L’Éclair de Génie - Cannes

Éclairs first, chocolates beside them

The éclair display is the point. Christophe Adam founded the house in Paris in 2012 and treats the éclair as an inexhaustible field for taste and design, turning a classic pastry into a new-generation signature. In Cannes, which opened in May 2025, that means éclairs stay the hero and everything else arranges itself around them: chocolates, cakes, cookies, croissants and café service. The Riviera address is the brand’s move south from Paris, and it carries the same format rather than adapting to a resort idea of pastry.

Look for the house vocabulary of revisited éclairs, seasonal rotations, colorful finishes and flavors that move between chocolate, fruit and caramel. The salted butter caramel éclair, built with mascarpone cream, salted butter and caramel, is the emblematic one and the flavor worth knowing before you arrive, because it is the reference the rest of the rotation is measured against.

A boutique counter on rue Meynadier

The Cannes branch works as a modern pâtisserie boutique with counter service setting the rhythm, rather than a separate coffee shop in the way the Paris rue Montmartre café is. The decision happens at the display: éclairs first, chocolates beside them, croissants and viennoiseries nearby, then a coffee or tea if the visit runs longer than a purchase. The boutique is built to be read quickly and left with a box in hand.

The design language comes from the wider identity, with modern decor, packaging and pastries treated as visual objects as much as desserts. Rue Meynadier puts the shop in the central shopping district, which is why it serves residents and visitors in roughly equal measure, and why the format stays display-led rather than a room you settle into for an hour.

Order around the display

Start with the éclairs, since the rotation is where the house does its thinking, and let the one that catches your eye decide. The salted butter caramel is the reference point if you want to know what the brand is measured against, and the seasonal flavors are the reason to come back.

Then widen the order. The chocolates are part of the Cannes counter, and the croissants are worth knowing, since the house is associated with croissants fourrés and croissants garnis rather than plain classics. Cakes and cookies sit inside the same program, and a hot drink turns the stop into the fuller boutique-café version of the visit.