The 6 Best Croissants of the Left Bank of Paris

When I first land­ed here almost 10 years ago, crois­sant was one of only two french words I knew. The oth­er one was bon­jour, so I wasn’t exact­ly up for nom­i­na­tion to the Académie Française.

Every time I see a bak­ery that I haven’t tried yet, I park my bike and go in to buy a crois­sant and a baguette tra­di­tion (for science).

 

Croissants in Paris are a Big Deal

Glow­ing gold­en brown, crispy but not too crispy, le crois­sant is the cease­less­ly dia­bol­i­cal threat to my peri­od­ic attempts at a keto diet and one of the few foods that can be eat­en on the street in a moment of morn­ing rever­ie (or shame­less des­per­a­tion, c’est la vie). 

So yeah, pas­tries in Paris. It’s a bit of an obses­sion of mine, or just what hap­pens on a nor­mal Sat­ur­day flâner­ie.

I’m so deep in the crois­sant game that I was once tapped by Aussie bak­er, Andrew Con­nole, to guide him and his crew to the best crois­sants in Paris for his new TV show, For the Love of Bread, which fol­lows the best in bak­ing to the far cor­ners of the world. Togeth­er with cam­era crew in tow, we zigzagged through Paris and I showed them where we hide the good stuff. 

Croissants are why we are here, non? 

Not gonna lie — It’s kind of why I’m here…

After writ­ing about crois­sants, talk­ing on tv about crois­sants and orga­niz­ing the Best Crois­sants of Paris walks (one of Paris’ most-beloved food tours — an immod­est amount of flex­ing going here), I decid­ed to final­ly put pen to paper, or key­board to inter­net as it were, and give you the ulti­mate list (for now) of the best crois­sants of Paris.

These Are the Croissants You Came Here For

While this two-part mas­terlist con­tains a ver­i­ta­ble Christ­mas Island of old idols like Poilâne and Lau­rent Duch­ene, it also con­tains some auda­cious new­com­ers like Bo + Mie‑a ‘mod­ern’ boulan­gerie.

What type of crois­sant you like depends on a few things: do you like it moist and slight­ly chewy on the inside + crispy on the out­side (like I do), or do you pre­fer flaky, airy, and light? 

For me, I’m in heav­en when the shrap­nel breaks off in big arch­es; so huge that I can pre­tend are an entire­ly sep­a­rate course — like a dessert after the crois­sant itself. Like the Doors’ Jim Mor­ris­son, I break on through to the oth­er side. 

You Can Stop Searching

These are THE crois­sants of the Left Bank of Paris (we start­ed with the Best Crois­sants of the Right Bank here).

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I now try, French­ly, to stretch the enjoy­ment out after a child­hood of con­di­tion­ing to eat in 20 min­utes (thanks Over­crowd­ed Catholic Girls High School). Also, I’m assum­ing that the ‘Oral Exam’ por­tion of my upcom­ing cit­i­zen­ship appli­ca­tion means that stern proc­tors will grade how I eat a crois­sant. Sounds about right, non?

The food in France is mind-blow­ing, and this is ever­more true for les crois­sants on the Left Bank. Here in Paris, there is a bak­ery every 2 blocks so your game has to be TIGHT if you want to sell any­thing baked to the French. 

And the mark of a good bak­ery is a line outside. 

Yes, even if there is an anoth­er one 2 blocks away, Parisians will line up for *the* boulan­gerie. 

We’ll see you there…

You can book our « Best crois­sants of Paris » tour here and read about which crois­sants made the cut on the oth­er side of town here.

See you in line at the boulangerie! 

Bisous,

Kat