Fed up with the world of prêt-à-porter, Chris Machado rolled up his sleeves and baked himself a new life with the aptly named Panifacture. This laboratory-like bakery boasts a generous picture window – all the better to catch the eye with its highly graphic creations and loaves, temptingly lined up at eye level. With its Scandi loft-style design, this narrow counter has a mission as clear as the pale wood that clads it: to offer baking at its very best. Expect breads made with ancient flours and naturally leavened dough (a Khorasan loaf and a fig bread that reach dizzying heights, plus gloriously fluffy focaccia), alongside airy, pillowy pastries (a nostalgia-inducing sourdough brioche, an ultra-laminated apple turnover), a stunning hazelnut financier and an wonderfully vanillary flan that’s making waves thanks to its flaky, undulating crust. · Hervé Martin

THE HIDDEN GEM: The rouge de Bordeaux bread with its perfectly open crumb (€11 per kg), named after the rustic, non-hybridized wheat flour it’s made from.