Stohrer

Stohrer sits halfway down Rue Montorgueil, one of Paris’s liveliest food streets, where fishmongers, cheesemongers and fruit sellers still compete for attention. Then suddenly you arrive at a pastry shop that has been doing exactly the same thing since 1730.

Founded by Nicolas Stohrer, pastry chef to King Louis XV and his Polish queen Marie Leszczyńska, Stohrer holds the title of the oldest pastry shop in Paris. The house specialty remains the Baba au Rhum, a dessert Stohrer himself is credited with creating. What arrives in the display case today is still recognisably the same idea: a yeast cake soaked in rum syrup, rich without becoming heavy.

The interior deserves almost as much attention as the pastries. Behind the glass counters, gilded mirrors and painted decorations attributed to the workshop of Paul Baudry, the artist who later decorated the Paris Opera, give the shop an unexpectedly grand atmosphere. It feels closer to a small historic salon than a bakery.

The pleasure of Stohrer lies partly in its contrast. Outside, Rue Montorgueil buzzes with delivery bikes, market shoppers and café terraces. Inside, three centuries of Parisian pastry history continue largely unchanged. Alongside the Baba au Rhum, the Puits d’Amour remains a favourite, a puff pastry creation whose name translates rather boldly as “Well of Love”. Paris has always known how to market dessert.