One of the beauties of pastry shopping in Paris is that it's hard to go wrong. Sure, if you stay here long enough you'll learn how to distinguish between the moderately and the divinely exquisite, but in all honesty, the selection across the city is top-notch. (I'm not sure how the French maintain such slender figures in the midst of this.) Despite the plethora of delightful pastry shops, some still stand out as particularly noteworthy. One of these nestled on a pedestrian street in the heart of the second arrondissement (District) is the Pâtisserie Stohrer, the city's oldest pastry shop. The Pâtisserie Stohrer opened in 1730, and you could say the original pastry chef, Nicolas Stohrer, knew what he was doing: before setting up shop, he served for five years as pastry chef to the queen at Versailles. The shop is most famed for their baba au rhum, a rum-soaked cake often served with pastry cream invented by Monsieur Stohrer that today is an integral part of the standard French pastry repertoire. Pastries at the Pâtisserie Stohrer generally range from €4-5, topping only about €1 over the price of the selection at a regular neighborhood pastry shop. From first hand investigative work, I assure you that the pastries are worth the indulgence, even for an extra euro. And what's sweeter than tasting some of the history of Paris by sinking your teeth into a French pastry?