"Ten Belles has a few locations in the city, and they make amazing whole-grain breads. They even make cookies using various whole grains. There’s a chocolate-rye cookie that’s super fudgy and chocolate-y and delicious. And they brew really great coffee. It's a whole coffee-shop-meets-bakery experience! It's a great spot to go meet up with someone, share a few cookies, have a cup of coffee, and take a loaf of that whole-grain bread home with you."

"If I'm in Paris, I'm making my way to Yann Couvreur! It's my must-go-to pastry shop right now. They have a vanilla praline mini-tart—it's an individual-sized tart—that is so good. The tart crust is this crumbly, cookie-like crust, and it's bursting with vanilla cream and praline and topped with toasted pecans. They have a location in the Marais that has a few stools facing a large window, which is a great place to sit down and people-watch."

"Pierre Hermé has built this amazing empire, modernizing French pastry through his cafés and his boutiques. If you go to Pierre Hermé, you should get macarons: I think he makes the best macaron in Paris. He makes incredibly inventive flavor combinations, and they come in the most beautiful packaging. He mostly uses a chocolate ganache filling for his macarons, which makes them really creamy, and his claim to fame as far as flavor goes is ispahan: a combination of raspberry, rose, and lychee."

"Du Pain et des Idées is very much a traditional bakery. They have amazing bread—your baguette, your loaves. They are also very well known for a pistachio escargot: It's a viennoiserie—a laminated dough—with a pistachio filling and chocolate chips, and it just has this beautiful vibrant color from the pistachio paste. The pistachio-chocolate combination is super delicious."

"Boulangerie Utopie is a classic-looking Parisian bakery, but they definitely have a modern twist to it! They are best known for using charcoal. They have a charcoal baguette—it's, like, pitch black. It's very interesting to eat. The baguette is definitely worth trying: It tastes like what a baguette would taste like, but it's interesting how they've modernized it. Given the whole science of breadbaking, the fact that they've been able to add charcoal to the mix is quite a feat!"

"This pâtisserie is named after the pastry chef, who is kind of like the hot T.V. celebrity chef du jour. His pastries look like pieces of modern art. He'll airbrush the coating on, and it looks like it's the texture of velvet. He also does interesting geometric things: His lemon tart is square, not round. It's very playful and modern. It's very exciting when you slice into the pastries, and they're like entremets, where you have all these different layers."

"When you walk in here, you'll see it's not a traditional pastry shop; it's ultramodern, like going into a high-end boutique. Cédric Grolet makes pastries that resemble still lifes. His fig pastry looks like a giant fig. His apple pastry looks like an apple. It's absolutely stunnning! He also does some traditional pastries, like the paris-brest. Listen, the prices are outrageous. I think it was about 17 euro for the apple tart. But it looks like an apple!"

"This is what crêpes are supposed to be! If I'm in Paris, I have to get good crêpes. They are for sale everywhere, and at so many of the places, it's like, shame on you! What I love about this place if you can eat crêpes and galettes as they are traditionally meant to be eaten. Galettes are savory crêpes that are made with buckwheat flour, which is a naturally gluten-free flour that gives you this nutty, crispy, lacy galette. Go for lunch, and get a galette with a cup of hard apple cider."

"Berthillon makes amazing gourmet ice cream. If you go to Paris during one of the warmer months, it's one of those must-stop-at places. It's right along the Seine river. The portions are very sensible. The ice cream is super creamy. They use really high-quality ingredients—France has no shortage of good cream! It's really amazing ice cream that's been around forever."

"This pastry shop specializes in éclairs, so if you're interested in éclairs, this is the spot. You go in, and it's just rows and rows and rows of beautiful éclairs. It's in the Marais, so while you're in the neighborhood getting éclairs, definitely stop and get lunch at L'as du Fallafel, which is so good."