We are in one of the most popular and most dreamed of cities in the world. Paris is a fascinating city with its unique landscapes, walking routes along the Seine, bistros on every street, and the architecture that dominates the entire city. Although it is often portrayed as a city of romance and love, we are here with a passion for ‘good food’. It is full of bistros, bars & restaurants where you can taste good examples of French cuisine. Here’s what you need to know about Paris!
Paris offers different beauties in every season. The months of spring (April-June) and fall (September-November) are the ideal times, with a mild climate and fewer tourist crowds. In summer (July-August) the city can be quite crowded and temperatures rise. In the winter months (December-March), you may encounter cold weather and rain, but the Christmas markets and illuminations can be your excuse to travel.
It is quite difficult to fully explore Paris, but we recommend at least 4-5 days for first-timers. This time will allow you to see the main sights and soak up the atmosphere of the city.
Transportation in Paris is quite easy. The metro network is extensive and convenient. Buses, trams and RER trains take you to every corner of the city. Bike rental (Vélib’) and hiking are also popular options. Tourist cards, such as the Paris Visite Pass, offer unlimited travel on public transport. Transportation from the airport by RER B Train: Duration: 30-45 minutes Cost: Approx. €10.30 Details: The RER B line provides a fast and direct connection from CDG Airport to the city center. The train can be boarded at the Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 – TGV station at Terminal 2. For Terminal 1, you can take the free shuttle service to Terminal 3 and then transfer to the RER B train.
It is full of bistros, bars & restaurants where you can taste good examples of French cuisine. Here are our favorites!
🍷With a small wine bar, Verre Vole.
🦪 Chez Michel Paris
, a warm and cozy bistro recommended by Vedat Milor. 🍲 Caffè Stern, converted from an old engraving workshop in Passage de Panoromas.
🐟Clamato & Septime Paris, where you can get your fill of seafood.
🍾 One of the most pleasant bar/restaurants in the city: Aux Deux Amis.
🧅 We love onion soup atLes Philosophes.
🍲For a reasonably priced meal, Bouillon Julien Paris.
🍸 It has delicious cocktails and Middle Eastern-inspired cuisine, Django Paris Pigalle
🍕We admired their pizzas & ice cream, Louie Louie Paris
🍦A bar that attracts attention with its ice cream and wine concept, Folderol @f.o.l.d.e.r.o.l
🥐
Our favorite Boulangerie & Patisserie:
Cyril Lignac @cyril_lignac
Tapisserie @tapisserie_patisserie
Boulangerie Utopie @boulangerieutopie
Brunch & Breakfast:
Coutume Coffee
5 Pailles
Cafe Mericourt
Passager Cafe
Gramme Paris
Kozy Paris
@lebonmarcherivegauche for good foodshopping where you can find everything you are looking for
Popular cafes & restaurants:
Angelina
Cafe Kitsune
Cedric Grolet
Cafe de Flore Paris
Les Deux Magots
There are dozens of places to see in Paris other than the Eiffel Tower or Notre-Dame, museums and places that we say you should definitely visit:
🏛️ @museeorangerie with Monet collection
🧑🎨 Museums that house the most important works of art in the world @museelouvre & @museeorsay
🔵 @centrepompidou and @palaisdetokyo where you can see contemporary art and current exhibitions
🏤 the oldest arcade in the city. Passage des Panoramas
🎻 Palais Garnier
🏛️ Arc de Triomphe, one of the most beautiful terrace view
🏛️ The Basilica of Sacré-Cœur with its unique view of Montmartre
🕌 Grand Mosque, one of the impressive buildings in Paris
Our favorite parks
Jardin du Luxemborg
Parc de la Vilette
Tuileries
If you stubbornly say ‘I don’t want Boulangerie for breakfast in Paris, the world’s most famous croissants are not enough’, there are quality brunch places almost everywhere in the city.
At the same time, these places are perfect for those in search of quality coffee. Because the choice of coffee and beans in bistros and brasseries is quite limited. In the brunch places we tried, we can say that we also had a wider coffee menu.
Generally, hearty plates at brunch places range between 9-15€. Coffees are between 2,5-5€. Most of them work without reservations.
Our favorite among these places was @coutumecafe, which stands out with its roasted beans.
Coutume’s breakfast menu includes very good tartines, pancakes and bowls. The halloumi cheese pancake we tried was successful.
@5pailles is a small brunch place on Rue du Fraubourg Saint Denis. Middle Eastern influences are very evident in the menu. In addition to pancakes, tartines and salads, there are also familiar flavors such as Shakshuka or çılbır.
@cafemericourt is one of the places that stands out with its granola, avocado toast & pancakes. We tried the focaccia sandwiches here. It’s a hearty plate, but other options are more suitable for breakfast.
