Paris has its official best baguette contest, highlighting bakers, addresses, and baking know-how every year.
Each year, the contest pits baguettes from Paris bakers against one another. A top ten ranking is established, and the winner receives a medal, a 4,000 euro prize, and becomes the Elysee Palace supplier for one year.
The jury includes professionals, food journalists, and Paris residents selected by lot. The baguettes are presented anonymously to limit bias during tasting.
The selected baguettes must also meet several technical criteria. They are judged on baking, crumb, taste, smell, and appearance. The rules have evolved over time: historically, baguettes had to measure between 55 and 65cm and weigh between 250 and 300g; for the recent 2025 and 2026 editions, the City of Paris instead indicates 50 to 55cm and 250 to 270g, with a maximum salt content of 1.4g per 100g of bread, so that the products are compared within a common framework.
This website lists the top 10 winners and the winner of the best baguette contest of Paris from 1994 to 2023.
The contest is well known, but its archives are scattered. Some years are easy to find, others much less so. This map helps bring some order to it, makes the ranking easier to read, and helps anyone who really wants to see whether a baguette is worth the detour.
Only rankings from 2010 are available online; no earlier public archives were found. Below is the list of sources for each year.
Any help is welcome if you have sources for previous years. Send me an e-mail at ecrivez.moi@simonertel.net
You can write me directly at ecrivez.moi@simonertel.net.
If you want to keep exploring bread and playful Paris food maps, here are a few more related projects.