Why travellers are turning towards bizarre ‘bakery tourism’

The Parisian boulangerie is a hub for community life. Parisians visit their local several times a week – sometimes even several times a day. It’s a place to engage in chit-chat, try new things and order comforting favourites. Baguettes and croissants usually cost around $2.70 (€1.50).

The queue to sample a patisserie at Cédric Grolet’s social-media-famous bakery close to the Louvre is something else. The head patisserie chef at the ultra-luxurious Le Meurice hotel has just shy of 13 million followers on Instagram.

Videos of his trompe l’oeil fruit-shaped pastries are shared throughout the world. I headed to try one of his creations for myself on a crisp, sunny autumn morning – and to speak to some of the pastry pilgrims in attendance.

In the line I was surrounded by well-dressed people from around the world – I heard English, German, Japanese, Arabic and Russian. Every person in the queue was clutching a smartphone.

When I tried to get chatting to the people around me, saying I was looking into pastry tourism, nobody would engage.

One woman even told me she didn’t speak English, then loudly proceeded to record a voice note in English on her phone. When I got to the front of the queue after about 20 minutes, (“This is a very quiet day,” the salesperson later told me), there was a bouncer waiting.

The cheapest pastry available was €8 (about $14); many others were more than €20 ($35).

Where there are bakeries…

What has happened here? The rather unedifying experience is about as far removed from the jolly chit-chat at my local bakery as can be imagined.

How has the humble patisserie gone from local amenity to major tourist draw?

Social media is currently filled with shots of Europe’s Instagram and TikTok-famous bakeries – where the lines are longer than for the city’s museums. It’s part of a sharp rise in so-called “bakery tourism”.

The French capital, home to some 1360 bakeries, is one of the trend’s heartlands.

The lines at Paris’s now famous bakeries can often be longer than for the city’s museums

“Paris has the biggest concentration of artisanal bakeries of any place that I know,” says Frances Leech, a food entrepreneur originally from Hereford, who has been living in Paris for more than 15 years.

A trained baker and pastry chef, she points out that, in contrast to international pastry-seekers, native Parisians will not go far for their treats.

“[Paris also has] the kind of people who will get mad about walking more than five minutes to a bakery.” In fact, more than 90 per cent of the population lives within five minutes walking distance of a baker.

Contorting the croissant

Though tourists come to experience the specifically French culture of the boulangerie, many of the items they travel for are ironically the product of foreign, often English-speaking influence. Emily Monaco, a native New Yorker, who has lived in Paris for almost 20 years, is a culinary writer and runs food tours.

She often takes interested tourists to neo-bakeries serving sourdough loaves (pain au levain in French), a departure from the yeast-based methods used, for example, to make the traditional baguette.

“A lot of these new sourdough bakeries are taking advantage of developments that are happening in other parts of the world, and notably in the anglophone world,” says Monaco. “The same thing is happening in the Viennoiserie world,” she adds. “Things like contorting the croissant, which is something that a lot of people come to France to try.

“I think a lot of the things that people are coming to Paris to try right now, they’re looking for is an innovation. that often marries French techniques with Anglo-Saxon [products].”

Examples include Boulangerie Louvard in the 9th arrondissement, famous for its “crookie” (a marriage of cookie and croissant) and, Frappe in the 11th arrondissement, which sells a “New York Rolls” a mash-up of a croissant and bombolone, an Italian pastry popular in New York.

The American wave

Concurrently there has been an explosion in American or Australian-style coffee shops, sometimes supplanting traditional bistros with their offering of flat whites, cookies and brownies (pronounced “broonies”, naturellement).

The change is no bad thing, according to bakery entrepreneur Rodolphe Landemaine, who co-founded two successful bakery chains in Paris with his wife Yoshimi, who is originally from Japan.

