The Top 3, Vol 1.

Paris Bakery edition

One can never be too close to fresh bread— a Parisian truth backed up by data. According to Apur, the French capital’s urbanism agency, the majority of Parisians live less than a five-minute walk from a bakery. If you’ve been to Paris, this shouldn’t come as a surprise: bakeries (and pharmacies, and opticians) dot nearly every street corner the way banks pop up at every turn in Manhattan, which should tell you something about what each culture values (I’ll leave that for a future discussion). When you then consider Mayor Hidalgo’s ambition to transform Paris into a green, "15-minute city"—where everything a resident needs can be found within a short walk, their omnipresence makes even more sense.

When I saw this fact visualized in the infographic above, it made me think about the bakeries I regularly frequent and which of my favorites fall beyond that five-minute mark but are worth the detour. And then I thought of sharing a few with you to file away for a future visit. Whittling down a list of favorites in any edible realm is an impossible task so I’ve limited my bread pool to a 1.5km radius.