À Faire

Monoprix, locations throughout the city: Paris’s version of Walmart has a serious grocery store (and cute kids’ clothes, too). The yogurt aisle is a thing of beauty. The super-sized Monoprix (Boulevard Saint Michel, the Champs Elysées) carry everything from groceries to upscale cosmetics to Frenchie school supplies. (Do note that the “Frenchie” part means that the technology aisle is light on tech but heavy on sparklers, pirate tattoos, and bike bells. For reals. If you need computer stuff, go to a FNAC.) Also, the reusable Monoprix grocery bags are incredible! They are the attribute of all real Parisians, and I’ve never met an art historian who researches in France who doesn’t carry their library books in one. Red soles are one thing, but a Monoprix bag in the U.S. marks you as truly fancy.

Street Food: L’As du Falafel, 34 Rue des Rosier, 4ème: Best falafel in the city. Best street food in the city. One of the best meals in the city. Allez, allez, allez.

Breizh Café, 109 Rue Vieille de Temple, 4ème & 1 Rue de l’Odéon, 6ème: First things first, “Breizh” rhymes with “prize.” Fantastic buckwheat crêpes that even my gluten-free research assistant can eat. (Okay, she graduated years ago and is now killing it as a law student, but Miss Cat will be my spiritual research assistant forever!) Breizh can be busy, so make a reservation.

Café de l’Industrie, 16 Rue Saint Sabin, 11ème: Old-school casual restaurant that never changes. Like, I heard about this place during my first night in Paris (I was 19), and now you’ll find me here prepping for class. The Buddha Bowl is nothing fancy, but if you need some couscous and avocado, it can hit the spot. And the snails are really, really good.

La Grande Épicerie de Paris, 38 Rue de Sèvres, 7ème: Grocery store across the street from the Bon Marché department store. The cheese counter alone is worth the trip. It takes up an entire room, y’all! Also, if you’re looking for last-minute gifts to take home, the Grande Épicerie has got you covered: Mariage-Frères tea, Frenchie mustard like you wouldn’t believe, cookies in adorable little tins . . . . If Madeline and her 11 convent-school friends were walking their two straight lines through the 7ème in search of a snack, they would absolutely pull over here.

Fancy: Chez Janou, 2, rue Roger Verlomme, 3ème: A wonderful, non-fussy restaurant that specializes in Provençal food. If you like chocolate mousse, this is your place: they bring you a tureen of it and let you self-serve. Super-size moi! Also, every James Baldwin scholar I’ve ever met finds their way to this place.

Fancy: Septime, 80 ru de Charonne, 11ème: Close to ACCENT, this restaurant offers an excellent 30-euro prix fixe lunch menu.

Fancy: Frenchie Bar à Vins, 5 Rue du Nil, 2ème: Across the street from the ever-fashionable Frenchie, this wine bar is small, crowded, difficult to get into, and its stools require some serious balancing skills (always good for a place that serves alcohol). That said, the food is great, and the entire experience tends to be wonderful.

Le Petit Cler, 29 rue Cler, 7ème: This is the less-fancy sister bistro of La Fontaine de Mars, where the Obamas dined on a trip to Paris. They have a traditional plat du jour (special of the day) for 14.50 euros.

Super Fancy: Yam’ TCha, 121 rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, 1ère: There’s a reason why this place received a Michelin star and Chef’s Table featured chef Adeline Grattard in one of its episodes. If you love fine dining, Asian fusion cuisine, and blowing cash, this place is heaven. It features a set menu that Grattard cooks every night without recipes, served in a gorgeous, tiny space. If you’re lucky, she’ll come to your table personally. Get the tea pairings! (Also, Grattard adores mushrooms, in both her food and her décor.)

Yam’ TCha Cheat: Lai T’cha, 7 rue du Jour, 1ère: Yam T’Cha’s less expensive child, with dishes ranging from 12 euro to 24 euro. Merci à Dieu! You can also try the tea that Grattard and her husband source from China for 6 euros.

Yam T’Cha Street Cheat (yeah, I’m a little obsessed): Boutique Yam’Cha, 4 rue Sauval, 75001 Paris. Caveat: you’ll be ripping my beloved Mariage-Frères Thé Rouge Bourbon out of my cold, dead hands. That said, you can buy the teas that Yam T’Cha serves in its Michelin-starred restaurant here. (See supra, “tea pairings”!) Also, they sell the bao buns that make an appearance on the Yam’Tcha menu! And I’ll tell you, their blue-cheese-and-cherry bun is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten in my whole entire life!

