Paris

No other city has turned the pastry chef into a public figure the way Paris has. Cédric Grolet’s sculpted fruit at Le Meurice, François Perret’s madeleines at the Ritz, Pierre Hermé’s Ispahan on the rue Bonaparte: these are names people cross the city for, and the queue outside a boutique at nine on a Saturday is as Parisian as the café terrace next door. The palace hotels have understood it and opened counters to the street, so the same cakes that go up to the suites can be carried home in a box.

The strength of Paris is depth. Behind the famous names sit the institutions: Stohrer on the rue Montorgueil has been selling baba au rhum since 1730, Angelina has poured its Mont-Blanc and its hot chocolate since 1903, Ladurée turned the macaron into a currency. Then there is the new guard, chefs with one shop and one idea, from Yann Couvreur’s mille-feuille built to order to Mori Yoshida’s Japanese exactness in the 7th.

The catch is price and time. A single pastry at the top houses costs eight to twelve euros, afternoon tea in a palace passes a hundred, and the most talked-about counters sell out before noon. Plan a sweet day around one neighbourhood, arrive early at the boutique you care about most, and keep the palace salon for the late afternoon when the light comes through the rue de Rivoli arcades.