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I have completely filled a little notebook I’ve dutifully kept for many years with my notes from all of the pâtisseries I’ve ever visited in Paris. As you might imagine, it’s quite extensive, and sharing all the lengthy descriptions with you here is not my intent. I have too much difficulty paring down my list of favorite pâtisseries to only a few, so instead, I will share only two that are rather new to Paris. I’m really excited about them and they are completely different from the city’s classic, Old World pâtisseries (but by coincidence happen to be in the same arrondissement).

Photo Credit 26.1

Pâtisserie des Rêves (93 rue du Bac, 7ème, and 111 rue de Longchamp, 16ème / lapatisseriedesreves.com). Chef and cookbook author Philippe Conticini, who was also chef de cuisine at Petrossian in New York, is the créateur behind this bakery, which is definitely the stuff of rêves—dreams. This is a far cry from a homespun bake shop; it’s beyond sophisticated, hip and bright. Though plenty of classic pastries are on offer, it’s the ré-créations and gâteaux de saison that are really eye-popping. The créations gourmandes are featured under glass domes—I like to refer to them as cloches (bells)—on a two-tiered circular display table in the center of the boutique, and when you want one a staff member brings you a fresh one from the kitchen in the back. In addition, there are nicely packaged tins of nuts, cocoa, and brown sugar, as well as a wonderful boxed set of gorgeous paperback recipe books—they all make great gifts.

Hugo & Victor (40 boulevard Raspail, 7ème / hugovictor.com). Hugues Pouget, who worked as pastry chef for Guy Savoy for six years and was honored as Champion of Desserts of France in 2003, is the founder of this extraordinary shop, along with his partner, Sylvain Blanc. Though descriptions of pâtisseries often characterize the treats as rare gems in a jewelry store, nowhere is this more true than here at Hugo & Victor. Everything is too dazzling to eat! But eat you must from this cabinet de curiosités sucrées (cabinet of sweet curiosities), and I really don’t believe anything would be a disappointment. I am partial to the pétales de pamplemousse tart (grapefruit) and le bonbon chocolat demi-sphère, but I still have ten flavors of macarons to try, fourteen chocolates, and some wonderful concoctions that look like colored shards of glass called “the five seasons of Hugo & Victor.” When asked in an interview if he would share a pastry-making trick, Pouget replied, “Use sugar as seasoning rather than ingredient, as you do with salt. In my pastries, there is on average 5 percent sugar rather than the usual 15 percent.” Asked if he considered creating pastries an art form, he replied, “Oui. When creating a pastry you think about the flavor combinations, color, texture, volume; there is a feeling, an emotion, and a creation”—all of which is on lavish display when you walk into Hugo & Victor.

A Few of My Favorites

Here are some places to eat a meal or a snack that I have particularly enjoyed in recent years—but it is by no means a complete list of every place I’ve enjoyed eating at in Paris. The establishments that appear below have been among my favorites for the past five years.

* Au 35 (35 rue Jacob, 6ème / +33 01 42 60 23 24). Au 35 is a small—only about a dozen tables, plus a few upstairs reached by a narrow staircase—neighborhood place that turns out very good, uncomplicated dishes seven days a week for satisfied diners, who happen to be mostly locals. Daily choices are limited, but they’re seasonal and prepared with care; the staff members are very gentil and full of smiles.

* Berthillon (31 rue Saint-Louis-en-l’Île / +33 01 43 54 31 61 / berthillon.fr). Founded in 1954, this legendary glacier (ice cream shop) on the Île Saint-Louis is noteworthy for its luscious, truly memorable flavors, as well as for the long lines of people waiting to order—the wait is worth it—and for the fact that it’s closed for the month of August (and on Mondays and Tuesdays