With so many of my readers spending time in Paris this coming season, I thought you may like some suggestions for places to sit and enjoy a coffee, a snack, a proper déjeuner, and ... watch the Parisian world go by.
Here are some of my favourites, chosen for their position in the city, a good terrace, the amiability of the waiters (please don't hold me to that!) and for their all round Parisian-ness.
The Bistrot St Dominique, over 100 years old, great position in the 7th arrondissement, traditional French cuisine, and just across the square
La Fontaine de Mars, specialising in the wonderful cuisine of South West France, great service too. A must-do.
The super big, but so well positioned Café Nemours, place Colette, just behind the Louvre. People watching has never been easier, pricey but chic and reliable.
The Café Guitry is tucked away under the arcades of the theatre Edouard VII in the 9th arrondissement. A great terrace to sit at because there is no busy road with cars flying by, and if it is hot, then a place in the shade is quite delicious.
L'Absinthe good food, good atmosphere, good address - what more could you ask for?!
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All of these places look wonderful! If I were visiting in Paris any one of these would do! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you. I plan to go to them all.
ReplyDeleteSheree
Ooh, la la...I would love to try them all!
ReplyDeleteJess
Ahhhhh...someday!!
ReplyDeleteI'm going on a 2 week vacation in July...unfortunately not in France but in Washington State. However, your blog always allows me a quick getaway and then back to reality.(lol) I love those cafe chairs and would love some in blue and white.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your knowledge on cafes in Paris.... I'll make a note for my next visit
ReplyDeleteIt's true French cafes are always great places to 'people watch.'
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing this post...when i visit paris...i will look up this post and surely visit all the cafes!!
ReplyDeleteSharon, thank you so much for sharing, we are going in August and will definitely put these on our list! It's great to have recommendations from someone who's impartial. (I think I mentioned to you in a previous comment that we are staying in one of the Haven in Paris apartments. I mentioned I found them through your blog.)
ReplyDeleteThe first two bistros bring back so many wonderful memories of living in the 7th with my twin sister over 20 years ago. Although we lived in a grand old house, our apartment was tucked away in the courtyard and there were no views (except onto the garbage pails!). So we would steal away to Rue St. Dominique for better views. Thanks for the memories, Cynthia
ReplyDeleteBonjour Sharon. This French Girl loves the Café Guitry. We have enjoyed many good meals there, before or after a play at the Edouard 7 theater. Great location too, so peaceful it is hard to believe the Opéra Garnier is just a few blocks away... Veronique (French Girl in Seattle)
ReplyDeleteThank you for this walk down memory lane! We stayed at an apartment just around the corner from Bristro St. Dominique a few years ago and ate there twice, it was so yummy and we hope to get back there sometime in the near future. Thanks for the other places, we will definitely add them to our list!
ReplyDeleteKat
We're going to Paris for our honeymoon this winter and are putting together a list of places we need to visit. Thanks for blogging this! I'm sure they'll all be just as lovely when the weather is colder.
ReplyDeleteVive Trianon
October can't get here fast enough! Thanks so much for sharing your favorite places to dine and , yes, people watch! Can't wait to see the latest fashions that the woman are wearing and hoping that I will sucessfully blend in! :))
ReplyDeleteHello Sharon: I live a long way away from you but saw things of interest to me. I love meeting new people and reading about the things that interest them. I will invite you to visit my Cottage when you have the time and although I don't think I will be coming to France anytime soon, it's a beautiful place to read and learn about..Hope you are having a wonderful week..Judy
ReplyDeleteMust try Cafe Guitry...it's close to home. The ones in the 7th are really good...been to both. Also there is another fab bistro on rue des Martyrs....Le Mirroir...gorgeous food served in a family owned bistro. Parfait!
ReplyDeleteOh, talk about being too clever for your own good....
ReplyDelete....I just read your comment about one cafe's being particularly pleasant because there are "no cards flying by", and I thought "What is Sharon's problem with folks playing cards? Is she against gambling?....".
Then, I thought, "Maybe she's literally translating some French idiom?", and I wasted about forty seconds pondering that option.....and why would cards be flying "by" rather than "flying about" if, say, you were in a cafe where a lot of folks were playing poker?
And THEN (as in two whole minutes later) it dawned on me that this was just a typo. I win today's prize for needlessly complicating a non-issue.
I should be more alert to the possibility of typos, having recently raised an ENORMOUS storm of feminist outrage on my neighborhood association's message board when, having spent the morning at the courthouse, I published a reference to the county clerk. I should emphasize that this was MEANT to be a compliment (I'd found her to be very helpful and efficient). Unfortunately, I typed (and published to about 400 local households, including the staff of the courthouse)"County Clerk" without the "o".
I had over fifty outraged replies within fifteen minutes. They kept coming in all that day.
In any case, don't feel overly wretched concerning "cards flying by"....worse typing-mistakes can be made, I can assure you.
