Pastry fans in Paris (and who wouldn’t be a pastry fan while in Paris?) can now use technology to make the most of Paris’s renowned pastry scene. The iPhone app Paris Pastry launched at the beginning of November, and promises to help users find the best pastries in the city.
Available on iTunes for $4.99, iPhone and iPod touch owners can gain access to over 300 of “the best pastry, chocolate, ice cream and candy shops in Paris,” organized by category and arrondissement. Pastry chef, author and blogger David Lebovitz handpicked the chosen shops, so you know they’re good.
Each listing in the app comes with a review by Lebovitz and original photographs. You’ll also get practical information, including the address, nearest metro station, website, telephone number and opening hours. The app also gives the map locations of the pastry spots and has offline maps, making it easy to get to your dessert destination without an Internet connection. This alone may be worth the $4.99 price tag, but there’s more. For the Francophiles who are not Francophone, Paris Pastry includes a glossary of English definitions of common French pastry and baking terms.
Lebovitz, guidebook author Heather Stimmler-Hall of Secrets of Paris, and freelance journalist, tour guide and Sorbonne student Bryan Pirolli got to visit all of the shops included in the app, in what must have been some of the most delicious research ever. As you begin to follow in their footsteps by making use of the app, you can create a personalized list of your favorite Paris Pastry shops. If you don’t know where to start, Lebovitz has included his own list of the “Top 25 Pastry and Chocolate Places in Paris.”
For those without a mobile device, the team behind Paris Pastry promises to put out an e-book and a downloadable PDF with the same information soon. In the meantime, those with the option should download this app and get started on planning a pastry tour of Paris. But it should be noted that once in Paris, you don’t really need a plan to begin exploring the best pastries the city has to offer if you have the Paris Pastry app. With just a few taps on your iPhone, you can find the nearest shop in the category of your choice and go from there.
Click here iPhone app Paris website
By Monica Burton