Ice Cream: Berthillon, 31 rue Saint Louis en l'ile, 4ème: A Parisian classic, Berthillon is the gold-standard of Parisian ice cream. Be warned that if you’re used to American portions, a “small” is not going to cut it. (Also, don’t confuse this with Bertillon, the dude who invented the mugshot in 1882.)

Ice Cream: Amorino, locations throughout the city: If you’ve ever thought “What this ice cream cone really needs is to be shaped like a flower with a macaron on top,” Amorino has you covered.

Le Bon Marché, 24 rue de Sèvres, 7ème. It’s worth taking a spin through this nineteenth-century Parisian department store just for the sights. If you like paper and stationary, the papeterie will blow your mind. The mineralized-paper notebooks by the Belgian brand Typographe.be are fantastic. If you have small ones in your life, the toy shop is pretty great, too. WARNING: If one shop person tells you the store doesn’t carry something, try again. If you know they do, keep trying until you find someone who can help you. For some reason, no one there seems to know anything beyond their counter. Also, if anyone gets snotty about your less-than-Frenchie pronunciation of “Augustinus Bader,” back up, channel all the conviction of your inner Martin Luther, and go full German. Dr. Bader hails from Würzburg, after all.

L’Enfant Lyre, 17 Rue Saint-Sébastien, 11ème: A French children’s bookstore. Even if you don’t read French, the books are beautiful.

Mariage-Frères, locations throughout the city: Yes, you can find this tea in the U.S. now. That said, the experience of wandering through this tea shop and sticking your nose into the various canisters is deeply pleasurable. (I’ll admit I’m ignoring what Covid has done to our collective sense of what one can responsibly do in public here. Just like I’m ignoring the colonial fantasy the Mariage-Frères staff continues to spin with those uniforms. J’accuse!) People tend to like the Thé Rouge Bourbon and Éros, if you’re looking for a place to start.

Gibert-Jeune, Boulevard Saint-Michèl: Multiple floors of school supplies, art supplies, and stationary. I’m a particular fan of the student day planners they sell for the rentrée (return to school).

Citypharma, 26 Rue du Four, 6ème: Mecca for those who like French skincare, haircare, and other drugstore items. Check out Biorecept, Citypharma’s in-house line of skincare products, priced at about a third of what they go for on the only website that will ship them to the U.S.. Be warned: this place is a zoo, and you’re going to want to bring a paper fan and have a plan for getting in and out. That said, it’s worth it.

Trudon, locations in the 4ème, 7ème, and 9ème. Are the candles really expensive? Oui, oui, oui. Are they significantly cheaper than they are in the U.S? Absolutely. Also, Trudon started out as candle-maker to Louis XIV in 1643, so they really do know what they’re doing. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t like Ab El Kader (mint tea-smelling in the very best way), and Salta (bougie grapefruit). As someone who wants everything to smell like a medieval cathedral or nunnery (it’s a thing, just not my husband’s), I love Spiritus Sancti and Carmélite.

Merci, 111 Boulevard Beaumarchais, 3ème. If you see people walking around with tote bags that say “Merci,” they came from here. It’s a “home concept store” (‘cause that’s not pretentious) that carries everything from clothes to bedding to the aforementioned bags. My longtime favorite is Phil the Bottle. Not only does its square shape allow you to slide it into your bag without wasting space, it has every drinking fountain in Paris printed on it. The “Merci to Go” pouches are also pretty great, especially if the bottom of your bag has aspirations to be the next Bermuda Triangle.

The Eiffel Tower. Just do it. You’ll be glad you did.

The pay-trampolines in the Tuileries, right in front of the Louvre. I mean, yes, most of the other patrons are under 10, but it’s still really fun.

Le Dodo Manège, Jardin des Plantes, métro: Gare d’Austerlitz. A merry-go-round of extinct and endangered animals. Although they generally don’t let adults ride it, it’s one of those wonderful Parisian sights that’s worth a pilgrimage. (I managed to talk the guy into letting me get on the elephant one time, which wasn’t that great for my ego in the end

The Grand Bavarian Wheel (aka, the John McAmis Memorial “Son of a Bitch!” Ferris Wheel), Tuileries, métro: Concorde: I highly recommend walking through the Tuileries and taking a ride on this at dusk. It’s a beautiful way to see the city. At the top, have a moment of silence for former 173er John McAmis, who was too shy to tell me about his fear of heights before I loaded the entire class up for a ride.

Pretty much anything listed here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/paris-france

L’Orangerie. We sometimes visit this museum in the Tuileries as a part of class. If we don’t this year, visit it on your own to admire Monet’s waterlilies installed in the round.

