The 5 Pastry Shop Saint-Germain You Can’t Miss in Paris
Saint-Germain-des-Prés is the one Paris neighbourhood where a pastry counter can be a literary landmark, a
department-store food hall or a queue of students holding a croissant at six in the morning, all within a few
hundred metres of the same boulevard. We looked at every pastry shop, bakery and pâtisserie-serving café with a
Google Business listing along the Boulevard Saint-Germain corridor and the blocks either side of it — 60 of them
in total, spilling naturally across the 5th, 6th, 7th and, at the northern end of the Pont Neuf crossing, the
1st — and ranked them on rating weighted against how many people actually voted, because 4.5★ from five
thousand reviews and 3.9★ from fourteen thousand are two very different statements. Five came out ahead, and
between them they cover the full range of what “pastry” means on this stretch: a luxury food hall, a six-in-the-morning
neighbourhood boulangerie, a modern artisan bakery chain, and the two café institutions that have been serving
chocolate and tarte to the same square since the 1880s.
La Grande Épicerie de Paris, Rue de Sèvres
The highest-rated name on this list against the largest review base: La Grande Épicerie
de Paris, 4.5★ from 9,039 Google reviews. It is listed as a grocery store rather than a pâtisserie, and
that is the honest description — this is a full food hall on Rue de Sèvres in the 7th, a few minutes’ walk south-west
of the Saint-Germain crossroads, where the pastry counter is one department among many rather than the whole shop.
The practical consequence is worth knowing before you set out: it keeps food-hall hours rather than bakery hours,
8:30 AM to 9:00 PM Monday through Saturday and 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM on Sunday, which makes it the only entry here
still open at half past eight in the evening. If a pastry stop is really a shopping stop — something to carry back
to an apartment rather than eat standing up — this is the one built for it. 38 Rue de Sèvres, 75007;
01 44 39 81 00.
La Maison d’Isabelle, Boulevard Saint-Germain
The most straightforwardly a bakery of the five, and the one whose numbers say the most with the least. La Maison d’Isabelle holds 4.5★ from 5,574 reviews at 47ter Boulevard Saint-Germain
in the 5th, on the Latin Quarter side of the boulevard rather than the café side — a counter with no website, no
listed phone number, and the cheapest price band of anything on this list. Its opening hours tell you what kind of
place it is more clearly than any description could: closed all day Monday, then 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM Tuesday through
Saturday and 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Sunday. A six-in-the-morning start and a Monday closure is the rhythm of a
working neighbourhood boulangerie serving people on their way somewhere, not a destination that opens when the
tourists arrive. Come early, and come any day but Monday.
BO&MIE Louvre-Rivoli, Rue de Rivoli
The modern one, and the only entry that sits on the Right Bank — BO&MIE‘s
Louvre-Rivoli branch is at 91 Rue de Rivoli in the 1st, a Pont Neuf crossing away from Saint-Germain and an easy
detour if the day already involves the Louvre. The house opened its first shop in November 2017 on Rue de Turbigo
and has grown to six Paris boutiques plus Barcelona, Aix-en-Provence, Jeddah and Seoul, without moving production
off-site: breads go through a 24-hour slow fermentation and are kneaded, shaped and baked in the shop, the
viennoiserie is 100% pure butter and made daily by its own bakers, and the pastries come from a dedicated
laboratory in Clichy rather than a frozen supplier. There is a gluten-reduced range, and every branch is set up
to sit down in — seating, wifi, and the stated aim of holding “the best balance between taste, quality of
ingredients and accessible pricing,” which the price band bears out. 4.2★ from 7,496 reviews, open 7:30 AM
to 8:00 PM daily, from 8:00 AM on Sundays. 01 42 33 49 84.
Les Deux Magots, Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Les Deux Magots has been on the square since 1884 and takes its name from the two
wooden figures perched on its central pillar, which have watched the room for all 140 years of it. What it is
famous for is not a recipe but a guest list — Picasso and Dora Maar, Sartre and Beauvoir, and generations of
artists and intellectuals who came from everywhere else to argue here — and it still runs the Prix des Deux
Magots, now in its 93rd edition, which is an unusual thing for a café to own outright. On the pastry side, the
draws are its hot chocolate and its tarte tatin, with brunch served Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 11:00 to
15:30; the terrace faces the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés across the square, which is the real reason to take
the outside table rather than the red moleskine banquette inside. 4.2★ from 12,159 reviews at 6 Place
Saint-Germain des Prés, 75006, open every day 7:30 AM to 1:00 AM. 01 45 48 55 25.
