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The, Eh, ‘Alternative’ Bakeries of Paris

By Paris Defined Magazine
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The, Eh, ‘Alternative’ Bakeries of Paris

Boulangeries and Patisseries have always been a safe space for les Frenches. But it’s 2023 and The People Demand More. We have curated for you the places that take a step towards ~inclusivity~ (call them WOKE if you want) in order to invite more of you to the perpetual party going on in our mouths here in Paris.  From vegan indulgences to gluten-free decadence, these places accept you and feed you, no matter what (or who) you love and regardless of (some of the more common) restrictions. The food ones, at least.

La Maison Plume

If you’re eager to eat your way through Paris (as one does), but you find your­self with a dose of the dia­betes or gluten-intol­er­ance get­ting in the way, head for this chic lit­tle spot in the heart of Le Marais. La Mai­son Plume is a safe space for those with sug­ar and gluten restric­tions (sor­ry nut-averse peo­ple, Paris is still not in your cor­ner…). Tara Pidoux, gluten-free her­self since she was a kid, decid­ed to break the sucre-glace ceil­ing not only by becom­ing a female cheffe pâtis­sière (not so many of them in here sur­pris­ing­ly), but also by bring­ing many tra­di­tion­al French desserts (and beau­coup new hot­ness like her name­sake ‘Plume’ (pic­tured) to those who usu­al­ly had to keep their lips zipped.  Oh, and the big deal is that YOU WON’T MISS A THING. These are 100% just as good as real-sug­ar and wheat pas­tries. (A real achieve­ment — they are even on our Best Desserts of Paris list!)

Leav­ing Paris too soon to say good­bye? They deliv­er the deli­cious­ness (almost) straight to your mouth any­where in France. 

ADDRESS: 61 rue Char­lot (3rd arr.)

HOURS: closed Tuesdays

MÉTRO: Filles du Cal­vaire (line 8)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Haut Marais

NUMBER: +33 1 71 39 35 02

DEETS: bak­ery, alter­na­tive, sug­ar free, gluten free

INSTAGRAM: @maison­plumepatis­serie

 
 

Cloud Cakes

Cloud Cakes bak­ery-cafe emerged as a veg­an sanc­tu­ary in the mid­dle of the not-so-trendy, touristy parts of the city. While most of the alter­na­tive bak­eries keep their dis­tance, occu­py­ing more faux­hemi­an neigh­bour­hoods like Le Marais or Bastille, the cen­tral­ly-locat­ed Mon­torgueil loca­tion offers veg­an break­fasts and lunch­es around the cor­ner from food­ie-hub Rue Mon­torgueil. And, since they opened a spot in Pigalle,  you can stay true to your veg­an ideals before a boozy night out in Paris’ the faux-seedy par­ty dis­trict. While the menu is pret­ty safe in terms of veg­an­ism, its sim­plic­i­ty is not a flaw. More­over, I find their sig­na­ture blue col­or incred­i­bly sooth­ing. If you have time to kill, book a table for their Sun­day brunch.

ADDRESSES: 6 Rue Man­dar (2nd arr.) / 32 Rue Notre-Dame de Lorette (9th arr.)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Pigalle and  Mon­torgueil

NUMBER: +33 1 43 72 86 04

DEETS: veg­an bak­ery, in the city cen­ter, birth­day cakes

INSTAGRAM: @cloudcakesfr

Land&Monkeys

This patis­serie, launched by a Fran­co-Japan­ese cou­ple, Yoshi­mi Ishikawa and Rodolphe Lan­de­maine (yes, the very same guy who owns the Mai­son Lan­de­maine chain) show­cas­es the per­fect exe­cu­tion of the secret veg­an agen­da — to trap you into a healthier/cleaner/more eth­i­cal lifestyle whilst leav­ing you want­i­ng for noth­ing. It lures you in with its ele­gant inte­ri­or, the smell of fresh pas­tries and vien­nois­erie (crois­sants, pain au choco­lats, an their brethren) and an eye-pleas­ing stream of trendy cus­tomers. Once you eat a creamy, deca­dent French pas­try that, under the old rules, should nev­er be total­ly, unabashed­ly cream and butter-free…you’ll be hooked.  The best part? An untrained eye might not even realise what they are get­ting into. Ha! You just ate veg­an. And you WILL do it again. Their mot­to, though: « Dream fair, eat fun »… Oui, oui, oui, we are on board. As long as they keep sell­ing their Uma­mi sandwich…

ADDRESS: 2 rue de Turenne (4th arr.) / 54 rue d’Amsterdam (9th arr.) / 86 Boule­vard Beau­mar­chais (11th arr.) / 158 Rue de la Roquette (11th arr.) / 85 rue Ray­mond Losserand (14th arr.)

NEIGHBORHOODS: Grand Boule­vards + between Roquette / Pere Lachaise  + Bastille +  Le Marais

NUMBER: +33 9 54 40 95 83

DEETS: veg­an, mul­ti­ple loca­tions, asian twist, try their sandwiches

INSTAGRAM: @land_and_monkeys

Chambelland

Cham­bel­land is anoth­er great gluten-free option. With three loca­tions in the out­ly­ing arrondisse­ments, they offer a vari­ety of bread types as well as cook­ies and lunch­es. Feel­ing cre­ative? Check out their web­site for video recipes for their favourite items. Veg­an options are also available. 

ADDRESS: 14 Rue Ter­naux (11th arr.) / 61 Rue de la pompe (16th arr.) / 43 Rue Brochant (17th arr.) 

NEIGHBORHOOD: Batig­nolles

NUMBER: +33 1 40 25 04 68

DEETS: gluten free, online recipes, cool bread cen­tric, birth­day cakes, not in the city center

INSTAGRAM: @boulan­geriecham­bel­land­paris

 

Helmut Newcake

This sneaky lit­tle bak­ery, hid­den in a back street around the Champs-Elysées and open only a few hours a week, is a Holy Grail of gluten-free pas­try. Whether you just want to grab a quick take-away pain au choco­lat after vis­it­ing the Arc de Tri­om­phe, or need an elab­o­rate birth­day cake — they’ve got you covered.

ADDRESS: 30 Avenue de Fried­land (8th arr.) 

HOURS: opened only on Saturdays

MÉTRO: Charles de Gaulle — Etoile (line 1, 2 and 6 )

NEIGHBORHOOD: Arc de Tri­om­phe / Champs-Elysées / Concorde

DEETS: gluten free, hid­den gem, no sit­ting, catch it (open) if you can

INSTAGRAM: hel­munt­ncw­cake

VG Pâtisserie

VG Pâtis­serie was the first-ever veg­an pas­try shop in France. They also can whip up a full wed­ding cake for your ~sure­ly to turn veg­an after all that wed­ding food~ friends and fam­i­ly. On an every­day basis, they offer tra­di­tion­al French pas­tries as well as cre­ative offer­ings made by their inspired team. They also adhere to the zero-waste move­ment and con­tin­u­ous­ly increase their gluten-free options. You can also pur­chase a tray of ready-to-bake crois­sants to enjoy a veg­an French break­fast every morn­ing dur­ing your Paris stay.

ADDRESS:  123 Boule­vard Voltaire (11th arr.) 

HOURS: closed Mondays

MÉTRO: Voltaire (line 9)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Bastille / Arse­nal / Roquette

NUMBER: +33 1 48 87 13 42

DEETS: veg­an, first veg­an pas­try shop, gluten free options, bake-it-yourself

INSTAGRAM: @vgpatisserie

Sweet Rawmance

Are you still look­ing for that elu­sive French romance every­one talks about? While this romance ~may be~ an uncon­ven­tion­al one, we real­ly do rec­om­mend try­ing it. This resto is a gen­tle lover, one that won’t leave you ques­tion­ing your life choic­es — not food-wise, at least. For a prop­er ménage-à-trois, pick up one of their take-away desserts and enjoy it on the steps of the Sacré-Cœur cathe­dral. At sun­set, obvi­ous­ly, because…romance.

ADDRESS: 17 place Saint-Pierre (18th arr.) 

HOURS: closed Saturdays

MÉTRO: Anvers (line 2) or Abbess­es (line 12)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Bar­bès Roche­chouart / La Goutte d’Or

NUMBER: +33 6 58 67 25 00

DEETS: veg­an, sug­ar free, Sun­day brunch

INSTAGRAM: @sweetrawmance

Les Belles Envies

Les Belles Envies (« Beau­ti­ful Desires ») focus­es on prod­ucts with a low glycemic index, acces­si­ble for ath­letes and dia­bet­ics, or just for those who want to cut down on refined sug­ar. Here you can find every­thing from choco­lates, pas­tries and cook­ies to gro­cery prod­ucts, all of them made with either coconut blos­som sug­ar or malti­tol, as well as var­i­ous types of flour, to ensure that their prod­ucts pass the tests. And who would­n’t want to have a guilt-free choco­late (or 6)? “For­get the sug­ar, not what you desire.” I’m sold.

ADDRESS: 3 Rue Mon­ge (5th arr.) / 17 Rue Pon­celet (17th arr.)

MÉTRO: Maubert-Mutu­al­ité (line 10) / Ternes (line 2)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Latin Quar­ter

NUMBER: +33 1 46 22 71 19

DEETS: reduced glycemic index, bak­ery, chocolate

INSTAGRAM: @les­belle­sen­vies

 

LeGay Choc

More sen­si­tive view­ers are asked to not read any fur­ther, as we’ve entered a new lev­el of ~alter­na­tive~ with these penis-shaped cakes. You can find them in dif­fer­ent shapes and sizes, from my-last-ex small to only-in-porn enor­mous, most of them, even, cov­ered in some kind of ~cream~. All of them curat­ed by Richard LeGay, who ded­i­cates his life to what he loves most. And by that we mean bak­ing, of course. While their prod­ucts do not make you gay (we vouch for it), they will make you go back for more. Bit­ing enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly encouraged.

ADDRESS:  33 rue Ram­buteau (4th arr.)

HOURS: closed Tuesdays

MÉTRO: Ram­buteau (line 11)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Le Marais

NUMBER: +33 6 98 19 56 88

DEETS: freaky, gay, not for pearl clutches

INSTAGRAM: @legaychoc

 

La Quequetterie

How many penis-shaped bak­eries can you have in one city? Well, this is Paris, so… La Que­quet­terie explores more street food type of naugh­ti­ness, with their fluffy pan­cakes on a stick. With their vari­ety of stuff­ing top­pings (some­times vague­ly dis­turbing­ly shaped, I dare you to check their San­ta Claus). They are also explor­ing savoury tastes, as well as lady part options — because why only half of soci­ety should be hav­ing all the fun? 

ADDRESS:  28 rue d’Aboukir (2nd arr.) / 2 rue du Tem­ple (4th arr.)

MÉTRO: Sen­tier (line 3) / Hôtel de Ville (lines 1, 11)

NEIGHBORHOOD:Le Marais

DEETS: freaky, queer, viral, not for pearl clutch­es, we know you want to lick it

INSTAGRAM: @laque­quet­terie

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