The best cafés in Paris can be divided into two categories. The iconic haunts of yesterday—smoky terraces where students and Surrealists would linger under a scalloped awning sipping bitter espresso until the hour called for something stronger—and more modern, new-wave coffee shops.
Left Bank institutions like the Café de Flore and La Palette offer a timeless, postcard-perfect snapshot of the city where you can camp out en terrace for hours and people watch à la Parisienne. At these sorts of cultural landmarks, the experience is decidedly French; if you come around lunchtime, you may be expected to also order food, and the coffee will not be the main event.
For those in search of a better buzz, specialty coffee shops have sprung up across the city over the past two decades. Art Deco dairy shops now serve flat whites, and chic industrial warehouses have become home to some of Europe’s best roasters.
Whatever type of café you’re looking for—a place to work, to grab and go, or to chat with friends over a leisurely lunch—you’ll find it in the City of Lights. From historic haunts to reservation-only tasting rooms, read on for the Vogue guide to the best cafés in Paris now.
The Best Classic Cafés in Paris
Few places are more primed for people watching than this all-day café, where you can read the paper over a coffee and croissant at 8 a.m. or smoke and gossip as you polish off yet another carafe of house rosé until 2 a.m. (my preference, bien sûr). Proudly straddling the gourmand Rue de Seine and cobbled stretch of Rue de Buci, this Saint-Germain-des-Pres landmark is a rare delight in that it’s positioned on a pedestrian street, offering infinitely more charm than most traffic-clogged corners.
Just down the block from Bar du Marché, La Palette is another Left Bank institution, open since 1902 and a frequent haunt of artists like Picasso, Cezanne, and Braque. It’s a gathering spot for locals and visitors alike, with old men playing cards in elbow-knocking distance of students sipping Saint Germain Spritzes on the sprawling terrace in summer. On gray days, tuck into the moody, masterfully-preserved wooden and tiled interior, where paintings line the walls and you can pull up a classic (meaning: rather uncomfortable) stool to the zinc bar, or seclude yourself in a booth beneath the enormous vintage mirrors.
Tucked down a leafy lane beside the Pantheon, this beloved natural wine institution is one of the Latin Quarter’s best lunch spots. Wide windows open out to a tree-lined square that’s now quite crowded with Emily in Paris fans (it’s the site of Emily’s apartment and Gabriel’s restaurant), but the café remains a fixture for locals, who come early in the morning for an espresso or mid-afternoon for a hearty bite and a reliable list of low-intervention wines by the glass, carafe, or bottle. Call ahead for dinner reservations, and note that they’re closed on weekends.
When it comes to the cluster of chic, historic cafés on Boulevard Saint-Germain, Café de Flore has, against all odds, managed to retain a steady stream of locals. Alongside tourists and influencers snapping photos of their chocolat chaud and the 19th-century café’s botanical facade, you’ll find dapper French grandfathers reading the newspaper and gallery owners splitting the famous club sandwich. But all that isn’t really the point: walking into the Flore, you’re adding your name to a long list of luminaries who’ve perhaps sat in your very seat: Apollinaire, Picasso, Hemingway, Bardot, Givenchy, and now, toi.
Wander a few minutes away from the crowds of Sacré-Coeur and Place du Tertre to this narrow, three-story café that appears to have been plucked straight from a Wes Anderson film. Since 1909, its green and red awning and cobbled, island-like terrace has attracted the likes of Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, and other artists living in the hillside bohemian hideaway of Montmartre. While tourists flock here during the afternoon for solid French fare like onion soup and escargot, it’s best to visit in the early morning before exploring the neighborhood (don’t miss the nearby secret gardens dedicated to Rodin at the Musée de Montmartre, or Paris’ only remaining vineyard, the Clos Montmartre).
