I recently had the chance to spend a week in Paris exploring and experiencing the delight of fresh French pastries!
As the best form of sightseeing and cultural appreciation I tried all the croissants and pain au chocolat I could. I referenced the list of past winners of the Best Croissant in Paris provided by The Professional Syndicate of Bakers of Paris (Syndicat Patronal des Boulangers du Grand Paris) as a starting place for the stops along my tour. Each year they evaluate and rank the best croissant au beurre (butter croissants) across all of Paris and publish the results! Pain Au Chocolat are evaluated nationally across France. Many bakeries across the city will proudly display their trophies or the emblem on their shop window.
Check out the official 2025 winners list here: Croissants and Pain Au Chocolat. For a more detailed overview of the competition in English check out this article. I found it to be a great reference!
My Ranking
I won’t claim to know better than the experts and I certainly did not try every croissant or pain au chocolat in Paris, but I wanted to share my ranking and review of the ones I did try! Note I generally prefer a pain au chocolat as it has both the buttery croissant layers and a delicious chocolate but my travel companion prefers a croissant so we mostly ordered and tried both but if I was only trying one thing it was likely the pain au chocolat. See my next post for the baguette overview as I also tried baguettes at the same bakeries!
Top Flakey Pastry: Boulangerie Moderne
A crispy flaky pastry that is so crispy it shatters as you bite it! This is the bakery featured in the very first Emily in Paris episode, it’s located on the block where her apartment and chef Gabrielle’s restaurant is (actually an Italian restaurant) so it’s been made extra popular from the show.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/TXTKNF3GSsn4iaiV7?g_st=ic
Boulangerie Moderne
16 rue des Fossés Saint-Jacques in the 5tharrondissement
Top Buttery Pastry: Le Moulin de la Croix Nivert
When you want a croissant or pain as chocolat that is fully of buttery goodness and a real indulgent moment, get yourself to Le Moulin de la Croix Nivert. A very buttery pastry, a little flakey and if anything a little dense, both the croissant and pain au chocolat left buttery residue on our hands after eating. A real delicious treat, but I don’t think I could eat two of the back to back. The best croissant I had all week!
Le Moulin de la Croix Nivert, 15th Arrondissement
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gcRLdiKHXMkqKfh47?g_st=ic
Top All Around Pastry: Utopie
When you want a good pastry that’s balanced and at neither extreme in terms of flaky or buttery!
When you want a good pastry that’s balanced and at neither extreme in terms of flaky or buttery! The pain au chocolat here was better than the plain croissant. It was a good level of flakiness but not ultra shatters. It was a good amount of butter without leaving your hands dripping in butter residue. Overall a good middle group of a delicious chocolate croissant with a nice balance of textures and a solid amount of chocolate included.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ELiMB6frhMLaNTpT7?g_st=ic
Utopie Bakery in the 11th arrondissement.
Notes
Other places we tried but did not make the cut as my top 3 picks: Victoires Boulangerie- a delicious warm pain au chocolat with a good amount of butter flavor. Madison Ducet – buttery and a little on the heavy side. Les Saveurs De Parmentier- looks beautiful but crumbles rather than flakey.
Places that were low on my list: Pain Pain felt like it was all for the IG vibe not the flavor. French Bastards- I had a pain success it was good crispiness but not very buttery, okay not blow your mind good. Liberty I was temped by the cute neon croissant sign0 it was only okay a but dry and like anything I could get in the states.
Places I was unable to try – several were closed for school vacation week letting the bakery staff take the same week off as their children’s school. A La Mere de Famille. La Madison d’Isabelle.
