06/03/2026
The "merveilleux" is not a croissant. It is not a macaron. It is not anything most visitors to Paris have heard of before they walk past one of these shops, smell something extraordinary, and find themselves standing inside before they have made any conscious decision.
The pastry itself is simple in structure and unreasonable in effect: two shells of meringue, filled with whipped cream, then rolled entirely in chocolate shavings until it looks like a small, perfectly dishevelled truffle. It is light enough to feel almost weightless. It is also, somehow, deeply satisfying.
The name goes back further than the shop. During the Directory period of post-Revolutionary France, roughly 1796 to 1799, a particular group of Parisians emerged who dressed in deliberately extravagant, almost theatrical clothes as a reaction against the austerity of the Revolution. The women were called the Merveilleuses (the Marvelous ones). The men were called the Incroyables (the Incredibles). The pastry, which comes from Northern France and Flanders, carries their names across its entire menu: Le Merveilleux, L'Incroyable, L'Impensable, L'Excentrique, Le Magnifique, Le Sans-Culotte.
Frédéric Vaucamps started his pastry apprenticeship at 14 in Northern France. He opened his first shop in Hazebrouck, in Flanders, in 1982, and spent years refining the merveilleux recipe, making the meringue lighter, developing new flavours, turning a largely forgotten regional pastry into something people would queue for. He arrived in Paris in 2008. There are now around 20 boutiques across the city. Every one of them has the same giant chandelier, the same black and gold facade, and the same pastry chefs working in full view of the street.
The merveilleux contains no butter, no oil, no dough, and fewer than 100 calories. This information will not stop you from ordering a second one.
Have you ever tried it?