La Fontaine de Belleville offers the best of both worlds: quintessential Parisian café decor (tiled floors, vintage chandeliers, a curved wooden bar), plus specialty coffee and seasonally-inspired fare. That’s thanks to the team behind Belleville Brûlerie, who took over the canal-adjacent space in 2016 and serve coffee from their roasting facility just up the street (they’ve since passed on the café to new owners). Saturday afternoons are lively, jazz-filled affairs as a live band takes over the fantastically blue terrace, where apéro hour slips easily into evening.
The Best New Wave Coffee Shops in Paris
In warmer weather, the floor-to-ceiling windows of this bright, industrial Marais mainstay are flung open to create perhaps the city’s best indoor-outdoor café vibe. Laptops are strictly forbidden—this is a place to catch up with friends, take casual meetings, or simply ogle the stylish crowd as you sip your specialty Italian or New Wave coffee between the building’s original sandstone pillars.
This trio of futuristic, out-of-this-world coffee shops designed by studio Uchronia are easily the most psychedelic places to get your caffeine fix in Paris. The most recent addition, on rue de la Tremoille in the 8th, verges on hallucinatory, with a lava stone floor painted in a red, orange, and blue gradient inspired by Tunisian sunsets, a mirrored ceiling, and a sleek, stainless steel bar. The initial location, tucked behind a protected Art Deco marble facade by Place Vendôme, is another design destination and offers outdoor seating as well, as well as a “Matchagato.” Souvenir-worthy beans are packaged in stylish cotton bags that you can grab to-go, and coffees range from classic to inventive (think: specials like Peanut Butter or Popcorn lattes).
The worn, unassuming storefront here would be easy to miss, were it not for the ever-present crowd of very cool, very attractive regulars seated on mismatched bistro chairs and wooden benches out front. Inside, it’s all beautiful blonde wood and exposed stone walls, with a serious selection of beans roasted by Prolog in Denmark and thoughtfully curated by owner Yuichiro Sugiyama, plus homemade pastries (like stone fruit tarts and Japanese pudding) by his partner Yui Matsuzaki.
Minimalist and cozy, this warm, spirited café is beloved by coffee aficionados and fashion folks alike, with a steady local and expat clientele who’ve been regulars since the doors opened in 2012. It’s a lively place to camp out solo with a book or journal, or swing by with a friend to catch up over superb filter coffee, espresso, and sweet or savory bites, like their perfect jambon beurre (ham, butter, and cornichon on a fresh baguette). They’re closed on weekends and laptops are forbidden, so stop by during the week for a mid-morning pick-me-up.
A newcomer to the scene, this Belleville gem serves up lattes, cappuccinos, and generally delicious coffee out of a classic Haussmannian apartment set on a charming square, making it one of the city’s most picturesque places to get your caffeine fix (and to work from during the week). Helmed by brothers Martin and Ernest (formerly of beloved concept store The Broken Arm), it’s a hit with design lovers, thanks to high ceilings, exposed columns, rice paper lanterns and wooden accents, as well as the in-house library of art books, novels, and magazines. In the summer, crowds of fashionable locals share house-made cardamom buns on the sidewalk, pausing to coo over the owners’ corgi, Voltaire.
Since 2012, Lomi—one of the first and most formative craft roasters in Paris—has operated out of this industrial space in the 18th arrondissement, far off the well-trod tourist path of nearby Montmartre. Pull up a stool and get a glimpse of the torrefaction process in action—a rare “open-kitchen” sort of setup for a café and roasting facility, which also functions as a tasting room and training space for industry professionals. The coffee here is serious, and there’s no outdoor space; rather, the subdued atmosphere is perfect for getting work done during the week (laptops are a no-go on weekends).
Substance is in a league of its own. This is not your classic French café: it’s an immersive, reservation-only tasting experience helmed by one of the city’s most passionate and award-winning roasters, Joachim Morceau, and his wife Alexandrine. While their approach to coffee is no-nonsense (there’s no sugar, music, or to-go allowed here), the atmosphere they create is one of joyful discovery, and is well worth a visit for anyone looking to deep dive into the world of specialty coffee.
