She loves me, she loves me not… but Marguerite is definitely kneading attention. Marguerite is a chic space filled with white, wood and concrete where neo-baker François-Xavier Lot’s creations effortlessly woo customers. Why the queues? Blame his loaves: baked with ancient wheats and Guérande salt from Nicolas Arnould; chestnut flour studded with crushed chestnuts; or a wheat-buckwheat version enriched with seaweed from Jean-Marie Pédron. Then there are the sweet treats by Mélanie Dugast, too – from inconic kouign-amanns to pains au chocolat made with Charentes-Poitou butter from Laiterie de Montaigu, not forgetting the nostalgia-infused palmiers or the seasonal local strawberry tart, its jammy fruit gently stewed with mint and Timut pepper. · Megan Linar

THE HIDDEN GEM: The Chouchou, eye-catching in both style and substance, a pastry creation combining peanut crunch, almond dacquoise, caramel cream and vanilla mousse (€4.50).