Right across the street from our apartment near the Bastille sits a great bakery. I’d visit just to marvel at the charming facade, colorful “ceramic panels, composed of wildflowers (such as poppies, daisies and thistles), of wheat and, at the top, bouquets of flowers suspended from a blue ribbon.” (How many bakeries can say they are Historic Monuments and have their own Wikipedia page?)

But that’s not the main reason to go. People line up outside the door and around the corner to buy the buttery, flaky pastries and bread. Even David Lebovitz likes it- which is a good enough recommendation for me. (And, yes, the bakery’s as good as the first time he visited.) So every day, Lizzy would stop and get us a pastry for breakfast or perhaps a baguette de tradition for dinner. (What is a baguette de tradition, you ask? It’s a baguette, but more rustic and flavorful because by law it cannot contain additives. Many boulangeries carry them. Just request une tradi with your best French accent and maybe they’ll think you live just around the corner.).

And while at this iconic Paris bakery, don’t forget to buy a jar or two of the intensely-flavored La Trinquelinette jam – on your left as you wait- to enjoy at home. Oh, what I’d give for one of their pistachio-apricot brioches right now!

Boulangerie Patisserie Beaumarchais
Corner of Boulevard Beaumarchais and rue du Pasteur Wagner
11th Arrondissement
Metro Bastille, Chemin Vert or Breguét-Sabin