My new favorite bakery in Paris

(and the best thing I ate there)

It’s always a dream to be in Paris.

Whenever I’m back, my agenda typically includes these three things: eat good butter, buy French clothes, find new pastries. The butter and the clothes are important to me, but the pastries are *the most* important. And while I love going back to my tried and true faves (top of my list has always been Du Pain et des Idées), there’s nothing like zeroing in on a new-to-me spot and being completely blown away.

The pistachio escargot at Du Pain et des Idées is the most famous, but I like the praline one best!

That’s what happened this past weekend, when I was in Paris for a quick 36 hours. On Sunday morning, my mom and I woke up early and walked from our hotel up through Parc Monceau and into Batignolles, the most adorable part of the 17th arrondissement, studded with tons of cute bakeries and quiet, tree-lined streets.

When we got to our destination—the boulangerie / pâtisserie / chocolaterie Pleincœur—it was as if Annie started singing, “I think I’m gonnnnna like it here!” in my head. The place itself is stunning, from the terrace outside where people split croissants to the way the cakes are displayed like fine jewels.

I wanted one of everything, but settled on the four pastries that spoke to me most in the moment: pain au chocolat, pain suisse, feuilleté riz au lait, and tarte au sucre chocolat.

My mom dug into the tarte au sucre first, and I think her exact words were, “Oh my fucking god, what the fuck is this?”

It was a true holy shit, not that I’d expected anything less from Maxime Frédéric, the man behind Pleincœur who also happens to be the pastry chef at Cheval Blanc Paris. Frédéric opened the bakery with his wife, Claire, in November 2024. He was subsequently named the World’s Best Pastry Chef in 2025 by The World's 50 Best Restaurants.

Frédéric’s take on a tarte au sucre is inspired by the ones he ate as a kid growing up in Normandy. It looks like it could be some sort of a focaccia cookie, but when you take a bite, you realize that it’s neither. This pastry is pillowy like milk bread but somehow even softer. Between the dollops of ganache inside and on top, there’s a rush of chocolate in every mouthful.

This pastry straddled the line between unique and familiar to the point where I couldn’t tell what I was eating (in a good way). It reminded me a little bit of the chocolate chip bagels I used to get from Einstein’s as a kid, but then I’d get an unexpected hint of salt, or a whizzing crunch from the big crystals of coarse sugar, and I’d realize that, no, I’d never had anything like this.

When my mom and I were eating this tarte au sucre, all we could do was smile and gush and go in for another bite. I couldn’t be more in love with this pastry or this place, and I can’t wait to go back.

These boxes!!!!!

And now, a brief moment for the other pastries we tried…