Vacation Hotels - Guide to the Best Bakeries and Boulangeries in Paris

Pastries are usually sold in pastry shops called patisseries. Many French boulangeries sell different kinds of bread, and other goodies, pastries, while most American bakeries sell bread. Bread and the baking of bread is an art form, in Paris.

Some of the best bakers in the city are the fourth or fifth generation in the family. Many Parisian bakers are true craftsmen who study their trade for decades and experiment constantly to make a superior product.

The most ardent take a three-day exam given by the French government for a title given to only the best -- Meilleur Ouvrier de France or MOF.

But go early because the most popular products sell out. Just ask, if you're not sure what a boulangerie is famous for. Many of the bakeries in Paris have a specialty like rye bread or sourdough.

There are two Poilane shops in Paris. Order the sourdough miche or the little butter cookies known as punitions, if you come here. She still bakes the bread the old-fashioned way -- in a wood-burning oven. His daughter Apollonia took over the business, when Lionel died in a helicopter crash in 2002. Lionel, who passed it down to his son, it was founded in 1932 by Pierre Poilane. Poilane is the most famous bakery in Paris.

And paves filled with veggies or fruit and cheese, multi-grain bread, he sells croissants, which take him seven hours to make, in addition to baguettes. Vasseur won the Gault Millau prize for best boulangerie in 2008. And opened his bakery -- called Du Pain et des Idees -- in 2002, leased an old bakery, so he became an apprentice. But he always wanted to bake bread, christophe Vasseur used to be an executive in the fashion industry.

He also sell pastries -- one of the best is the custard-filled Pain au Raisin. The interiors of the shops are really pretty. And bakes them in a wood-fired oven, stone-ground flour -- by hand, he shapes the loaves -- which are made with organic. He opened Moulin de la Vierge 30 years ago and today he has four locations. Basile Kamir is a well-respected baker in Paris.

And you can buy a ready-made sandwich to eat in the park. His croissants are some of the best you'll ever eat. And dozens of kinds of pastries each day, 50 varieties of cakes, his combining of traditional baking techniques with the latest technology allows him to produce 60 types of bread. Eric Kayser is something of a phenomenon, with 16 shops in Paris and bakeries all over the world.

And tarts, cakes, including macarons, gosselin is a fourth-generation baker who also makes sweets. The loaves are hand-shaped and delicious. And then resting it for three hours, kneading it again, salting it, resting it, he has a special method for making the bread -- kneading the dough. He won the Best Baguette in Paris Grand Prix. Philippe Gosselin is the place for baguettes.

His almond croissants and pain au raisin are excellent, if you're in the mood for something sweet. Which is a flatbread from Provence, and fougasse, ficelles, he uses it to make baguettes. He has a dough made with several kinds of flour that he calls Royale. Thierry Dubois is the owner of Pain d'Epis which is not far from the Eiffel Tower.