PATISSERIE LAC

Fruit pastries on one side of the case, chocolate on the other: Patisserie Lac puts the two halves of Maison LAC side by side and lets you choose. The Nice shop is a chocolatier and a pâtisserie in one room. The house has been a member of Relais Desserts since 2006, has taken the French best-of-the-best chocolatiers award four times, and is named among the country's essential chocolatiers by the Club des Croqueurs de Chocolat. It began in 1995 with a first shop in Beaulieu-sur-Mer before Nice became home.

Strawberries on one side, cocoa on the other

The pastry is classical in construction. The Fraisier is built on tender génoise with a light Madagascar vanilla cream and strawberry at the centre of the piece. Moelleux Fraises takes the same fruit in a softer direction, almond cake and light cream under fresh strawberries. Sablé Breton Fraise is the individual tart version, strawberries over a sablé breton base with Madagascar vanilla ganache montée.

The chocolate is where the house gets specific. Pérou Chuncho 70% is a dark chocolate of Peruvian origin, spiced and vanilla-scented with cinnamon and a slightly woody finish. Carrés Pralinés work almonds and hazelnuts into praline, with caramelised chopped almonds and a coating of either Caribbean dark or milk chocolate. Diabolix goes richer again, Linzer-style biscuits filled with caramel or gianduja and finished in intense Caribbean dark.

A counter-led boutique

This is a retail pastry and chocolate stop rather than a restaurant. The decision is made standing in front of the case, and the range is built for it: individual pastries, boxed chocolates, bars, pralines, confectionery and occasion pieces including wedding cakes and custom commissions.

The house runs several shops across Nice along with a workshop, and it teaches as well as sells, with masterclasses giving the brand a side most pâtisseries do not have. The atmosphere is visual before it is anything else, and the display is arranged so the fruit work and the chocolate work read as two distinct crafts practised by the same house.

Order the Fraisier, then a praline

Start with the Fraisier for the clearest read on the pastry side: génoise, Madagascar vanilla, strawberries, nothing hidden. If strawberries are the reason for the visit, continue with Moelleux Fraises or Sablé Breton Fraise, which take the same fruit through two other textures.

Then add chocolate, because that is where the identity is sharpest. A good order is one strawberry pastry, one praline or gianduja piece such as Carrés Pralinés or Diabolix, and one origin chocolate such as Pérou Chuncho 70%. That covers fruit, praline and single origin in a single box.