Incidentally, I was taken to Fontaine de Mars years ago, on my first trip to Paris. Herve told me that we'd be eating with his parents at a "Southwestern restaurant", and I assumed his parents (who have, indeed, visited Arizona and New Mexico many times), out of consideration for my uninitiated American tastes, had chosen a place specializing in tacos, burritos, etcetera. As ever, I was over-thinking and over-complicating the situation.
Ironically enough, we left Paris that weekend and spent two weeks in Perigord, where I got my schooling in "Southwestern food"
amusedly,
David Terry
thank you dear David for pointing out the typo! Not the first I'm afraid on this blog, and almost certainly not the last! Off to correct it now.
DeleteYour comment is as amusing and delightful as ever, thank you, and not a typo in sight!
Sharon
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Dreaming & Thinking, I'm already in a cafe! instead of "the old farmhouse" in small little place in Wisconsin USA I love reading your blog! Best, www.lavintagefamhouse.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteSorry, www.lavintagefarmhouse.blogspot.com /not fam
DeleteI will try to visit them all while in France!+ Thank you for the tip. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
ReplyDeleteDear Sharon
ReplyDeleteWish I'd seen your post earlier as would like to have tried some of these. As tomorrow is our second last day in Paris, we're saying goodbye to the city with a second lunch at Le Grand Colbert.
Other places, we've enjoyed this time include: the Closerie des Lilas in Montparnasse; Carrette, great for coffee and pastries in the Place des Vosges; Cafe Diane in sunny weather in the Tuileries gardens; great organic breads and foods at Le Pain Quotidienne just behind the Palais Royal, and the Cafe Louise close by; also, A Priori The in the Galerie Vivienne. We also enjoy tea and madeleines or lunch at Le Cafe in Le Bon Printemps, my husband's refuge during the current Soldes.
The terrace cafe of the Opera Garnier is also rather a pleasant place for a coffee/drink after shopping at Galeries Lafayette. There's also a very good shop for music cds/dvds etc and presents for little girls who love ballet. And one more thought, the Salon de The at la Grande Mosquee de Paris, as recommended by Janelle McCullough in her book on Paris, is also an interesting and different place for mint tea/Arabian coffee and honey and almond pastries in a rather beautiful setting (very popular) and afterwards it's worth visiting the mosque itself for its lovely paradise garden in the big courtyard - beautiful tiles and fountains, wisteria, roses, shady trees etc, so lovely. Best wishes, Pamela
Loved this post and will take note when we spend several days in Paris after some serious brocante hunting with you in Normandy!
ReplyDeleteAnother stellar article Sharon...
ReplyDeleteI was though sad to see 'Les Deux Magots' not on your list. It is such an iconic Parisian café in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area.
I spent the better part of a day tracking this place down just so I could enjoy a true slice of Parisian café history. As I sat in this jam packed little place, sun on my face, sipping my espresso... It was incredible to think that over the years, Les Deux Magots has served such people as Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus and Pablo Picasso as regular customers.
Wikipedia describes it as once having "a reputation as the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual elite of the city."
Just another reason why I vow to one day live in this beautifully rich little city!
If I might add to your list - though not a bistro per se - is FL on the Rue Augereau just off Rue St. Dominique. We had a fabulous meal there one evening. We passed the Bistro St. Dominique several times and will certainly go there on our next trip to Paris. The square and fountain Bistro St. Dominiue faces are lovely.
ReplyDeleteDear Billy,
ReplyDeleteHemingway, Picasso et al didn't confine themselves to Les Deux Magots. You can have great fun in Paris following in the footsteps of such luminaries, including also Scott Fitzgerald (next time take a copy of Hemingway's book about his early days in Paris, "A Moveable Feast" with you to Paris). One of the restaurants in my comment above, La Closerie des Lilas was a great favourite (also with Picasso, Max Jacob, Braque - and perhaps surprisingly, even Lenin dined there) as was La Coupole in the same street. It's fun to go to Les Deux Magots and its neighbour the Cafe Flore which were both haunts of the Existentialists (eg Sartre, de Beauvoir) and many others, but nowadays, many of the crowds are tourists, the prices are high and sometimes the waiters are quite rude. They have so many people stopping by for coffee or a drink that they go through the motions without that special quality of service you can find in many other places in Paris and it can also be more interesting if your fellow diners are French rather than tourists. Still it's worth going at least once. Best wishes, Pamela
Sound to be an amazing trip so as to spend the vacation with the best services and the scintillating environment.
ReplyDeleteI should emphasize that this was MEANT to be a compliment (I'd found her to be very helpful and efficient). Beaverton Garage Doors
ReplyDeleteTravel, instead of broadening the mind, often merely lengthens the conversation.
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It was incredible to think that over the years, Les Deux Magots has served such people as Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus and Pablo Picasso as regular customers. research paper
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