Paris pastries places

I agree with Calvados. :-)

That said, if you really require a list, check out Les Frenchies on YouTube. They live in Paris and in fact uploaded a “best pastry shops” video pretty recently. Happy eating!

Also on youtube look at Paul Hollywood’s city bakes - Paris. He is a British pastry chef and host the show The Great British Bake Off.

I also love pastries and during our stay in Paris and throughout France, we enjoyed pastries every day. We would just stop at a patisserie we happen to walk past and was never disappointed. Our problem was wanting to taste everything on display!

Calvados is spot on. Never had a bad pastry anywhere in France. Just pick one with a short line and enjoy!

My approach is the exact opposite of TC. I pick the place with the long line, particularly if they look like locals. And that’s never lead me wrong.

Take a look at the website of David Lebovitz for ideas. He is a Paris based, transplanted American pastry chef.

Ordinarily I take the same approach as Carol figuring a long line of locals means it must be good. The OP indicated that long lines were not doable for some reason, thus my comment about finding one with a short line.

My experience has been that lines move pretty quickly. Sometimes you seem to move slower at the places with no lines as they seem to have no staff.

If you find yourself in the 9th, specifically Rue des Martyrs, Sebastien Gaudard (at 22 RdM) has excellent pastry options. It was the best croissant I've ever had; went back and got another 'for the road' but it never made it past metro stop.

Rue des Martyrs is a long street filled with wonderful small food purveyors and lots of locals. There are a few notable patisseries and boulangeries.

you might find something here -
An Insider’s Guide to the Most Mouthwatering Bakeries in Paris

Note that a bakery is not a patisserie. Bakeries have a small selection of pastries, but most of the time they are from manufacturers, not baked by the shop. Ever notice how so many bakeries have identical tarts, eclairs, and whatever. Yes, it’s head and shoulders above anything you get in a supermarket in the US and most of France, but it’s not quality French pastry.

The suggestions for David Lebovitz’s list, the British baking guy, Sebastien Gaudard, are excellent. A quick way to try some would be at the Galeries Lafayette Food Hall. Several well-known pastry shops have outlets there.

Patisseries rarely have long lines because pastries are for special occasions, they take longer to wrap correctly, and are handled delicately. Bakeries that supply our daily bread have lines that move fast and a limited quantity of pastry made in the shop or manufactured pastry.

BTW, croissants and their variants aren’t considered pastry but are called friandise, viennoiseries in the NY Times article.. Would you serve it as a dessert to friends is a way to distinguish the two.