Paris Plages, along the Seine. Although Covid might disrupt this, the French typically turn a stretch of the Seine into a beach every summer. https://en.parisinfo.com/paris-show-exhibition/135161/paris-plages.

Shakespeare and Company, 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 5ème. Iconic English-language bookstore. If you ask, the cashier will put a “Shakespeare and Company” sticker on the inside cover of your purchases.

Coffee: Loustic Café, 40 Rue Chapon, 3ème: Good coffee and popsicles (no small thing in July). I recommend telling the barista you’re from Elvis and Taylor Swift’s home state in a bid for friendlier service.

La Perle, 78 Rue Vieille du Temple: Caveats: (1) the service can be terrible; (2) the bathroom is equal parts Jetsons episode and lo-fi experiment in herd immunity; and (3) this is the place where John Galliano decided to pitch his anti-Semitic fit. That said, La Perle remains a favorite with the fashion set and will give anyone missing Knoxville a serious dose of Vol Orange.

Le Baron Rouge, 1 Rue Théophile Roussel, 12ème (assuming you’re a responsible, of-age drinker, of course): A Parisian wine bar that’s been around since the ‘70s. (One of the bartenders, Quentin, learned English during his time as a roadie for Heavy Metal bands in the Midwest and has a soft spot for Americans.) Be prepared to see wines you’ve never heard of, with the most expensive glass coming in at around 6 euros. On Sunday mornings, a truck with oysters arrives to turn the event into brunch.

Café de Flore, 172 Boulevard Saint-Germain, 6ème: If it’s good enough for Hemingway and Baldwin, it’s good enough for me.

American Breakfast: Pancake Sisters, 3 Rue Lucien Sampaix, 10ème & Holybell 5, 5 Rue Lucien Sampaix, 10ème. If you’ve flown all the way to Paris for drip coffee and the Strokes, HolyBelly 5 is your place.

Fontaine de Belleville, 31-33 rue Juliette Dodu, 10ème. This place was opened by people from Belleville Brûlerie, 14b Rue Lally-Tollendal, 19ème, which is typically thought to be one of the best places in Paris for coffee. (If the observation, “Old City Java has beans from Ritual today” has you running for your car, you will find your Parisian soulmates at Belleville Brûlerie.) In essence, Fontaine de Belleville is a twenty-first-century take on the classic French café, with everything from the croque monsieur to, of course, the coffee passing exacting hipster standards.

Ob-La-Di, 4 Rue de Saintonge, 3ème. For those who can’t go three weeks without avocado toast. I don’t judge.

Le Jardin de Luxembourg, multiple entrances, 6ème: What better way to spend an afternoon than strolling around this enormous French garden? Stop by Marie de Medici’s palace, rent a boat to float in the fountain, say hello to Charles Garnier’s merry-go-round, and set yourself up in a Fermob chair for a little people-watching.

Bois de Boulogne, 16ème. An enormous Haussmannian park that’s worth the métro trip. The Bois contains the Jardin d’Acclimatation, a children’s amusement park where you can ride mechanical horses along a fantasy racetrack straight out of Mary Poppins.

Nose, 20 Rue Bachaumont, 2ème: A small perfume store that will help you find your perfect fragrance (or at least try). If you want to know what Mister Gustave H.’s beloved L’Air du Panache smelled like in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, ask to sniff from the sample bottle behind the counter. Also, the day one of my brand-new art historians picked a perfume called d’Orsay during our unofficial field trip made me very, very happy!

Perfumer H, 64 Rue Vieille du Temple, 3ème (and at Nose, bien sûr): In 2000, Lynn Harris founded Miller Harris, a house that made a perfume for the legendary English It Girl Jane Birkin. Two years later, Harris started Perfumer H, which is nowhere near as widely known. The perfumes themselves are all quite different, so it’s worth sniffing your way through the Harris oeuvre if you can handle it. They all have wonderfully simple names like “Smoke,” “Dust,” and “Rhubarb,” and the boutique staff sometimes give out mini bottles as samples if they take a shine to you. I personally love Dandelion, and Fig is a close second. (Were Rubens Ghenov and I stinking up the 2024 School of Art faculty retreat trying out my stash of samples? I plead the 5th.). Warning: if you fall in love with a Perfumer H. parfum and blow through your beloved bottle in a few months, you’re going to be getting it shipped from Nose.

Les Liquides Perfume Bar, 9 Rue de Normandie, 3ème: Although it might seem intimidating to have to ask the perfumetender behind the bar to try things, they tend to be very friendly and knowledgeable, and English is the linga franca. (If you get that disaffected twenty-something guy, come back later.) The last time I went there, Iris made me sample something that she swore smelled like her childhood days spent harvesting mushrooms in the French forest. Les Liquides in-house line is also wonderful if you tend toward unisex, incense-y smells. Start with Sancti.

