Best Food in Paris & Why Calories Feel Different When You Eat a Good Croissant
There are some topics that are simply a pleasure to write about, and food has always been one of them. But when that food happens to be French, somehow it becomes twice as enjoyable.
Traveling in Paris, walking through the streets, wandering from one café to another, occasionally stopping at a little outdoor terrace simply to watch the relaxed rhythm of local life unfold around you, it doesn’t take long to realize that the French appreciation for beauty extends far beyond museums, architecture, or fashion. It also finds its way into almost every part of daily life, and perhaps nowhere is this more obvious than in food. From simple cafés and bakeries to elegant restaurants, discovering the best food in Paris is as much about experiencing the culture as it is about enjoying a good meal.
Best Food in Paris & Why Calories Feel Different When You Eat a Good Croissant
Food in Paris, France feels like art made edible. Even if you don’t speak a single word of French, you somehow understand it. You may struggle to pronounce the name of a pastry displayed behind the glass, but somehow that awkward feeling quickly disappears because beauty has a language of its own. Standing in front of those beautifully arranged displays, filled with glossy éclairs, delicate fruit tarts, airy meringues, buttery croissants, silky creams, and desserts that almost seem too elegant to eat, you slowly realize that you don’t actually need to read the labels. Everything important has already been communicated through texture, shape, and presentation.
It’s a feast long before the first bite. The longer you stand there, the more difficult the decision becomes, because choosing just one suddenly feels like an almost unreasonable expectation. Your imagination has already tasted three different desserts before you’ve even reached the counter. And then… The brain arrives. (saying jokingly :)) That wonderfully rational part of us whose full-time job seems to be protecting us from making irresponsible decisions. It quietly begins reminding us about calories, sugar, healthy eating, and every nutrition expert’s advice we’ve ever heard. Suddenly, somewhere between the raspberry tart and the chocolate éclair, an internal debate begins.
– “Do you really need dessert?”
– “Maybe just coffee.”
– “Remember everything you’ve learned about healthy eating.”
Why does that conversation always seem to happen at exactly the wrong moment?
If there is one place in the world where food and best desserts deserves to be enjoyed without endless negotiations with yourself, it might just be Paris, France.
Travel has never felt like the right time to obsess over calories. In fact, I sometimes think that one of the greatest gifts travel offers is permission. Permission to step away from routines that quietly follow us at home; to loosen the rules we unconsciously create for ourselves; to order dessert simply because it looks beautiful, to drink good wine on a Tuesday afternoon without waiting for a celebration, and to spend two hours over lunch without feeling guilty that you’re “wasting time.”
After all, isn’t that part of why we travel? Not simply to see another place, but to experience another way of living. Perhaps that’s what the French describe so beautifully as joie de vivre – the joy of living. It’s something I mentioned in my very first article about Paris (“Things to do in Paris France on your first trip while learning about joie de vivre”), and the longer I spent there, the more I began noticing it everywhere. It was in the conversations that seemed to stretch comfortably into the afternoon; in people lingering over coffee instead of rushing away; in beautifully set tables where even the simplest meal somehow felt like an occasion; in the confidence to enjoy life without constantly asking whether every choice was the most productive, the healthiest, or the most efficient. Perhaps that’s also why discovering the best food in Paris is about much more than finding the most impressive restaurant or the most famous dish. It’s about slowing down, enjoying the moment, and allowing food to become part of the experience.
Some moments simply deserve to be enjoyed for exactly what they are. And perhaps that’s why I have absolutely no interest in counting calories while standing in front of a Parisian pâtisserie.
The calories certainly exist. The emotional weight doesn’t have to. Because I would much rather remember the incredible croissant I ate in a little neighborhood café than spend years remembering how disciplined I was for saying no. Those memories last far longer.
One thing that fascinated me throughout our four days in Paris was how much cafés and restaurants contribute to the personality of the city itself. The interior design, the lighting, the furniture, the music, the tiny details placed almost effortlessly around the room, they all become another layer of understanding the city.
