The Marais district in the third and fourth arrondissement of Paris, has become one of the trendiest and popular neighborhoods for chic clothing and accessory boutiques, restaurants and cafés—and for its chocolate and pastry shops on almost every corner. We did some exhaustive tasting research to come up with our three favorites.
Les Trois Chocolats
Following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather—who owned a successful French-style patisserie and chocolate shop in Japan—Emiko Sano studied pastry and chocolate making in Paris. She decided to stay rather than returning to Japan, and opened her boutique in 2018. Sano infuses Japanese flavorings at Les Trois Chocolates (45 rue Saint Paul), such as miso, matcha, yuzu and mirin rice wine, into her colored, embossed chocolates and gorgeous-looking pastries. The result is a subtle but still detectable hint of unconventional flavors. In addition, the stylish, dark blue tin boxes for the chocolates make a great gift and keepsake. The seasonal pastries, resembling works of art almost too beautiful to eat, come in appealing combinations such as a vanilla cream, fig and blueberry jam, vanilla ganache, chocolate shortbread and thyme and vanilla biscuit, vanilla cream, whipped cream, strawberries and azuki (sweet red bean)
In fall and winter, Les Trois Chocolats, makes a velvety, hot chocolate so good, you will clamor for more.
Visit www.les3chocolats.paris
Maison Aleph
Growing up in Aleppo, Syria, Myriam Sabet savored the flavors of Jasmin, halva and Damask rose in her native surroundings. She moved to Paris to study, then worked in finance. Craving her favorite childhood flavorings but not being able to find them in the pastries in Paris, she decided to study French pastry making and combine the flavors and techniques of France and Syria, opening Maison Aleph in 2017 at 20 Rue de la Verrerie. ("Aleph" is the first letter of the Arabic and Hebrew alphabet.)
Today, Maison Aleph overflows with pastries, ice cream, sorbet, chocolate, tarts, flan and cakes, all with distinct flavors in a compact shop near the Hotel de Ville. A specialty is the mini-nests or nids, based on the traditional Syrian recipe of shredded kadaif noodles, which is filled with updated flavors such as lemon-cardamom, mango-jasmine, fromage blanc-Damask rose or chocolate-sumac.
Sabet mines the globe for the best ingredients, including pistachios from Sicily and Iran, hazelnuts from Piedmont, butter from the Poitou-Charentes region of France, Valrhona chocolate, and lemons from Amalfi In Italy.
Visit www.maisonaleph.com.
Meert
Founded in 1644 in the city of Lille in northern France, Meert is one of the oldest confectionary shops in the world. Along with an elegant tea salon and café, Meert is a star attraction in Lille.
The good news: Meert has expanded its confectionary world, opening two shops and a café in Paris. The Marais location (16 rue de Elzevir), near the Picasso Museum, looks like an old-world candy shop with trompe l'oeil drawings of sweets on the walls and columns, with shelves and counters lined with tall glass jars of flavored guimauves (French marshmallows), bon bons, gumdrops, candied fruits and candy canes. Caramels, boxed chocolates, biscuits, nougat, cookies, pain d’epice (spice bread) and chocolate-covered candied orange rinds round out the rest of the extraordinary selection of sweets.
Meert is famous for their gauffre’s (dried waffles) layered with Madagascar vanilla cream, which was a favorite of President Charles DeGaulle.
Visit www.meert.fr.
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