Patachoux Paris — Specialty Store in Charonne, Paris

Patachoux Paris is an independent specialty shop on Boulevard de Charonne, in Charonne, a short walk from Alexandre Dumas station. What you notice first is the pace: the doors open at 6:30 am and the counter keeps going until 9 pm, so the shop serves the morning rush and the after-work crowd with the same spread of bread, pastries and sandwiches.

The croissants are the thing to buy first, flaky and properly layered, the kind you eat standing on the pavement before you have gone ten metres. The corn bread is the surprise: light, faintly sweet, and hard to track down elsewhere in the neighbourhood. Around the calendar, the galettes des rois earn their place, and a custom celebration cake ordered for a group of thirty arrives exactly as requested.

Sandwiches are the practical order, filled generously and priced so a pastry and a sandwich together still lands in the lower half of the €1 to €10 band. The traditional baguette is well risen and properly salted, and the staff work the counter with warmth, asking where you are from and slipping a free treat or a cream puff into the bag.

Treat the croissant and the corn bread as the safe bets and you will do well.

Cash and card both work at the till. Come before the morning rush if you want the full pastry case to choose from, and remember the shop is closed on Mondays.