1. Madeleine
   Beignet
2. Tuile
   Pralines

A beignet is sort of kind of a French donut but closer to a fritter if we're being honest. Essentially it's just fried dough and it's been around since the days of Ancient Rome. If you want to try a good one and can't make it to Paris, there's always New Orleans.

1. Financier
   Tarte Tatin
2. Profiterole
   Macaron

Macarons are essentially meringue cookies with a filling between them. They're not to be confused with a coconut macaroon which is basically a coconut cookie, but the two foods actually started as the same thing way back in the day. One recipe replaced almond paste with coconut was all.

1. Rum Baba
   Babka
2. Gateau a la broche
   Palmier

A rum baba, also called a baba au rhum, is generally a small cake that you thoroughly soak in syrup that's made from rum, hence the clever name. You can make larger versions of the cake but usually, they're meant to be individual desserts so you can enjoy the rum all for yourself.

1. Peche Melba
   Tarte Tatin
2. Norman Tart
   Croquembouche

A tarte tatin is a kind of upside-down cake essentially, and while you usually make it with apples you could probably use any kind of fruit that you can caramelize in a pan like pears, peaches, pineapple or whatever.

1. Mont blanc
   Madeleine
2. Jesuite
   Far Breton

The Jesuite gets its name from the triangular hat worn by Jesuits, traditionally. It's a flaky pastry filled with frangipane cream and then topped with almonds and powdered sugar. All things being equal, it doesn't look much like a hat.

1. Pain aux raisin
   Religieuse
2. Tuile
   Madeleine

Madeleines look like cookies but are small sponge cakes from the Lorraine region of France. They're traditionally made in a shell-shaped pan which gives them their distinctive shape, although technically you could make them in any shape at all.

1. Kouign Amann
   Palmier
2. Kouglof
   Chouquettes

Palmier, also known as a pig's ear, elephant's ear or palm tree, is oddly often shaped like a butterfly. Why not call it that? Who knows. It's made in a very similar way to a croissant, only the dough has no yeast so it doesn't rise.

1. Tuile
   Puits d'amour
2. Vitréais
   Canelé

A tuile is basically a crispy cookie or wafer that's very thin and often used as a kind of garnish. The word itself means tile because they're shaped to look like a kind of French roof tile.

1. Croustade
   Opera Cake
2. Tarte des Alpes
   Profiterole

The opera cake is a dessert made with almond sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup layered with ganache and buttercream. It also has some mysterious origins and may date back to 1960, 1955 or the 1800s depending on who you ask.

1. Teurgoule
   Pêche Melba
2. Flaugnarde
   Dacquoise

The dacquoise cake is mostly made of meringue layered with buttercream, whipped cream and a cookie base. You can put a little fruit glaze on top of it as well because how is that ever a bad idea?

1. Flaugnarde
   Fraisier
2. Mendiant
   Croquembouche

Flaugnarde is a dessert made from fruit that is baked in a pan with a flan batter covering it. It can be made with fruit like apples, peaches, pears or whatever and looks like a big ol' pancake full of fruit when it's done.

1. Dariole
   Crème caramel
2. Tarte conversation
   Bichon au citron

Tarte conversation, which literally means "conversation tart," dates back tot he 18th century when it was created to celebrate the publication of a book called "Les Conversations d'Emile." Must have been a heck of a book.

1. Croquembouche
   Brioche
2. Gougère
   Paris–Brest

The croquembouche starts as a fairly simple dessert; just choux pastry puffs. But to make it into a proper croquembouche you pile them into a cone and then drizzle the whole thing with threads of caramel. It can also be decorated with sugar or chocolate decorations to up the wow factor a bit as well.

1. Mille-feuille
   Puits d'amour
2. Clafoutis
   Tarte Tropézienne

A clafoutis (very similar to a flaugnarde) is made by laying down your black cherries in a pan and then covering it with a flan batter. Apparently, if you want to be ultra-traditional you'll include the cherry pits which slightly alter the flavor and also contain trace amounts of cyanide. Yum!

1. Dariole
   Floating island
2. Poire belle Hélène
   Riz à l'impératrice

Darioles get their name from the mold in which they're baked which is a small cylinder that makes for an overall long-looking cake or pie when it's done. Savory ones can be filled with meat, cheese or veggies while dessert ones may have custard or almond cream

1. Pièce montée
   Calisson
2. Angel wings
   Beignet

Angel wings have found their way into cuisine all around the world and date back to Ancient Rome. Often they're a treat reserved for just before Lent. They're very simple and are just thin twists of dough fried and dusted in powdered sugar.

1. Gâteau à la broche
   Bichon au citron
2. Teurgoule
   Gougère

A gougère is a tiny little choux pastry puff which can be the start of a dessert in many cases, but in this one it's filled with cheese, making it a savory pastry. Sometimes you can up the ante by filling them with mushrooms or sausage as well.

1. Macaron
   Bichon au citron
2. Religieuse
   Pralines

Bichon au citron is a type of puff pastry that would arguably be a turnover if you filled it with some kind of jam. However, since it's filled with lemon curd, it's a bichon au citron. Does it have anything to do with bichon dogs? That's a good question.

1. Baba au rhum
   Coussin de Lyon
2. Mille-feuille
   Vitréais

A vitréais cake comes from the town of Vitré in Brittany. The town only has a population of about 18,000, so good for them for creating what would go on to become a world-famous dessert.

1. Puits d'amour
   Palmier
2. Tarte des Alpes
   Éclair

The puits d'amour cake is generally a small cake that is filled with something like jam or vanilla pastry cream. The recipe dates back to the 1700s, and at the time there were two versions. One was a large cake meant to be shared and one was a small version meant for one person.