Paris is a fascinating conversation between centuries. Baroque elegance (Hôtel de Toulouse), Gothic grandeur (Notre-Dame Cathedral), Classical harmony (Panthéon), Art Nouveau curves (Castel Béranger), contemporary minimalism (Fondation Louis Vuitton) somehow all of it coexists, and restaurants become little extensions of that artistic history. The architecture outside blends into the atmosphere inside, while the food becomes yet another expression of the city’s creativity. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons best food eperience in Paris stay in your memory long after you’ve returned home. They become part of how you experience the city.
If Paris is on your travel list, let me offer one small suggestion. Wake up early one morning and simply walk. (Don’t begin your day with a checklist of famous landmarks!) Instead, follow the smell of freshly baked bread until it leads you to a neighborhood café. Chances are you’ll know you’ve found the right place before you even reach the door. There will already be people sitting outside, slowly drinking coffee, chatting with friends, reading the newspaper, or simply watching the world pass by. Walk in. Smile. Try saying Bonjour and S’il vous plaît. Will your French pronunciation be perfect? Probably not. Will you receive an overly enthusiastic response? Probably not either. The French have earned their reputation for being a little reserved, and I’ve learned to simply smile and appreciate it as another charming cultural difference. That’s also part of traveling in Paris – being curious enough to try; practicing a few words in another language, even if your accent is far from perfect; allowing yourself to feel slightly uncomfortable instead of avoiding new experiences altogether.
I hope that years from now, when Paris becomes another beautiful memory, I won’t remember how many calories were in the croissants or whether ordering dessert in Paris was the healthiest decision I could have made. I’ll remember the little cafés hidden on quiet streets, the pastry windows that looked more like art galleries than bakeries, and the joy of discovering croissants in Paris while simply wandering without a plan. I’ll remember the conversations that somehow lasted much longer than we expected, the wonderful French wine that was surprisingly affordable, and that unmistakable feeling that, for a few days, life revolved a little less around productivity and a little more around simply enjoying the moment.
I think that’s the real beauty of travel – it reminds us that some experiences become unforgettable precisely because we stopped negotiating with ourselves and allowed them to happen. If there’s one thing I hope to remember from Paris, it isn’t another landmark or souvenir, but the French ability to enjoy the best food in Paris, good wine (Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Loire Valley wines, Rhône wines, Provence rosé), long conversations, and ordinary moments without adding unnecessary emotional weight to any of it. Perhaps that’s why, when I think about the best dessert in Paris, I don’t think only about what was on the plate but about the whole experience of sitting somewhere beautiful, taking your time, and simply enjoying it.
Best Desserts & Pastries to Try on Your First Trip to Paris
- Croissant au beurre – the classic buttery French croissant
- Pain au chocolat – flaky pastry filled with chocolate
- Macarons – colourful almond meringue cookies with creamy fillings
- Éclair – choux pastry filled with cream and topped with icing
- Mille-feuille – layers of crisp pastry and pastry cream
- Paris-Brest – choux pastry filled with praline cream
- Opéra cake – layers of almond sponge, coffee cream, chocolate and ganache
- Saint-Honoré – puff pastry and choux pastry with cream and caramel
- Crème brûlée – creamy custard with a crisp caramelised top
- Tarte au citron – French lemon tart, usually with a buttery pastry base
- Madeleine – small, soft, shell-shaped buttery cake
- Mont-Blanc – chestnut cream, meringue and whipped cream, famously associated with Angelina Paris
Did You Know? There Is an Official Competition for the Best Croissant in France
If you are wondering how anyone could possibly decide which croissant is the best, France actually has a national competition for it. The Concours National du Meilleur Croissant au Beurre is dedicated to finding the best traditional butter croissant in France, with professional judges evaluating everything from the pastry’s layers and texture to its flavour and appearance.
And this year’s winner was Dylan Delmaire from L’Epi du Roi in Île-de-France. He took first place in the 2026 competition, ahead of Maxime Brice from Boulangerie Brice and Julien Marsal from La Boulangerie du Père Pain Pain.
So, if you are serious about finding the best croissant in Paris, you could start by looking at the winners of this competition. It may not give you one definitive answer, after all, everyone has their favourite bakery, but it certainly gives you a very good place to begin your croissant research.
All images in this article were taken by Elena Sullivan, ArsVie Photo Studio and are protected by copyright. If you are interested in using any of the them, please contact me for permission. Thank you for understanding!
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