They founded Maison Landemaine in 2007 and in recent years have added the offshoot Land & Monkeys, which serves only plant-based patisserie. Many people come to the vegan bakery via social media, and he sees the foreign influence as a welcome boost and accelerator for traditional French baking.

“The influence of the Anglo-Saxon world has been enormous,” he says. Speaking specifically about his vegan bakery, he says: “Paris being a very touristy city plays a role because there is a bigger community of veggie people internationally than in France.

In France we are a little bit making up for our delay [on plant-based food], and the fact that everyone travels and everyone influences each other mutually, that favours a significant evolution in Parisians’ way of thinking.”

Boulangerie numbers in Paris and the wider region are at an all-time high, and the trend for neo-boulangeries – whether they sell sourdough, mash-up pastries or vegan goods – are part of it.

In parallel, the profile of the baked French good has never been higher: in 2022, the “artisan know-how and culture of the baguette” was inscribed on the Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

This correlates with a change in the kind of people who are opening bakeries, says Emily Monaco. “There’s been a really interesting change in the way that food professionals come into the career in France,” she says.

“Traditionally, you would decide that you wanted to work in food at the age of 16, and you would kind of come up through the ranks. A lot of people are now coming to it later in life, and typically with a background in marketing or business.”

An early example is Christophe Vasseur whose sourdough-led bakery Du Pain et des Idées, opened in 2002 was one of the first to be internet-famous – he had a first career in fashion before opening the wildly popular address. Other very brand-led boulangerie chains include the provocatively titled The French Bastards, or the ultra-popular female-run Mamiche.

“The role of the boulangerie is more important than before,” says Rodolphe Landemaine.

“In fact the boulangerie has exploded. Boulangers started to go back to the fundamentals of their profession, like sourdough, and also add new professions like ‘snacking’ and coffee.”

The struggle to go viral

These new commerce-savvy bakers are concerned about turning a healthy profit, and thus virality becomes more important.

“They do feel a lot of pressure, because going viral is how you explode,” says Emily Monaco. “Whereas I think a lot of bakers who came up in the craft are maybe a little bit more judgmental of people who are going for just innovation.”

Frances Leech has pivoted from baking to ice-cream making, and this summer opened her ice-cream shop, Isotope, in the trendy Upper Marais neighbourhood.

Istope is a new artisanal ice-cream spot in the fashionable Marais district in the 4th arrondissement

She is not on social media personally and doesn’t wish to be (“I have it written into my contract with my business partner that I will never be in charge of the social media part”), but her business got an early boost from popular neighbouring bakery Christophe Louie, known for his artisanal panettone.

“I can see that [social media] works and it’s kind of terrifying that it works,” says Leech.

Buy with the eyes – but look for the taste

Not all bakery tourists are the same, either. There are those who visit celebrity chef-run addresses, like the aforementioned Cédric Grolet, or Maxime Frederic, who is head pastry chef at the Cheval Blanc hotel.

Leech considers this to be a different kind of product: “It’s just a different world. There’s local bakeries and then there’s I will pay €15 [$26] for a sandwich because it’s a special occasion.’”

Then there are those tourists who endeavour to buy bread like a local. Agnes Holland, a London-based PR professional visits Paris once a year and has her own pain ritual.

“I’ve got into a routine. I tend to stay in Montmartre and there is one bakery, Farah & Nadine, where I always go to get a baguette tradition.

“I know the joy of getting fresh baguette from this bakery that I like – the joy of having that fresh, warm bread with salted butter is like gold permeating through you.”

Incredible-looking pastries and huge social followings have their place, but for the vast majority of Paris bakeries, return customers and Parisians still really matter.

“Instagram definitely works,” says Leech. “And I don’t think you can totally rely on it – you need the locals,” she adds.

And at the end of the day, it’s got to taste good. “I often hear that you buy with the eyes – but you look for the taste,” says Rodolphe Landemaine. “Which means that if it’s not good, people don’t come back.

“Food is quite simple. There is no need for le brainstorming,” he adds.

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