Paris is full of macarons, but the best ones are not always the loudest or the most famous. Some belong to historic institutions; others are made in tiny workshops where the shells are baked on-site and the flavours change with the patience of real pastry work.
16 Rue Royale, 75008 — open daily 8:30am-8pm
Founded by Louis Ernest Ladurée in 1862, this is the house that invented the modern Parisian macaron. It was Pierre Desfontaines — a family descendant — who, in the early 20th century, had the defining idea: sandwich two almond meringue shells together with ganache.
Before that, macarons were single, plain discs eaten alone. That one innovation created the form we know today. The Rue Royale boutique is a Second Empire jewel box with painted ceilings and gilded decor that has barely changed since the 19th century. The shop became a Parisian institution, frequented by royalty, heads of state, and generations of celebrities. Marie Antoinette has her own namesake flavour — rose, jasmine and black tea. For anyone who wants to understand where the macaron came from, this is the address.
The shop
Pain de Sucre was founded by Natalie Robert and Didier Mathray, two chefs with serious starred-kitchen pastry careers before going independent. The shop opened in the Marais in the early 2000s and became quietly celebrated in French pastry circles for its philosophy: source the finest French ingredients and do nothing that obscures them. The candied fruits come from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, regarded as the best in France. Everything is made on-site, visible through the shop window.
The macarons
Noticeably lower in sweetness than most Parisian macarons — deliberately so. The shells are thin and delicate, the fillings generous and intensely flavoured. The combination pairings are more adventurous than classic houses would attempt: chocolate with passion fruit, pistachio with morello cherry. The mint chocolate is unlike any other macaron in the city — a clean, sharp menthol hit balanced against deep cocoa.
What to order
- Chocolate-passion fruit
- Pistachio-morello cherry
- Mint chocolate
The shop
Jean-Charles Rochoux trained in the grandes maisons before opening this atelier on Rue d'Assas. He is primarily known as a chocolate sculptor — his windows display life-size animals, figures, and architectural forms made entirely in cocoa — and was awarded the title of one of France's finest artisan chocolatiers. The shop is tiny, holds barely ten people, and feels more like entering a sculptor's studio than a patisserie.
The macarons
Rochoux's macarons carry the same mentality as his chocolate sculptures: each one is finished by hand with a small chocolate decoration that corresponds to the flavour inside. The lime-basil is one of the most surprising macarons in Paris — genuinely herbal, genuinely sharp, with none of the artificiality that herb-flavoured pastries can suffer from. His dark chocolate is a master class in restraint: deep, bitter, and barely sweet.
What to order
- Lime-basil
- Dark chocolate
- Caramelised pistachio praline
The shop
Richart was founded by Michel Richart in Lyon in 1925 as a chocolate house, with a philosophy inherited from the watchmaking and jewellery trades: tiny, precise, flawless. The Paris boutique on Rue Bonaparte — steps from Pierre Hermé — carries that DNA into macaron-making with a format found nowhere else in the city: the micro-macaron, a miniature version that looks closer to a jewel than a pastry. Richart's boxes are famously beautiful, and the shop has something of a secret society feel among Paris pastry devotees.
The macarons
Because the shells are smaller, the flavour balance has to be perfect. There is no volume to hide behind. Richart also offers savoury macarons as standard catalogue items, intended as pre-dinner amuse-bouches: Roquefort-walnut, olive-parmesan, anchovy-tomato. No other macaron house in Paris does this as a permanent offering. The mixed box of 16 is the best way to experience the full range.
What to order
- Roquefort-walnut
- Olive-parmesan
- Mango-passion fruit
- Mixed box of 16
The shop
Emmanuel Ryon holds the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France in both glaciology and pastry — France's highest honour for artisan craft, awarded by a jury of peers. He is a world champion glacier twice over, which is how most people know him. Une Glace à Paris opened in the Marais as his laboratory: a place to push ingredient sourcing and technique into desserts that happen to be frozen. The macaron counter sits alongside the ice cream display, and most visitors walk straight past it.
The macarons
Ryon applies the same principles to macarons as to his gelati: minimal sugar, maximum flavour fidelity, entirely natural colouring, and ingredients sourced with the same rigour as a starred kitchen. The smoked vanilla — sourced from Mexico and genuinely smoked, not artificially flavoured — is one of the most distinctive single flavours available in any macaron shop in Paris. The buckwheat-almond-nougat reads like something from a Breton farm kitchen; the strawberry-hibiscus is floral without being sweet.
What to order
- Smoked vanilla
- Buckwheat-almond-nougat
- Strawberry-hibiscus
- Tanzanian 75% chocolate
The shop
Hyunsoo Ahn and Hyejin Cho are Korean pastry chefs who trained formally in Paris's grande maison tradition before opening this atelier in Montmartre in 2015. The shop sits on Rue Tholozé, a quiet winding street above the busy tourist circuits of the butte. Illéné has built its reputation slowly and entirely by word of mouth — it has no marketing, no celebrity attachment, and no PR. What it has is a very precise point of view: French technique applied to Korean and East Asian ingredients that the classical tradition has never touched.
The macarons
The shells are made to the older, slightly rougher artisanal standard — intentionally less polished than luxury brands. The flavours are where the real originality lies. Mugwort, or armoise in French, is a herb used in Korean rice cakes and teas, applied here to a macaron filling with extraordinary restraint: herbal, slightly bitter, completely unlike anything else in Paris. Black sesame is deep and nutty. The coffee uses a single-origin bean roasted nearby. These are macarons made by people who know both traditions completely and chose to combine them.
What to order
- Mugwort (armoise)
- Black sesame
- Coffee
- Soya milk