13 Must-Visit Cafes in Paris, France

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13 Must-Visit Cafes in Paris, France

13 Must-Visit Cafes in Paris, France

Paris is home to thousands of cafes; there is a café on practically every street corner you turn, in every square you stumble across, on every boulevard you stroll along. The age-old Parisian tradition of sitting around at rickety tables and shooting back espressos is a fundamental part of everyday life here. So yes, it’s easy to find a café in Paris, but it’s not always easy to find a good café. Use this comprehensive guide to find your way to the best coffees, teas, cakes and patisseries that the city has to offer. Prepare to indulge yourself!
(To visit the venues mentioned in this article, check out these Self-Guided Walking Tours in Paris)

1. La Caféothèque

La Caféothèque
The flagship of Paris’ coffee revolution, this is a coffee purist’s paradise. The venue clearly states its purpose by the gleaming coffee roasting machine that takes pride of place in the window and rumbles away from open til close. The café doesn’t have a particularly appealing exterior, but step inside and you’ll find three calm, spacious salons with a tapestry of irresistible aromas wafting through them.

La Caféothèque is the brainchild of Gloria Montenegro, former Guatemalan ambassador, who has made it her mission to oust the acrid swill that is often served in Paris’ cafés. She imports from small plantations in all of the world’s coffee hotspots and operates on a principle of direct trade with the producers. The trained baristas that staff the coffee shop zip around behind the two bars handling the Marzocco espresso machines with easy expertise. They are always more than happy to guide you through the slightly overwhelming menu. The café is not only a coffee shop but also functions as a venue for lectures, conferences, expositions and workshops on coffee-culture, the details for which can be found on the website.
Where to find it:
52 Rue de l’Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France, 75004

Phone: +33 153018384

Working Hours:
Mon-Fri: 08:30am–07:30pm
Sat-Sun: 10:00am-07:30pm

http://www.lacafeotheque.com
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2. 10 Belles

10 Belles
Dive off the main street running alongside Canal Saint Martin and you’ll find this little gem. It’s a tiny place with simple pinewood décor, a snug mezzanine, cute fold-out stools and ‘real’ coffee. When you manage to tear your eyes from the counter’s ravishing display of freshly baked scones, almond slices and chunks of marble cake the size of doorsteps, you’ll notice the shelves lined with packets of coffee beans from Guatemala, Ethiopia, Honduras and Kenya.

The dynamic French owner Thomas Lehoux appears to be the fountain of all coffee-related knowledge, gained from his extensive experience in Paris’ barista scene. He only opened 10 Belles in September 2012, but it took off immediately and he has enjoyed a constant flow of coffee-loving customers since then. Food-wise, aside from the fabulous cakes, you’ll find a lunch menu consisting of sausage rolls, sandwiches and salads with prices ranging from 5€ to 7.50€. The Englishness of the menu is explained by Anne Trattles’ presence in the kitchen. She’s an English-born, Paris-trained pastry chef who started work in the café in June 2013. Both the food and coffee menu undergo a complete re-haul every few months in order to keep in tune with seasonal produce.
Where to find it:
10 Rue de la Grange aux Belles, Paris, France, 75010

Phone: +33 142409078

Working Hours:
Tue–Fri: 08:00–18:00
Sat–Sun: 09:00–19:00

http://www.tenbelles.com
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3. L’ébouillanté

L’ébouillanté
With an eye catching electric blue exterior, this delightful café boasts a lovely location in a leafy cobbled street on the edge of the Marais district. From the tables by the shop front window you can look out at one of Paris’ stunning churches. Before the café opened in 1977 the space was used as an artist’s studio, a history which is commemorated by the quirky melange of posters of past Parisian art exhibitions which plaster the walls. The café offers a good variety of teas and coffees (between 2.50 € and 5.50 €), but also some interesting alternatives to your usual hot drinks, such as milk flavoured with honey or vanilla and hot, spiced orange or apple juice. Along with your drink of choice you can have one of the café’s delicious home-made cakes, all served with a healthy dollop of crème fraiche. You’ll find lunches of soup, salads, quiche and crepes with prices between 6 € and 16€ as well as a copious Sunday brunch at 21 €.
Where to find it:
6 Rue des Barres, Paris, France, 75004