1. Viennoiserie
   Tarte des Alpes
2. Madeleine
   Pain d'épices

Clearly from the Alps, the tarte des Alpes is a jam-filled pie covered with a lattice pattern of pastry on top. It was traditionally made as a winter dessert with preserved fruit from the summer months included as a filling.

1. Crème caramel
   Pêche Melba
2. Viennoiserie
   Petit four

The name petit four actually means "small oven" which is kind of weird, right? But not really! Back before gas ovens were a thing and the French were baking in big brick ovens, petit fours were cooked during the cooling process because it took the ovens so long to cool down between uses.

1. Charlotte
   Jésuite
2. Mendiant
   Poire belle Hélène

The original recipe for a Charlotte doesn't sound super delicious. You'd dip stale bread in butter then line the pan with it and fill it with fruit puree or custard. There are dozens of other ways to make one, though, so stale bread isn't necessary.

1. Calisson
   Soufflé
2. Kouign Amann
   Teurgoule

A Kouign Amann is a dessert that was called the "fattiest pastry in all of Europe" by the New York Times. For two cups of flour, you'll need about 11 tablespoons of butter which is, you know, a lot.

1. Pot de crème
   Flan pâtissier
2. Financier
   Pain aux raisins

Custard tarts, or flans pâtissier as they're known in France, are popular in numerous countries. The French versions are typically a little bigger around than a British one, but also thinner as well.

1. Profiterole
   St. Honoré cake
2. Calisson
   Marjolaine

Profiteroles are just little choux pastry balls filled with whipped cream, pastry cream or even ice cream if you're feeling fancy. If you want to go super nutty you can make a savory profiterole filled with meat or cheese.

1. Mousse
   Norman Tart
2. Bûche de Noël
   Pièce montée

The Bûche de Noël, or Yule log, is a traditional Christmas dessert designed to look like a literal log for festive reasons. It's a sponge cake and the frosting is often chocolate. It's made as a roulade which means the cake is rolled so inside there can be either frosting or jam filling as well.

1. Crêpe Suzette
   Canelé
2. Norman Tart
   Pralines

There's a custard center in a canelé and the outside is caramelized to make it a little crunchy because who doesn't like a crunchy, caramelized crust? They come from the Bordeaux region of France and pair nicely with wine.

1. Croquembouche
   Fraisier
2. Café liégeois
   Éclair

Eclairs may be the most famous French pastry in the world, or at least some of the most popular. They're choux paste piped full of cream and topped with chocolate, which is kind of perfect when you think about it.

1. Mille-feuille
   Coussin de Lyon
2. Petit four
   Pièce montée

The mille-feuille can be found in cookbooks as far back as the 16th century though its origins are unknown. It's made with puff pastry layered with pastry cream. It's usually about 5 layers, so the "thousand" part in the name is a bit of an exaggeration although the puff pastry can make it seem that way.

1. Financier
   Pain au chocolat
2. Tuile
   Pot de crème

Pain au chocolat or "chocolate bread" in English is essentially made the same way you make a croissant, but it has some dark chocolate baked into the center of it.

1. Mille-feuille
   Gâteau à la broche
2. Poire à la Beaujolaise
   Paris–Brest

Paris-Brest was created to commemorate the Paris-Brest-Paris bike race, because what says physical fitness and bike racing quite like a hazelnut-cream filled pastry dessert?

1. Pain au chocolat
   Saint-Epvre
2. Religieuse
   Teurgoule

A religieuse is made of choux pastry cases piled on top of each other to look like the pope's mitre. The inside should be filled with custard and then you can decorate the outside of the dessert with chocolate or buttercream.

1. Petit four
   Savarin
2. Croustade
   Canelé

A Savarin gets its name from writer Brillat-Savarin back in 1845. Savarin did not name it himself; rather it was named for him by a pair of pastry chef brothers named the Juliens. If you soak it in rum it becomes a rum baba.

1. Jesuite
   Far Breton
2. Choux pastry
   St. Honoré cake

Named for Saint Honore, the bishop of Amiens and the patron saint of bakers, the St. Honore Cake is puff pastry with choux paste on top and cream puffs attached to it. It's usually decorated with whipped cream using its very own St.Honore piping tip. Fancy!

1. Tarte tropézienne
   Eclair
2. Croustade
   Paris-Brest

La Tarte de Saint-Tropez or the tarte tropézienne is a filled brioche that was made in 1955 by a pastry chef from Saint-Tropez. Word is Bardot was filming the movie "And God Created Woman" at the time when she named it.

1. Coussin de Lyon
   Viennoiserie
2. Macaron
   Bugnes Lyonnaisses

Viennoiserie is a catchall name for a family of baked goods basically, which includes things like croissants and turnovers. It's made with a yeast dough that you add cream and sugar and other ingredients to in order to fancy it up.

1. Pain aux raisins
   Madeleine
2. Mont blanc
   Ispahan

Pain aux raisin is a breakfast pastry popular in France that is basically a croissant that was made with raisins. The type of dough it's made from, pastry in some cases or perhaps brioche in others, often depends on where it's being made.

1. Clafoutis
   Mousse
2. Gâteau Basque
   Norman Tart

From the Basque region of France, a Gâteau Basque or Basque Cake can have a variety of fillings. If the filling is pastry cream, then there's traditionally a crosshatch design carved into the top. If it's black cherry jam then a Basque cross will be on top and so on.

1. Mont blanc
   Palmier
2. Crepe
   Tarte tatin

The mont blanc is made with chestnut cream and meringue and looks like a tiny little bird's nest with a candied nut nestled into the top of it if it's made properly. Dust it with a little powdered sugar to get that "blanc" part down.