a walking tour in the footsteps of Madame de Sévigné, which focuses on the northern Marais.
• If you want to read more about the culinary side of the Marais, I highly recommend an article by Anton Chili about a culinary tour of the Marais he took a while back.
• Looking for a good hotel in the Marais? Check out my hotels page, with a short list of carefully chosen, recommended hotels. Would you rather stay in a vacation rental? Head over to the Paris vacation rentals page and look for apartments in the 3rd and 4th arrondissements.

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Related reading

• The 3rd Arrondissement of Paris: Museums, Restaurants and Walking Itineraries in the Northern Marais
• Place des Vosges: Paris’s First Public Square
• Boutique Hotels in Paris: The Francophile’s Recommendations