Café de Flore, Boulevard Saint-Germain
Its immediate neighbour, thirty seconds’ walk away at 172 Boulevard Saint-Germain, and its close rival in
everything except the rating: Café de Flore carries the biggest review count on this
list, 14,411, and the lowest score, 3.9★ — the classic signature of a landmark that everybody visits and
not everybody loves. It opened around 1887 and is named after a sculpture of the goddess Flora that stood across
the boulevard. Apollinaire turned the ground floor into the editorial office of his journal Les Soirées de
Paris around 1913; Sartre later wrote that “the paths of the Flore were for me for four years The Roads to
freedom,” with Beauvoir, Hemingway, Capote, Picasso and Giacometti passing through in the decades either side.
Since May 1994 it has awarded its own Prix de Flore to a young author for “originality, modernity, youth” — worth
€6,150 and a year of free Pouilly-fumé served in a personalised glass. Come for the croissants and the croque-monsieur,
or for the Welsh rarebit it is oddly famous for; open daily 7:30 AM to 1:30 AM, the latest closing time here.
01 45 48 55 26.
All five, on the map
The interactive map has all 60 qualifying pastry shops, bakeries and pâtisseries we
found along the Saint-Germain corridor and the streets either side of it, these five marked and numbered, and a
button that hands the walking route between them straight to Google Maps on your phone.
Getting the most out of a pastry walk in Saint-Germain
Four of these five are genuinely walkable in one morning — Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore are neighbours, La
Maison d’Isabelle is a few minutes east along the boulevard, and La Grande Épicerie is a short stroll south-west —
with only the BO&MIE branch asking for a river crossing. Start early enough and the order writes itself: the
6:00 AM bakery first, the cafés when they fill up, the food hall last because it is the only one still open in the
evening. If you are visiting rather than living here, an eSIM from Airalo means
Google Maps and the RATP app work from the moment you land instead of after you find wifi, and a booked transfer
from Welcome Pickups settles the CDG-to-6th-arrondissement problem before
it starts. Paying in euros without a foreign transaction fee on every coffee, tarte and boulangerie stop adds up
across a full day — a Wise card is the simplest fix. The Musée d’Orsay and the
Louvre both sit within walking distance of this route, so Tiqets is worth a
look for skip-the-line tickets if the pastries are one half of the day rather than all of it. And if you would
rather order in French than point at the display case, a few sessions with a tutor on italki before the trip covers more ground than a phrasebook does.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the best pastry shop in Saint-Germain?
By rating weighted against review volume, La Grande Épicerie de Paris comes out on top at 4.5★ from 9,039
reviews, with La Maison d’Isabelle matching that 4.5★ on a smaller base of 5,574. They answer different
questions, though: La Grande Épicerie is a food hall you shop in, La Maison d’Isabelle is a neighbourhood bakery
you queue at. If you specifically want a modern artisan pâtisserie, BO&MIE is the pick at 4.2★.
Are Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore worth it just for pastry?
Their ratings say the visit is about more than the plate — Café de Flore holds the lowest score here, 3.9★,
on the largest review count, 14,411, and Les Deux Magots sits at 4.2★ from 12,159. Both are moderately priced
rather than cheap, and both are historic institutions first: the hot chocolate and tarte tatin at Les Deux Magots,
the croissants and croque-monsieur at the Flore, are part of a seat on that square rather than the reason to cross
Paris.
What time do pastry shops in Saint-Germain open?
Earlier than you might expect at the bakery end and later at the others. La Maison d’Isabelle opens at 6:00 AM
Tuesday to Sunday, BO&MIE at 7:30 AM (8:00 AM Sundays), both cafés at 7:30 AM, and La Grande Épicerie at
8:30 AM on weekdays and Saturdays, 10:00 AM on Sundays.
Is anything on this list closed on Mondays?
One: La Maison d’Isabelle is closed all day Monday. The other four list the same hours seven days a week in
Google’s current data, but check the individual listing on the map before a public holiday, since Paris hours shift
around those even when a profile hasn’t been updated to say so.
Which of these are actually in Saint-Germain-des-Prés?
Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore are, both in the 75006 heart of it. La Maison d’Isabelle is on the same
boulevard one arrondissement east, in the 75005; La Grande Épicerie is in the 75007 on Rue de Sèvres; and
BO&MIE’s Louvre-Rivoli branch is across the river in the 75001. All five sit on the same walkable corridor,
which is why they came up together.
- 1. La Grande Épicerie de Paris — 38 Rue de Sèvres, 75007 Paris
- 2. La Maison d’Isabelle — 47ter Bd Saint-Germain, 75005 Paris
- 3. BO&MIE Louvre-Rivoli — 91 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
- 4. Les Deux Magots — 6 Pl. Saint-Germain des Prés, 75006 Paris
- 5. Café de Flore — 172 Bd Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris