An Abbreviated Guide to Paris

A guide to exploring, relaxing, imbibing, and blending into the City of Light.

Of the handful of European cities we’ve visited, Paris is the place where we’ve spent the most time, long enough to make a few friends and eventually gain the confidence to take the metro without using our phones for navigation. Still, Paris remains full of wonder: in the confluence of architecture and art and culture, a rhythm of life so attuned to the romance of simple things, to eating and drinking in celebratory ways, in companionship and camaraderie. Here’s a list of some of our favorite places to spend time, categorically.

Wine/Drinks:

Septime Cave

The perfect wine bar: tiny, lively, simple snacks and exciting wines. Well-dressed young people spill out onto the sidewalk in front of the cave, drinking and chatting. We go early, pre-dinner, and buy a bottle to leisurely split and share with anyone with an empty glass. The staff is knowledgeable and approachable - say hello to Miguel for us!

L’etiquette

With a few rickety camping chairs and wobbly tables set out on the sidewalk on the Ile Saint Louis between the banks of the Seine River, and a grumpy proprietor prone to long rambles on the current state of things in France, somehow L’etiquette is a totally fun place to drink a bottle of some obscure, delicious wine. After a couple visits, Hervé (the shop owner) felt like an old friend, and his seemingly grumpy demeanor was obviously a cover for a generous and hilarious personality. The homeyness of L’etiquette is part of the charm.

Bar Principal

Great bites and fun drinks. A perfect place for apero, the equivalent of American “happy hour” — when Parisians leave work and head straight to their favorite bar or restaurant for a drink and snacks. Apero could be a tame hour or two spent with friends before a night in, but in our experience it often bled into dinner, and then drinks after dinner, etc.

Le Progrès Marais

We affectionately referred to this place as “the tabac” and ended up here many nights post-dinner when the mood was appropriately rowdy. Order a Picon Bière and a basket of frites — the waiter was also very excited to share a new menu item with us Americans, which we ordered without hesitation and were surprised to be brought a plate of piping hot mozzarella sticks.

Bambino

Natural wines by the bottle and DJs spinning dance music on vinyl - a combination that could feel a little too “cool” anywhere else, but feels very fun in Paris. Go to dance.

Breakfast/Coffee:

It can be hard to find much beyond a pastry and espresso for breakfast in Paris, unless you know where to look. There’s the odd Americanized cafe or Australian breakfast spot - but in our experience it’s usually a good idea to stick to what Paris does best: bread. There are boulangeries (bakeries) on nearly every street, and even the chains (like Maison Landemaine or Paul) don’t miss, but if you’ve got the time to seek out an independent boulangerie you won’t leave disappointed.

Graine / French Bastards

These two boulangeries are neighbors on rue Oberkampf. When we stayed for a few weeks in an apartment nearby, we’d go to one or the other every morning, sometimes both (Lindsey to Graine for the Kouign Amann, and I’d get the croissant aux amandes at French Bastards).

télescope

A sunny, modern cafe a few blocks from the Jardin des Tuileries. Scrambled eggs made from the espresso machine’s milk frother — genius!

KB Cafe Montmartre

A big and conveniently located coffee shop at the bottom of the hill in Montmartre — a good starting point for a day of exploring the place where Degas, Renoir, and Picasso lived and worked.

Beans on Fire

Despite the name, Beans on Fire makes some of the best coffee we had in Paris, especially if you’re after an “allonge”, which for Americans is a “normal-sized” coffee. Here they make the espresso classics with panache but also feature pour-over blends that would be familiar in any NYC or LA coffee shop, and it’s kid-friendly, located just beside a lovely park (Square Maurice Gardette).

Carette

In the covered walk bordering Place des Vosges, with a bustling patio and an ornate dining room, Carette is the perfect place to have a long breakfast - a somewhat rare experience in Paris. I was treated to a lavish early morning birthday meal here by my wife Lindsey a few years ago, and I still haven’t figured out how to fully repay the gift.

Lunch:

Parisians take lunch seriously. Don’t show up to a restaurant at 1:45 hoping for a lunch reservation. Eat a small breakfast!

Marché Popincourt / Marché Charonne

Anywhere you are in Paris, there’s usually a farmer’s market nearby — rotating from neighborhood to neighborhood on differing weekdays, we would often grab a coffee and pastry at a boulangerie and stop in early at the Popincourt market near Rue Oberkampf to pick up picnic materials or just wander and people-watch.

Chez Aline

A shoebox sized sandwich shop where every day at 11:30am, people queue up outside, waiting to choose from the small menu. We went with a friend who was working as a chef in Paris and felt like we had the inside scoop on a highly-guarded secret. Most everyone grabs their sandwich to-go — it’s a picnic waiting to happen.

OGATA

In an impressive stone building near the high-end retail shops in Le Marais, OGATA is an elegant Japanese restaurant and tea house with a gift shop beautiful enough to be a destination in itself. We went for lunch and sat in the insanely beautiful light-filled dining room upstairs and were treated to course after course of tiny, elegant dishes and then a trip down to the dimly lit tea room — it was an extravagant lunch, but we left feeling like we’d spent two hours at the spa.

Dinner:

Aux Deux Amis

There is no better neighborhood restaurant, in my opinion. In a small street-side room just beside a busy intersection, it seems like Aux Deux Amis would be a hectic dining experience — but when night falls and the patio is lit by the glow of the city, and the wine starts flowing and the plates start pouring out of the kitchen, there’s no other place you’d rather be. The food is classic French fare but brighter and lighter and with a bit of a Spanish flair — the suave owner, who was also our waiter, is part-Spanish, part-French. I would go back for dinner tonight.