Phone: +33 142747052

Working Hours:
March–October: Mon-Sun: 12:00–22:00
November–February: Mon-Sun: 12:00–19:00

http://www.restaurant-ebouillante.fr
Offline reading and travel directions:
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4. Café La Fusée

Café La Fusée
This enchantingly scruffy venue epitomises French bohemian charm. A cheerful red and white striped awning adorned with multicoloured bulbs shelters the animated chatter of the heated terrace. Inside you find an old mahogany bar with enormous bundles of saucisson dangling from the low ceiling above it. Small groups claim the wooden tables while solo customers perch on bar stools cradling their midday glass of wine. You’ll find the usual range of hot drinks (2 € for a coffee to 3.80 € for grog) and a choice of cookie, brownie or muffin to nibble at alongside. For later in the day there are also wines, aperitifs and cocktails all at wonderfully low prices. Breakfasts range from ‘le petit’ at 2.80 € (coffee, toast, butter and jam) to ‘le grand’ at 12.50 € (coffee, pancakes, eggs, cheese and ham).
Where to find it:
168 Rue Saint-Martin, Paris, France, 75003

Phone: +33 1427693 99

Working Hours:
Mon-Sat: 09:00am–02:00am
Sun: 10:00am-02:00am

5. Le Loir dans la Théière

Le Loir dans la Théière
Blink and you miss it, it’s the sort of place that you’ll only find if you’re looking for it. Behind the unimposing exterior you’ll find two rooms crammed with a motley assortment of rickety wooden tables and old leather armchairs. The café takes its name (which translates as ‘the dormouse in the teapot’) from the unfortunate character who features in the Mad Hatter’s tea party in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. This theme is playfully continued with paintings of the famous scene on the walls of the café. Aside from its quirky appearance, the café has the added attraction of making and selling some of the best cakes in town, including the spectacular lemon meringue tart which has become something of a trademark. All cakes are priced at 7€, but you do get an extremely generous portion. Coffee prices go from 2.50€ to 4.50€ and there is a selection of teas and tisanes at 5€. You’ll also find quiches and omelettes all at 9.50€. Beware of teatime queues at the weekend.
Where to find it:
3 Rue des Rosiers, Paris, France, 75004

Phone: +33 142729061

Working Hours:
Mon-Sun: 09:00am–07:30pm

6. Kooka Boora

Kooka Boora
Here’s another of the new wave of ‘proper’ coffee shops springing up all over Paris. Owner Nicolas Piégay found his inspiration in the coffee specialists of Australia, which explains the presence of flat whites, mochaccinos and even iced coffees. Prices range from 2.50€ to 4.50€. Alternatively you can try the fresh fruit juice creations which are made for you there and then from the fruit crates lined up along the counter. Perhaps something to do with its ‘Aussie’ influence, the café has a very chilled out feel to it. Customers are welcome to sit and while away an hour or so with a book, laptop or newspaper. It is ideally located in a quiet corner of Pigalle, facing out onto a leafy square from which you can just glimpse the gleaming white domes of the Sacré Coeur. Liquids aside, you can get scrumptious cakes, salads and sandwiches, all very reasonably priced.
Where to find it:
53 Avenue Trudaine, Paris, France, 75009