Boutique Lubin Paris, 21 rue des Canettes, 6ème: Legend has it that Marie-Antoinette wore Pierre-François Lubin’s fragrance “Black Jade” up until her date with the National Razor. Maybe not the luckiest perfume . . . .

IUNX, 13 Rue de Tournon, 6ème. Master perfumeur Olivia Giacobetti’s personal fragrance line. Be sure to sample first: one 173er fell in love with one of IUNX’s perfumes only to discover it gave her a rash. Also, the full-sized bottles bear a striking resemblance to light sabers. Figure out how to get that in your suitcase.

Jovoy, 4 Rue de Castiglione, 1ème. Hustle on over to try Cerf Blanc (White Kite) and Comme un Loup (Like a Wolf) by Maison Hédonique. Also, if you have a thing for wolves, be sure to get a sample of l’Artisan’s Méchant Loup (“Wicked Wolf”). Il y avait une fois trois petits cochons: Niff-Niff, Naff-Naff, et Nouf-Nouf . . . .

Buly 1803, location in the Louvre: I’m not sure about the perfume, but who doesn’t love an overpriced tube of toothpaste with a great big snake on the front? [While we’re on the topic of Frenchie toothpaste, I’m casting my votes for (a) Email Diamant (look for a toothy bullfighter on the box and prepare to spit magenta lather); and (b) Signal’s Lapin Crétin (although the show itself isn’t particularly dialogue-driven, the Raving Rabbids become much more charming in French.)]

Le Bon Marché, 24 rue de Sèvres, 7ème: You can find all the niche standards (is that a category?) here. Sample Frederic Malle’s Dawn, Moon, or Night perfumes if only to discover what a $1,000 fragrance smells like (strong), l’Artisan’s Sur l’Herbe because it’s named after the Manet painting, and Le Labo’s Paris 44 because you can only buy it in Paris. Keep the snooty-chic vibe going by strolling over to the Bouche Rouge lipstick counter and asking to try Le Rouge Chloë, developed for Ms. Sevigny herself.

Poilâne, 18 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 6ème. Iconic French bakery. Get a loaf, a sablé cookie, and an apple tart.

Circus Bakery, 63 Rue Galande, 5ème. The cinnamon buns are legendary, but you need to arrive early if you want to grab one.

Maison Julien – Les Saveurs de Pierre Demours, 13 Rue Pierre Demours, 17ème. Winner of the 2020 Best Baguette in Paris award.

Carré Pain de Mie, 5 Rue Rambuteau, 4ème. When Wonder Bread goes to Valhalla, it becomes a loaf from this Japanese pain de mie bakery. Let the cross-cultural deliciousness begin. (Also, if you want to spend an unreasonable amount of money on a grilled cheese, this place marks the spot.)

Farine & O, 153, rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, 11ème (way too close to ACCENT for waistband comfort). How do you not order the combination of brownie dough, crème brûlée, and pistachios that rides under the name “rosace"?

Utopie, 20, rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 11ème. Thought by many to be the best bakery in Paris, Utopie offers delicious pastries with a Japanese influence.

Des Gáteaux et du Pain, 63, boulevard Pasteur, 15ème: I haven’t actually been here yet, but I’m hell-bent on trying one of their violet turnovers.

Mamiche, 45 Rue Condorcet, 9ème: They had me at orange-blossom brioche.

Pierre Hermé, locations throughout the city, including 72 Rue Bonaparte, 6ème: Currently thought to make the best macarons in the city, which for Parisians means the world.

Ladurée, locations throughout the city, including 21 Rue Bonaparte, 6ème: As long as you’re in the neighborhood, you might as well do a macaron comparison.

Fauchon, locations throughout the city, including CDG airport. Because it’s a great idea to eat a bunch of macarons before getting on a long flight.

Stohrer, 51 Rue Montorgueil, 2ème: The oldest patisserie in Paris, Stohrer was founded in 1730 by Louis XV’s pastry chef, M. Stohrer, and is the home of the rum baba. As an historian in Paris, you have an obligation to try one.

Maison du Chocolat, 19 Rue de Sèvres, 6ème. Literally, “The House of Chocolate.” Need I say more?

Angelina Paris, 226 Rue de Rivoli, 1ème: In addition to classic French pastries (get the Mont Blanc), this Paris institution serves legendary hot chocolate. It’s thick, bitter, expensive, and my son adamantly prefers Swiss Miss. That said, if you’re in a position to try it, it’s an experience.