Clamato

Sister restaurant to Septime, the Michelin-awarded restaurant topping many a “best restaurant in Paris” list, Clamato is seafood-focused and relaxed, with a menu full of fresh, intensely flavorful dishes. The bar is the best seat in the house.

Allard

The quintessential Parisian bistro - though considerably “high-end” and a classic celebrity haunt - Alain Ducasse’s restaurant Allard is worth the splurge. We overate (easy to do) and then ambled around Saint Germain des Prés in the glow of streetlights.

Early June

Epicenter of cool among young Parisian foodies, Early June hosts a cast of buzzy traveling chefs from across Europe. We had one of our favorite meals there, cooked by Dave Harrison, a chef born in Texas who’d spent the previous decade-plus working in Paris and Copenhagen.

Amagat

Spanish tapas and heady wines in a candle-lit room tucked away in a hidden back alley by the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Shop:

Les Puces (Paris Flea Market)

Literally translating to “the flea”, the market at Saint-Ouen just north of Paris is a real excursion — whether browsing for trinkets and tattered unsigned pastel paintings or loading a shipping container with original furniture by Charlotte Perriand or Jean Prouvé. Extending block after block and generally separated by category, the market itself is not for the faint of heart — it’s a real mix of gritty urbanity and posh collecting, and completely unique. Treasures await for the adventurous.

Brut Vintage Archives

Vintage military and workwear shop that’s recently launched its own line of clothing inspired by (and often incorporating) vintage garments.

Em Archives

Hyper-curated women’s fashion from the ’80s-2000s with a minimalist tilt, and an airy showroom open on Saturdays.

E. Dehillerin

The legendary cookware store that has sold copper pots to everyone from Escoffier to Alice Waters — go get one and bring it home in your suitcase, use it forever.

Super-Stitch Paris

Hand-sewn jeans with a serious reputation among international denim lovers.

Lemaire

Led by young French designer Christophe Lemaire, the eponymous fashion house has quickly established itself as an arbiter of understated cool. Lemaire’s women’s and men’s clothing and leather accessories feel simultaneously classic and futuristic, and ultimately very wearable. Look out for their pocket-sized boutique beside Place des Vosges.

Laperruque

A tiny tucked-away shop of beautifully crafted leather goods, made in the basement below.

Boulevard Beaumarchais

The main drag for retail shopping in the 11th, and translating basically to “lovely walk”, this wide boulevard is home to dozens of camera shops, patisseries, and the behemoth hip department store Merci.

Parks/spots:

Luxembourg Gardens

It wasn’t until our third visit to Paris that we explored this iconic 60-acre public garden on the Left Bank. We went early one summer morning and sat in the shade by the Medici Fountain and read, and napped, and then came back again almost every day of our trip to experience a moment of tranquility under the trees by the bubbling fountain.

Place des Vosges

An oasis in the middle of Le Marais - the perfect place to snooze in a sunny patch of grass after a long boozy lunch and watch the wave of tourists, high school sweethearts, chic grandmothers and street sweepers. A good place to write a novel (France’s most famous novelist Victor Hugo lived in an apartment overlooking the park.

Square Maurice Gardette

A green, shady square just beside a couple of great places to grab food, coffee, or apero — Bar Principal, Brutos, Krügen creperie, and Beans on Fire.

Bibliothèque de sorbonne (Sorbonne University Library)

The last trip we took to Europe, I became obsessed with libraries. On a 3-day detour to Copenhagen, I biked through the rain (in a children's-size rain parka from a corner store) to visit the Royal Danish library, nicknamed “the Black Diamond” (worth a google). On the flight back to Paris, I made a big list of libraries to visit — I never got around to spending an afternoon in the silence of the Bibliothèque de Sorbonne, but it’s on my list for our next visit when I feel like I could use a bit of rest around some old books.

Parc des Buttes Chaumont

Get a bike, bring a bag with a book, wine, and snacks. It’s a sprawling park where locals descend in the afternoons on sunny days and weekends to lounge in the grass and enjoy life in a typically Parisian way.

Art:

Musée Rodin

An intimate and beautiful museum and gardens, especially on one of those warm and rainy gray Parisian days that are somehow imbued with romance and getting drenched doesn’t feel like an inconvenience. It’s a place we return to on every visit to the city.

Yvon Lambert

Bookstore and gallery, stocks a ton of fashionable and interesting art books and hosts shows from well-respected artists in a very chic setting.

Musée de L’orangerie

Skip the line for the Mona Lisa in the Louvre and wait for a turn to sit in the panoramic room that houses Monet’s iconic Water Lilies paintings, it’s an almost psychedelic experience.

OFR

Community-driven art book store and gallery in Le Marais, with the occasional surprise Sofia Coppola book signing.

The Louvre

Obviously — but it’s bigger than you can imagine — plan to only see a fraction of it in a day.

Future visits:

Never been, but on the list.

Bourse de Commerce

Housed in a centuries-old metal and glass building recently restored and conceptualized by Japanese architect Tadao Ando and opened to the public in 2021, the museum is home to the impressive collection of works by art collector Francois Pinault.

Fondation Louis Vuitton

A modern art museum designed by Frank Gehry and sponsored by LVMH, nestled in the trees at the Bois de Boulogne, with yearly rotating exhibitions.

Yory Cantine

A funky little lunch spot recommended by friends with good taste.

Furia / El Nopal

Furia for the slick ambiance, hard-to-find natural wines, and handmade tortillas, and El Nopal for street tacos along the Canal Saint Martin or in Pigalle.

Extra Hands is a collaboration of photography & writing. This is a portfolio of words and images.

Extra Hands is a collaboration
of photography & writing.
This is a portfolio
of words and images.