Phone: +33 156921241

Working Hours:
Mon–Fri: 07:30–18:30
Sat–Sun: 09:00–18:30

http://kbcafeshop@facebook.com

7. Patisserie Viennoise

Patisserie Viennoise
Take half an hour to stop in at this little haven just a stone’s throw away from Boulevard Saint Germain. First opened in 1928, to this day the patisserie-cum-café specialises in traditional French cakes and pastries. The selection is, however, by no means limited; whether you want gooey, chocolaty, crunchy, fruity, nutty or syrupy, you’ll find it here, along with the usual range of coffees and herbal teas between 2€ and 4.30€. If it’s not a cake you’re after, the café also offers salads, basic pasta dishes and lovely sandwiches that you can have as part of a formula (6.50€ for sandwich + drink, 9.50€ for sandwich + drink + dessert). Make sure you go with cash, as the café doesn’t accept cards.
Where to find it:
8 Rue de l’École de Médecine, Paris, France, 75006

Phone: +33 143266048

Working Hours:
Mon–Fri: 09:00–19:00

8. Sugarplum Cake Shop

Sugarplum Cake Shop
This is one for all the North Americans and Canadians who are craving a taste of home. The café was opened four years ago by American and Canadian duo Krista and Taylor who have built up quite a name for themselves in the cake-making industry, and not without reason. In the café you’ll find the full range of American-inspired goodies; muffins, cupcakes, cookies, impressive three-tiered cakes and, of course, pecan and pumpkin pies. Prices are between 2.80 € and 4.50 €. For drinks you can pick from a selection of teas, fresh fruit juices, iced tea and lemonade, or you can have the baristas whip you up a flat white. The cake-making pair do wedding and birthday cakes on demand, as well as pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.
Where to find it:
68 Rue de Cardinal Lemoine, Paris, France, 75005

Phone: +33 146340743

Working Hours:
Mon-Sat: 10:00–20:00
Sun: 10:00-19:00

http://www.sugarplumcakeshop.com

9. Café Charbon

Café Charbon
Cafe Charbon is housed in a listed building with a facade dating from 1890. On the wall panels above the large and aged mirrors there are frescos depicting images of the Parisian cabaret of the 1900’s, and the hotchpotch of painted floor tiles mark the different styles of eras passed. The impressive wrought iron chandeliers that hang down from the high ceiling are actually inversed candelabras, and the striking lamps above the bar were apparently salvaged from a Greek fishing boat…or so the story goes.

Civilised and picturesque by day, the epicentre of Oberkampf’s nightlife by night. Drinks are inexpensive and the cafe hosts live bands every Thursday in their ‘concert corner’, to which entry is free. Coffees are not too expensive, with an espresso at 2 € and a cappuccino at 3.60 €. There are also some surprisingly unconventional options for an old Parisian café, such as a chai tea latte at 4.10 €, home-made mint tea at 3.60 €, and milkshakes at 4.90 €. There are breakfasts between 3.50 € – 10.50 €, and a small but appealing lunch and dinner menu.
Where to find it:
109 Rue Oberkampf, Paris, France, 75011

Phone: +33 143575513

Working Hours:
Sun–Wed: 09:00–02:00
Thu–Sat: 09:00–04:00

10. Café Verlet

Café Verlet
This is perhaps the oldest of Paris’ ‘proper coffee’ cafés. It was estabished at the beginning of the 20th Century by navigator and adventurer August Woehrlé, who started a business trading products imported from the colonies, such as rice, spices, teas and coffees. The business has remained within the family ever since, and is now run as a coffee house and tea salon by Eric Duchossoy, a barista and coffee/tea tradesman with 20 years of experience behind him.

The café is rustic without being twee, with simple but attractive window displays of dried fruits and rough weave sacks of coffee beans available for purchase by weight. The menu has a coffee list three pages long, noting the qualities and origins of each, plus a further four pages of teas. Whilst it is primarily a coffee/tea house, there is a small lunch menu with croque monsieurs at 7.50 €, salads at 10 € and quiches at 11 €. M. Duchossoy does direct trade with plantations who uphold the values of humane and eco-friendly production. He roasts the beans in-house himself for optimum freshness.
Where to find it:
256 Rue Saint Honoré, Paris, France, 75001

