Paris
Where to go, what to see and what to eat in Paris
La top de la top
Here’s what you need to know that you won’t find in guidebooks or blogs.
Restaurants:
Robert et Louise: An old fashioned bistrot that wouldn’t look out of place in rural France. This is French cuisine at its best- simple, rough and fucking good. A bottle of Bordeaux and freshly sizzled steak, cooked in front of you on their open log fire is honestly all anyone could ever ask for.
Le Bon Georges: If not quite fine dining, this is nonetheless good dining. It’s a bit pricer, but the quality is unspeakably good. The waiters are slick and chic but also friendly. The food is traditional french and lives up to that pedigree with such nonchalance that you’ll wonder how you’ll ever go back to eating in other restaurants again.
Quick Bites & Local Favourites
Dumbo is simply the best burger you’ll likely ever have in your life, ever.
Falafel on Rue des Rosiers is a local favourite in good weather. Get one in takeaway form from one of the falafel joints on the street and eat it in the secret park just down the road.
Jazz
Rive 38 is the best place for jazz in Paris. 7:30 on Monday nights- get there early. It’s a place for pureists, but without the pretension.
Café Laurent: Expect more expensive drinks and a snootier crowd - some of whom will be there for the idea of Jazz rather than the thing itself. However when the music catches it can create some unforgettable nights.
Wine
The wine options in Paris are, naturally, endless, but here are two options for casual drinking in a great setting with some amazing wines.
Le 18: Ask for Craig the manager, he’s the only person you’ll ever need to know in Paris.
Stereo: A drinking space created by three passionate friends who are their own best customers. Music is always banging.
Chez George: My favourite bar in Paris. It’s an old, creaking rough place full of character and makes a nice contrast from the tourist glitz of the rest of St Germain.
Museums
L’Atelier des Lumières: An old factory that has been converted into a living art space. Being inside feels like falling into a bucket of paint.
Musée d’Orsay: A much more chilled out version of the Louvre in an incredible building that offers serious views over the Seine and central Paris. You’ll also get impressionist classics and some of the most famous Van Goghs
Live Like a Local
Below lots more ideas of where to go and what to do
Where to go
Le Marais: A mix of old Jewish quarter and new gay quarter. Boutique shops, strange Swiss embassy shops, tiny Portuguese restaurants. Go here to watch people, buy vintage and explore the bars and restaurants.
Île Saint-Louis: One of the two beautiful islands on the Seine. Explore the tiny streets that snake though the centre of the island. Walk around the edge with the Seine lapping at your feet. Sit for wine and baguettes and let tourists wave at you from their boats. Try find the ramp that brings you right down into the Seine if you can. Then sit on the terrace of Café de la Île Saint-Louis and have coffee and then red wine. It’s touristy, but it’s also the best place in the world to sit and watch and think and talk.
Il de la Cite: Visit Notre Dame and see the destruction the fire caused and the reconstruction. Then wander across to the secret Place Dauphin, which somehow remains largely untouched by tourists.
The square is a beautifully hidden spot where Paris comes to play Pétanque. If you bring your own set locals will ask you to play. It’s fun. And competetive. Another option is to just grab a bottle of wine and bread and sit on the park benches and just feel Paris.
Next find your way to the ‘bow’ of the island (past the statue on Pont Neuf) and sit under the old willow tree and dangle your feet over the Seine below you. If you get it to yourself — it’s magical.
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont: Well worth a walk or run or picnic
Les Quais de la Seine: Take a vèlib bike (the city’s rental scheme) or a scooter and enjoy the new bike lanes that run the whole length of the river’s quays. Better than any tourist bus or boat.
Other Great Coffee & Wine Spots
Chez Nous: Just south of Port Neuf is Chez Nous, a great wine bar with fantastic sommeliers.
Le Select: is one of the best examples of old school French bistros at their best. Waiters are old gruff and don’t care about you. What more could you want (read what it was like to spend an afternoon there here)
Hemingway bar: The most snooty square in Paris (it’s amazingly beautiful, even for Paris standards), the Hemingway bar is tucked away down a labyrinth inside the Ritz. It’s pricey and posh, but well worth it, if you’re in that mood.
What else to do
Fondation Louis Vuitton: Just google the building, regardless of the exposition, the building alone is worth seeing.
Versailles: The trick of Versailles is to skip the queue, skip the chateau and skip the fancy gardens. Instead let google maps bring you right around all that to the public gardens at the back. Here you should rent the bikes (surprisingly cheap) and then go and explore as far as you can. Bring supplies and cycle to the far end of the lake and from here you can admire the full projection of power and glory that Versailles was supposed to represent. Visit the chateau if you want. Or don’t.
Musée Rodin: Sunny afternoon fare
Where else to drink
Lulu Whites: American cocktail bar
Chateau d’eau: Not everyone will like this. It’s a dive bar in the truest sense of the word, but it’s a haven of serendipity and interesting characters. A passer-by said ‘hi’ to a group of us because we were speaking English. She then joined us and serenaded my friend by belting out in her professionally trained opera voice before she took him home.
Read more that I’ve written about Paris
