Looking for good French bakeries that will not break our bank. So far the ones I have seen on various forums are rather expensive.

And what other type of bakery would one find in Paris?

And can you give an example of "break the bank" and what you're looking to buy? A loaf of bread? A quick sit down breakfast? Fancy pastries? (Can't imagine how any of these could break the bank.)

zillions of locals line up for fresh French bread - baguettes and other at their local bakery where the pain is usually basked fresh - and it is dirt cheap.

You seem to want some gourmet bakery and for those 'artisan' bakeries you may pay an arm and a leg.

I am mainly looking for breakfast and dessert. I could not see the prices for the recommended bakeries but they are all listed with €€€€ which scare me.

French bakeries in France? What an odd idea!

A normal boulangerie will sell you a baguette for no more than 0.90€. Does that break your bank?

where did you see those prices? Curious as it seems to be major misinformation - most hotels will offer breakfast for an extra fee and IME it is well worth it if looking to cut costs. It is usually bread and jam and butter.

Exactly! I only want to try French bakeries while in Paris . But bakeries with other specialties (Japanese, German, Vietnamese, et.) have pop up so I figure I should make my request clear

As others have said, there are bakeries all over Paris, and if you walk out your hotel door, you will probably run into one.

Euros scare you??? Well, then, it's time to give yourself a quick course in currency exchanges. At any rate, you can hardly swing a cat in Paris without hitting a bakery or pastry shop, so there's no need to do advance planning.

Trust us. This is not going to be a problem.

The price of a baguette, a standard loaf of French bread is regulated by law as Kerouac notes at 0.90€. That is very, very cheap. The same size of loaf at Stop and Shop, a US supermarket Is more than $3.

I think I understand that your are wondering if pastries, not bread, will be expensive.

I don't know where you live, but in my city I can pay $2 USD for a pretty lousy cupcake.

In Paris I can pay 3 euro or so for a delicious little tarte, with fresh berries, a butter crust, and maybe some outstanding pastry cream. Perhaps an eclair or a financier will cost as much as 4 euro.

I tend to eat a pastry product at least once a day in Paris, sometimes twice. It may seem expensive to spend 5 to 10 euros a day on pastry, but hell, I went all the way to Paris to get it. Well worth it to me.

David Leibovitz has a Paris pastry app. I think I'm going to get it.

Unless we were getting screwed last year, baguettes ran 1-1.50€ depending on the boulangerie. Baguettes in supermarkets were less but were way inferior.

A breakfast of coffee and a pastry or roll will be priced ala carte plus a surcharge if you sit down and eat it in a boulangerie. The surcharge isn't that much to make a big difference. Not all boulangeries have areas to sit down.
As far as recommending a boulangerie, we found one that has won lots of awards...(like many others I am sure). It is Pain et des Idees. It is located in the 10th just off rue Landry near canal St. Martin. Wonderful pastries and the best brioche loafs I ever tasted.
Rule of thumb...you can't go wrong blindly entering any boulangerie you run across.
Enjoy one of Paris' gratest attractions!

Tuscanlifeedit has nailed it!!

Baguettes at my local Dia superette (which actually bakes them on site) only cost 0.39€.

Pastries at even the expensive patisseries in Paris are a cheap luxury, as luxuries go. And every neighborhood has boulangeries for bread, croissants, and tarts as well as patisseries for fancy pastries. Where are you staying?

You guys are making me so hungry! I don't remember the price, but I do remember that luscious croissant with the dark chocolate bar baked inside of it. That was all the French I needed, "un croissant de chocolate, si vu plais"!

I remember thinking how civilized it was to serve chocolate for breakfast.

Pâtisserie Stohrer
51 Rue Montorgueil, 75002 Paris, France

My favorite, there was this one bread with nuts and fruit in it that was so good for breakfast slathered with butter. What is it called?
I pay for that airplane ticket and travel that far so I will eat pastry no matter the cost.

Where area are you staying in? It's hard to recommend a place without knowing where you'll be. Croissants in most bakeries run around a euro, pain au chocolat(not a croissant de chocolate) a tad more. Far from expensive. Off the top of my head, the average eclair runs around 3 to 3.50 euros. A place like Patisserie des Reves will cost you more, but their pastries are to die for and worth a one time splurge. I'm not a huge Stohrer fan...I thought their eclairs were nothing special at all.