The day's first small luxury is the sound a croissant makes when you break it. Then the steam off the cup, rising in a thin twist and gone, and cream going into espresso the way silk goes into water. Twenty-eight watercolor-inspired illustrations stay this close on purpose: the honeycomb inside a loaf, the paper-thin layers of a split croissant, the sugar on a crème brûlée still ticking from the torch.

Behind the glass of a Paris patisserie the éclairs are glazed to a mirror and the cream puffs sit under a snow of sugar. Down the street the loaves line up on wooden shelves, and the smell of them gets into your coat.