@grammeparis3 is a very popular place with its ever-changing menu. There is a high probability that you will have to wait in line, so it is useful to be prepared. Both breakfast and lunch menus are more avant-garde than other places. Perfect for unusual flavors.
@passager_cafe is very famous for its bagel sandwiches. It’s worth going for the quality coffee and bagel duo.
The first place in the guide is a patisserie opened in 2021. It was opened by Bertrand Grébaut and Théo Pourriat, the names behind the starred restaurant Septime and Clamato.
Located on Rue de Charrone, these places have been successfully elevating the dining experience of the area for some time. The first branch of Tapisserie Patisserie is also opening here. Their contribution to the 11th arrondissement, one of the most pleasant areas of Paris, is great. .
As in French cuisine and Septime, impeccable ingredients are used. Organic, seasonal and from local producers. Patisserie products include caramel tarts, filled choux pastry desserts, flan tarts and quality bar chocolates. The maple syrup filled tart and chocolate eclair were our favorites.
On average, the prices of the products range between 3-7€.
Their croissant sandwiches with ham and cheese are also quite adequate, although salty options are limited.
. Besides Rue de Charrone, they also have a branch in the 7th arrondissement. This branch is called Motte Picquet. This patisserie opens at 8.30 in the morning and serves until 7 in the evening.
This is one of our favorite streets in Paris. 11. Every corner of this street in the neighborhood has a different @cyril_lignac venue.
A passionate chef from the South of France: Cyril Lignac. In 2005, he was noticed by the producers and became one of the most popular chefs in France with his “Oui, Chef” programs, which were shown on television screens for a long time.
Cyril Lignac’s career continues by opening venues with unique characters in different parts of Paris. Café Lignac, Ischia, Le Bar des Prés, Aux Prés, Le Bar & Le Chardenoux in the cover photo are the restaurants under its own brand.
La Pâtisserie & La Chocolaterie Cyril Lignac, which he opened with Pastry Chef Benoit Couvrand, is home to our favorite desserts in Paris. Here you will find classic patisserie products with seasonal and modern interpretations, good bread and addictive chocolates. One of our favorite signature flavors: ‘Chocolatine’
This flavor, which we know as ‘Pain aux Chocolat’, is called ‘chocolatine’ in Southwest France.
We are meeting for dinner at Django Restaurant in Pigalle. The name of the place comes from Django, the nickname of the Roman-Belgian guitarist Jean Reinhardt.
The street in the 9th district, where the restaurant is located, is famous for its shops selling music equipment. The building converted into a restaurant was originally a guitar shop.
A tapas bar where you can pair natural wines and delicious cocktails with delicious plates. A place designed to sit around the bar and enjoy sharing plates.
Since all the flavors are for sharing, it would be appropriate to order 2-3 varieties per person depending on your hunger. The prices of these sharing plates range between €8-15 on average.
The Middle Eastern and Moroccan influences on the menu made us think that the menu was enriched with immigrant cuisines. Hummus from Lebanese cuisine and Moroccan-style shakshuka are good examples.
Bizim favorilerimiz Chicken Tagine, Burrata, Trout Crudo, Vitello Tonnato & Iberian Ham oldu. For dessert, we tried the pistachio Panna Cotta & we liked it.
Our favorite among the cocktails is the one prepared with gin and basil: ‘Django Smash’
We are trying snails in one of the most characterful restaurants in Paris, Bouillon Julien, which has a historical importance in the city’s food and drink culture! #BouillonJulienParis
170 years ago, eating in restaurants was not very possible for the working class and middle classes. A Parisian butcher radically changes this situation with a practice to sell his leftover meat, and this is how the story of Bouillon Julien begins.
Pierre Louis Duval opened a simple canteen in the Les Halles district of Paris, cooking a uniform juicy meat dish and some vegetables. His aim was to offer quality food for little money. This canteen was so successful that dozens more were soon opened in Paris. By the early 1900s there were already 200 of them in the city. These restaurants were called Bouillon to represent the water part of the dish.
In the next century, bistros and brasseries replace these restaurants offering cheap and good food. But in the last 10 years, Bouillons have been reopening one by one. Some of these majestic restaurants with Art Noevau furniture, ceiling decorations and stained glass windows are seen as monumental structures. As in Julien, where we visited, they work without reservations and there is a queue at the door. It is possible to eat for 20-30€ per person.
Escargot 🐌 served with a very delicious sauce and the soups called Bouillon are very successful. Oeuf Mayo with boiled egg and mayonnaise is a pleasant and simple starter. You can also try the traditional sausage and mashed potatoes. The desserts were very enjoyable, although we were not happy with our other order, Dos de Colin. Chestnut Mousse, Crème Brûlée and Baba au Rhum are a must try.
