Bopain, the 12th arrondissement bakery with incredible pastries

In these difficult times, when electricity and raw materials are increasingly expensive, there are still (fortunately) some die-hards who still want to make artisanal products from good ingredients. Such is the case with Bopain, a neighborhood bakery in Paris's 12th arrondissement. Opened by a family who had always wanted to open an artisan bakery, this spot holds many treasures, from the traditional to the unusual, but always with finesse and gourmandise.

To launch this bakery, the boss enlisted the expertise ofAnthony Nguyen, a pastry chef-turned-tourier who fell in love with puff pastry and bakery during the Covid and who has now turned his hand to it. After instructive stints in various Parisian bakeries and even a tour of the Cheval Blanc kitchens, he can now exercise his creative talent from A to Z in this bakery, which gives him carte blanche.

At Bopain, the focus is on his delicious viennoiseries. These include gourmet pains au chocolat with generous 55% real chocolate bars, sometimes palatial on weekends, croissants with PDO butter (€1.35) and mouth-watering Pains Suisse with homemade custard made with real vanilla. A little extra he hopes customers will appreciate, given the price of vanilla, but only time will tell, he says. The same goes for the pistachio puff pastry, which hides a real, non-industrial pistachio paste. As for the flours, they come from Moulins de Chars, located in the Ile-de-France region. But that doesn't mean the prices are inflated: it's still a neighborhood bakery that has to remain competitive," he tells us.

If you like to make new discoveries, we recommend you try the puff pastry brioche with Pandan (an aromatic Asian herb with hints of almond). The more adventurous or connoisseurs won't want to miss Saturday's Durian puff pastry, an exotic fruit that you either love or hate. As far as we know, it's the only place in France to offer this pastry made with Durian almond cream. For the record, Anthony started out with less than a dozen one weekend, and they all left. The following week, he doubled the quantities, and the same thing happened. By the last weekend, out of the 22 made, a dozen had already been booked before opening. In short, he's proud of his success.

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And what about the pastries? For the pastries, we find Coralie, former Sous-chef Pâtissière at Léonie. She offers us some superb desugared sweets, which we just love. Let yourself be tempted by the generous Paris Brest, the well textured Flan and the decadent hazelnut praline vanilla tart.

In short, whether you come for good organic sourdough breads, beautiful classic or unusual viennoiseries or gourmet pastries, you won't be disappointed. Note that this is a neighborhood bakery with a human touch, so when it's sold out, come back early the next day!