Walk into La Parisienne and the city outside feels briefly irrelevant. The bakery, opened in 2014 by Christine and Patrick Morin, both originally from France, was built around a straightforward but difficult ambition: to bring genuine traditional French baking to Seattle and recreate the warmth and quality that defines the neighbourhood bakeries they grew up with back home.
Everything at La Parisienne is made from scratch using French ingredients and classical French techniques. Christine puts it simply. “We just work as if we were in France.” That approach shows in what comes out of the kitchen. The counter holds all the classics, the kind of pastries that are easy to find in mediocre versions across most cities but rare to encounter made properly. Christine’s personal favourite is the mille-feuille, the layered custard and puff pastry creation that demands both technical precision and patience. Alongside it sit butter and chocolate croissants, the Paris-Brest, and the éclair au chocolat, which has become something of a signature at the bakery.
For something that bridges both worlds, there is the Mount Rainier, a pastry that blends French technique with a nod to Seattle’s most iconic landmark. It is the kind of detail that speaks to how the Morins have planted themselves genuinely in the city rather than simply transplanting something wholesale from abroad.
First-time visitors are pointed toward the macarons, which come in more than twelve flavours and offer an immediate sense of what sets La Parisienne apart from what passes for French baking elsewhere in the city.
La Parisienne is located in Seattle.