A restaurant ranked Bib Gourmand in the Michelin guide: Chez Michel
Bib Gourmand is a rating in the Michelin guide given to restaurants that serve food at low prices but have a high level of flavor.
Chez Michel is a rustic and intimate bistro in a dark alley of the 10th arrondissement. This was one of the places we put on the list with @vmilor’s suggestions. When she preferred this place especially on her birthday, we didn’t want to skip it.
Unlike most of the rest of the city, this restaurant serves the flavors of the Brittany region of France. They are very assertive in their seafood and dishes prepared with wild animals. They are most famous for Wild Abalone, Brittany stew (kig ha farz) and the iconic French dessert Paris-Brest.
You make your food choices on a board, which changes frequently. If it ends, it is crossed out. The prices are quite good for the service, quality and portions. It is one of those places where you can pay 40-45€ per person.
Our favorites here were the steak with red wine sauce, scallops and foe gras terrine.
For dessert, we tried Paris-Brest and pear cake served with prunes in wine sauce. Paris is a city full of bistros where you can taste flavors from different regions of French cuisine. A perfect destination for food and drink lovers.
It is unlikely that we will like everything we taste, so don’t expect us to. Especially in restaurants that don’t serve trendy menus of dishes, but instead draw on their own ancestral culinary knowledge, you embark on very different journeys of experience. We think this is one of the best ways to discover the cuisine of a geography.
Clamato was inspired by the Oyster Bar concept found on the east coast of America. It takes its name from the Bloody Mary recipe prepared with Clam Broth (a kind of clam broth), which is quite famous in Quebec.
Bertrand Grébaut and Théo Pourriat are behind these venues that enliven the Rue de Charrone. Septime, on the same street, has a Michelin star, while Clamato and Clamato are on the Bib Gourmand list.
Clamato can be described as a shabby, good bar that accepts guests without reservation. They serve good seafood from French cuisine. Bu restoranda denediklerimiz Cod Roe Tarama, Marinated Sardines with Mezcal Gelee, Black Mullet Ceviche, White Asparagus, young garlic sabayon, Carpacio of Leeks, white garlic pesto, bottarga ve Merlan Colbert, radish tzatziki, zaatar olmuştu.
Cod roe tarama, marinated sardines w/ mezcal gelee & merlan colbert were delicious.
The crumble they served for dessert was one of the best things we had.
At Clamato, the prices of the tapas plates we order in the middle vary between €8 and €39. Detailed and up-to-date menus are available on their website.
Rue de Charrone, with Clamato and these delicious stops, is a must-visit in Paris.
Le Verre Vole is a small bistro in Canal St-Martin district. From the outside it looks like a wine shop with 3-5 tables, but don’t be fooled. We are in a bistro where it is relatively difficult to get a reservation and we are very popular in the region. NY Times food writer Alec Lobrano’s favorite wine bar in the city, we were very excited about this place.
Regulars come mostly for the natural, unfiltered wines, carefully selected from producers in France. For first time visitors, the staff is very helpful. They choose the best wine for you according to the dishes you choose, your taste and price range.
Even though the place stands out with its wines, the food is definitely not overshadowed. Both the fixed flavors on the menu and those that change seasonally are skillfully constructed. This is where we encountered some of the most impressive food on our travels in Paris.
Although the menu is full of surprises as it changes frequently, Saucisse Puree, Beignet and Sashimi were our favorites among the dishes we tried. The crème caramel and apple crumble on the dessert menu were successful.
For 3 people, the average cost for dinner & a bottle of wine is around 150€. The quality of the service, the wine selection and the dining experience are definitely worth it.
Serving for 22 years, this small bar should definitely be on your list. Don’t forget to save and share with your loved ones.
🍽️ has been run as a café for more than 100 years. It is not known who the original owners were or exactly when it was built, but it is estimated to be in the 1850s.
👨🏻🎨 La Maison Rose is not only an architecturally striking building. A place where the creative people of the city meet. Names like Maurice Utrillo, Albert Camus, Matisse, and Picasso socialized here.
💒 Although known for its pink walls, this sweet building wasn’t always pink. Painted by Germaine Pichot, who bought it in 1905. The inspiration for painting it this color came from a trip Germaine and Ramon took to Catalonia at the time. They are inspired by Barcelona’s houses painted in vibrant colors.
Had it not been painted in these colors, would it have remained just a café on the corner of the street?
Although it has changed hands, it has been faithfully preserved and is still run as a restaurant. This building, first made famous by the paintings of the painter Maurice Utrillo, was recently featured in various scenes in the TV series Emily in Paris. It seems to have regained popularity.