Paris cafés are the meeting place, the neighborhood hub, the conversation matrix, the rendez-vous spot, the networking source, a place to relax or to refuel – the social and political pulse of the city. The glamorous Paris, the birthplace of café culture, is home for many coffee bars that design lovers will long to be. If you’re wondering what to do in Paris, follow this list of coffee bars.
In a quiet street just minutes from the Canal Saint-Martin, this café is a refuge for the new breed of wireless creative who are flocking to the trendy outskirts of eastern and northern Paris. With its high speed Wi-Fi, studious atmosphere and minimalist yet welcoming design inherited from Brooklyn and Scandinavia, Craft Café represents a kind of place that is still relatively unusual in Paris.
24 Rue des Vinaigriers, 75010 Paris, France
Coutume Café
Coutume opened in 2011 in the heart of chic Left Bank Paris, just a few minutes walk from Le Bon Marché department store. Coutume is part café, part torrefaction, supplying roasted beans to over 60 bars, restaurants and hotels across the city. You walk into a big open space with industrial décor, packed with tables and a long coffee bar that has the feel of an American diner. On one side there is a ‘dining table’ made from a stainless steel sink unit, with tropical plants growing in the sinks themselves, while hidden away at the back is a state-of-the-art roasting machine and sacks of coffee beans imported from all over the world.
47 Rue de Babylone, 75007 Paris, France
Folks and Sparrows
The latest buzz on the Paris coffee scene this summer is Folks and Sparrows, a café-épicerie-concept store tucked away on a quiet street in the 11ème, one of the most coveted neighborhoods. There you can relax into a leather easy chair in the corner, admire the sunflower and lavender arrangements around me, and enjoy a perfectly satisfying cappuccino – smooth, creamy, and served in a hefty mug for two hands.
14 Rue Saint-Sébastien, 75011 Paris, France
Café Loustic
This coffee shop’s front room, with cozy banquettes, may be a tight squeeze, but the space opens up once you head to the back. There, it’s a retro-style riot of geometric patterns and shapes. Raised niches hold wicker chairs and hexagonal tables against a backdrop of chain-link wallpaper and exposed brick walls.
40 Rue Chapon, 75003 Paris, France
Café Pinson
Café Pinson is a welcome addition to the burgeoning crop of high quality healthy eateries in Paris, who do vegetarian and organic food with a bit of glamour and no hint of a dietary regime. A comfortable, welcoming venue in the Marais, it offers carefully though out vegetarian, organic and gluten-free dishes that are a cut above the ordinary, and a famously good brunch on Sundays. Natural woods are used throughout, and green and blue fabrics brighten banquettes and patterned tables like bursts of fresh air.
In case you still don’t know where to go in Paris, know that craft roasted coffee is experiencing a renaissance and these are some of the best spots to enjoy a steaming cup of coffee in Paris, so go!