Phone: +33 142606739

Working Hours:
Mon-Sat: 09:30–18:30

http://www.verlet.fr

11. La Palette

La Palette
This atmospheric café is famed for having been frequented by all the greats of Parisian bohemianism, including the likes of Cezanne, Picasso and Braque and then later Ernest Hemingway and Jim Morrison. The café has a display of the various artists’ pallets and paintings, all signed, which used to be routinely exchanged for food and drink. Even the walls themselves bear work from the brushes of the celebrated regulars of years gone by, interspersed with 1930’s ceramics painted with scenes of Parisian café life. As French as French can be, the dimmed lights, age-mottled mirrors and bow-tie clad waiters give a sense of gravitas to the place. You can also enjoy the large, heated terrace which is sheltered by a big green and white awning crowned with an array of flourishing pot-plants. The status of the venue is reflected in the prices. You can expect to pay 3€ for an espresso and 6.50€ for a cappuccino or hot chocolate. There is also a full bar, including cocktails and absinth at 12€.
Where to find it:
43 Rue de Seine, Paris, France, 75006

Phone: +33 143266815

Working Hours:
Mon-Sun: 08:00am–02:00am

http://www.cafelapalette.com

12. Café de Flore

Café de Flore
Possibly Paris’ most famous café, Flore boasts a list of big name customers past and present as long as my arm. The café, which takes its name from the little sculpture of the goddess across the street, started out in 1887 as the workshop of the great French poet Appolinaire, and fast became the heart of Parisian literary and artistic life. References to Flore can be found in the letters and scribblings of Europe’s great thinkers, such as Beauvoir, Sartre and Signoret. In the 1930s the café was more or less exclusively occupied by the up-and-coming literary geniuses of the era. It later became the haunt of cinematic artists such as Roman Polanski and Brigitte Bardot, not to mention fashion giants Yves Saint Laurent and Givenchy.

History aside, the café has a very extensive drinks list with wine prices between 35 €/bottle and 2500 €/bottle (if you’re feeling frivolous). There’s a selection of teas at 5.40 € supplied by the venerated tea house Mariage Frères, and all the usual coffees from 4.10 € upwards. The light meals on offer include sandwiches, omlets, salads, patés, cheese platters and (naturally) caviar, and ice-creams and desserts for after. The breakfasts at 25 € are comprised of a hot drink, patisserie and fresh fruit juice. Get yourself a spot in the sunshine on the terrace, soak up the atmosphere and try not to think too much about the price of your cappuccino.
Where to find it:
172 Boulevard Saint Germain, Paris, France, 75006

Phone: +33 145485526

Working Hours:
Mon-Sun: 07:30am–01:30am

http://www.cafedeflore.fr

13. Les Deux Magots

Les Deux Magots
The next-door-neighbour of Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots is another of Paris’ classic ‘cafés de luxe’, and it wears its traditionalism with pride. Largely due to a clientele composed of the likes of Rimbaud, Sartre, Picasso and Hemingway, this café is also inextricably linked with Paris’ literary and artistic scene. It was founded in 1884 and gets its name from the two Chinese figurines that to this day remain as a trademark feature of the café’s otherwise traditional décor. The café has a full bar, including cocktails, and the coffee prices start at 4.40 €. Try the café’s famous old style French hot chocolate at 7.30 €. As well as the proper restaurant menu where you’ll find all the classics, you can also get smaller meals such as sandwiches between 7.80 € and 23.30 €, omelettes from 10.90 € and cheese and charcuterie platters from 6.80 € to 19.20 €. For those with a sweet tooth, have a go at the rather exclusive selection of tarts, cakes or Pierre Hermé macarons. Once again, given the café’s renown, expect to pay a little more than the average.
Where to find it:
6 Place Saint Germain-des-Près, Paris, France, 75006

Phone: +33 14548525

Working Hours:
Mon-Sun: 07:30–01:00

http://www.lesdeauxmagots.fr
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