Hardly anyone in Paris makes croissants any more. I learn this startling - not to say disturbing - fact from Christophe Vasseur, passionate pâtissier and proprietor of Du Pain et des Idées, a mouthwatering bakery in the 10th whose Belle Époque decor pales in comparison with his splendid produce.

For the past six years he has been producing artisanal breads and pastries using the finest - and simplest - ingredients. A chausson aux pommes is often a tedious affair: stodgy, oversweet pastry filled with something that resembles mealy apple jam. Not here. The light pastry encloses a heart of pure apple.

A speciality is brioche la mouna, its golden crust topped with sugar crystals and the tender, yellow dough scented with orange-flower water.

Vasseur has become most renowned, however, in the past three years for his pain des amis, a nutty, robust bread with a crackling crust and an open texture that the great chef Alain Passard recently pronounced the best he had ever eaten.

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I'm here thanks to Jamie Cahill, whose clever little book The Pâtisseries of Paris has sent me in search of some of the treasures she picks out. Vasseur's place is, unsurprisingly, one her top picks - and one that clearly does a roaring trade despite being open only on weekdays.

Vasseur gave up a life in business to devote himself to bread; in discussing France's relationship with pastry, he recounts a familiar postwar story of a creative profession destroyed by the need for cheaper, faster food.

Even now, with a renewed interest in “real” food, it's hard to learn the trade properly; the course to become a pâtissier, he tells me, no longer includes what is known as “tournier”, the art of making pastry for croissants.

Why? Because it's so easy to buy the dough frozen; everyone does it. He tells me that while there are 1,300 bakeries in Paris, only 3 per cent make their own croissants.

It's hard work trawling the City of Light for the best pastry on offer, but it was a task I was willing to undertake on your behalf. It's not as tough, of course, as actually being a pâtissier, so that's something. We're not staying in the funky 10th but in the elegant 6th; the bijou Hotel Artus is tucked into the Rue du Buci, just around the corner from Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Down the block we find Le Bonbonnière de Buci, presided over by Pierre Marandon and his wife, Edith. It's a compliment, I promise you, to say that M. Marandon's enthusiasm, beaming smile and apron-clad girth call to mind Auguste Gusteau, the inspiring chef in Ratatouille.

Work starts here at 3am, and at noon the flour-dusted kitchens are still a hive of industry. Marandon's speciality is the millefeuille, crisp pastry layers filled with cream.

Every day there are three different parfums on offer - the day we visit, the choice is vanilla, Grand Marnier or praline... it's hard not to try them all, and I'm almost glad not to be here at the weekend when the full choice of 11 flavours is available.

The Marandons have been here for nearly two decades; their place isn't grand, but isn't it strange how you can always tell when a shop - and its owner - has heart? Of his dedication to his craft M.Marandon says simply: “C'est mon métier” - which means, it's my job, or my profession, but also has a connotation of vocation.

I suppose that once you might have found the same at Ladurée. Yes, it's true that there are few things more lovely than one of its delicate macaroons, but lately there is an assembly-line feel to it - and since when did it become necessary for a pâtisserie to promote a line of toiletries?

Cahill's book is Paris-wide; but if you are in the 6th, as we were, it would be easy enough to eat along with her for a few days and never leave the neighbourhood.

One of my son Theo's favourite playgrounds is in the Jardin du Luxembourg, a perfect combination of state-of-the-art and old-fashioned play equipment (the carousel goes round very fast, indeed, and riders are given a stick to try to catch a sneakily small brass ring).

Why not pick up an opéra - almond cake, coffee cream, chocolate - from Dalloyau while you watch your boy ride? I did. Or, in more austere mood, collect a chewy loaf from Poilâne, not so far away?

If you are done with playgrounds, and fancy a proper lunch, there are simple and elegant snacks in Matteo and Paula (which has changed its name from Le Confiturier); its charcuterie plates and tartelettes will please the grown-ups; Theo was happy with the simplest and loveliest pizza imaginable.

Too much pastry: too little time. But the pleasure of Paris is to visit and revisit. Next time I'll make sure to find my way to Pain de Sucre, in the 3rd - in part because it is famous for its guimauves (isn't that a better word than marshmallow?), my husband's favourite, but mainly because it was the especial recommendation of the remarkable Christophe Vasseur.

NEED TO KNOW

Eurostar (08705 186 186, www.eurostar.com) has return fares to Paris from £59. Rooms at the Hotel Artus (00 33 1 4329 0720, www.artushotel.com) cost from £198, based on two sharing.

Read The Pâtisseries of Paris, by Jamie Cahill (The Little Bookroom, £7.99)

Sweet stops

Du Pain et des Idées, 34 rue Yves Toudic, 10th (www.dupainetdesidees.com)

Le Bonbonnière de Buci, 12 rue de Buci, 6th (www.bonbonnieredebuci.com)

Ladurée Bonaparte, 21 Rue Bonaparte, 6th (www.laduree.fr)

Dalloyau, 2 place Edmond-Rostand, 6th (www.dalloyau.fr)

Poilâne, 8 rue du Cherche-Midi, 6th (www.poilane.fr)

Matteo and Paula, 20 rue du Cherche-Midi, 6th

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