The best croissants in Paris

Where is the best croissant in Paris in 2026?

At Boulangerie du Sentier, 47 rue du Caire in the 2nd. Alexia Berreby's croissant won the 25th Greater Paris contest, announced on 12 May 2026 at the Fête du Pain.

The Syndicat published only the podium. Addresses are from Le Bonbon.

The contest is open to bakers in Paris and the three inner départements, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne. Boulangerie du Sentier, near Sentier metro, prices its viennoiseries at €2 to €3, per Time Out. The 2026 winners post has more on each shop.

What is the best croissant in France?

For 2026, Dylan Delmaire's croissant at L'Épi du Roi in Versailles, chosen from 20 bakeries at the CNBPF final on 2 and 3 June 2026. In 2025 the title went to Lilian Pensuet of La Petite Catalane, near Perpignan.

The 2026 national result was reported by Le Bonbon: 20 establishments, a jury that watched the bakers work and then tasted. Versailles makes an easy day trip from Paris, so for once the national winner sits within reach of a visitor.

The 2025 final, the sixth edition, took place on 8 October 2025 in Livron-sur-Drôme with 19 regional winners. The CNBPF's results named Lilian Pensuet of La Petite Catalane in Villeneuve-de-la-Raho first, Samuel Dejonghe of Boulangerie Dejonghe in Les Attaques second, and Dylan Da Silva of Des Racines et du Pain in Clamart, near Paris, third.

How are croissants judged in the contests?

On the bake, the lamination, the shape and regularity, the flavour and aroma, and the crumb, each worth a quarter of the tasting score. A second jury scores hygiene and technique.

The national rules are strict. From at most 1 kg of flour, each baker makes 30 croissants with Charentes-Poitou AOP butter supplied by the organisers. No additives, no decoration after baking. Each croissant must weigh 60 g after baking, within 55 to 65 g. The test lasts five hours, with no more than an hour and a half of dough preparation allowed the day before.

The production jury watches hygiene, organisation, the egg wash and the lamination technique, even measuring how much dough and glaze is lost. Each croissant outside the weight range costs a point.

How do you spot a good croissant in Paris?

Look for a deep, even gold and a crisp shell that shatters, then tear it: the inside should be an open honeycomb, and it should smell of butter.

• Colour: deep gold to light brown, even all over. Pale means underbaked and doughy.
• Shell: thin, crisp leaves that flake onto your shirt. No flakes, no lamination.
• Inside: open, regular cells like a honeycomb, not a tight bready crumb.
• Weight: light for its size. The contest croissant weighs about 60 g.
• Smell and taste: butter first, a little sweetness, no greasy film in your mouth.

Shape is a weaker clue. Many Paris bakeries make butter croissants straight and the cheaper ones curved, but that is a habit, not a rule: the CNBPF says there are no specific rules on shape. Ask.

What is the difference between a croissant au beurre and an ordinaire?

The croissant au beurre is laminated with butter. The ordinaire, usually about 20 centimes cheaper, uses other fats, and since 2025 some bakers use a blend with at most 25% butter.

Most boulangeries sell both. Paris baker Matthieu Bijou warned in Le Parisien, reported by The Local, that rising butter prices have pushed some bakers to a substitute of vegetable oils, water and colourant with at most 25% butter, at about €7 a kilo against up to €12.60 for butter. Sold as an ordinaire, that is fair. Sold as butter, it is not.

Ask for a croissant au beurre by name. The butter croissant post has the rest of the story, and in a croissant class you watch the real butter go in.

Do French people butter their croissants?

Rarely. A croissant au beurre already carries its butter; the buttered thing at a French breakfast is the tartine, a slice of baguette. Many people dunk the croissant in coffee or hot chocolate instead.

Buttering a croissant is not a crime, and you will see it done. It is just not the habit. The dunk is, and The Local once called it the French breakfast habit that shocks visitors most: a buttered baguette, or a croissant, straight into the bowl of coffee.

A plain croissant au beurre, eaten warm and alone, is what the contest juries taste. Start there.

Is eating one croissant a day unhealthy?

A 60 g butter croissant gives about 260 kcal and 10 g of saturated fat, about half the EU daily reference intake for saturated fat. How it fits depends on the rest of your day.

The French food agency ANSES publishes croissant figures in its Ciqual table; these are from the 2013 edition, per 100 g of an artisan butter croissant. The reference intakes are those of the EU food information regulation.

We give the figures and leave the verdict to you and your doctor. A croissant is mostly flour and butter, and the butter is the point.

What are the top 5 croissants in Paris?

There is no official top five. The contests name a podium: Boulangerie du Sentier, BOOM Boulangerie Omnivore and Maison Thevenin for Greater Paris in 2026, plus L'Épi du Roi in Versailles, best in France.

For a fifth, add Des Racines et du Pain in Clamart, third in France in 2025 and a short ride south of Paris. Then build your own list. A morning plan that pairs a class with a winner:

• The 2nd: the Emily in Paris class on rue de Cléry, then Boulangerie du Sentier on rue du Caire.
• The Left Bank: the Latin Quarter class in the 5th, then Maison Thevenin on rue de Buci in the 6th.
• The Marais: the bakery tour with breakfast on rue Saint-Antoine, where croissants are breakfast, not homework.

Shape croissants and bake two baguettes in the kitchen of a family bakery on rue Oberkampf, with the master baker.

★ 4.8 · 2 hours · from $246

Explore the Le Petit Mitron bakery class → Class details

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