I Prefer Paris

Cafe of the Month: Fika

Fika is a Swedish word that means coffee break but more than just that, it’s part of the lifestyle in Sweden, where people take time out to have coffee and pastry with friends, colleagues, and family.

Also, the name of the coffee shop at the Swedish Institute, Fika, in the Marais, is a hotspot in the neighborhood. People patiently line up to savor a coffee, tea, and yummy cookies and cakes including apple crumble, butter cookies, lemon loaf cake, and their specialty, cinnamon rolls dusted with powdered sugar, which are part of the Fika tradition. In addition, open faced sandwiches with various toppings on dark bread are available and other drinks such as fresh lemonade, tea, and fresh squeezed juices.

The pleasant café room has artworks and photos on the walls by contemporary Swedish artists, and the outdoor café in the cobblestone courtyard has benches, chairs, and tables.

The Swedish Institute, formerly the 17^th century Hotel de Marle, nurtures cultural and artistic exchanges between France and Sweden, with art and sculpture exhibitions, art residencies, and Swedish language classes. Make sure to check out the lush garden in the rear with cool, contemporary sculptures.

11 rue Payenne, 75004

Open everyday except Monday

https://paris.si.se/en/

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours,Vintage Clothing  Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 275€ for up to 3 people, and 90€ for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you, my insiders, Paris.

  

Cafe of the Month, March 2025: City of Light

I’ve added Flat White to my personal coffee menu besides my café noisette, and only specialized coffee shops prepare Flat Whites, along with oat milk. The closest café to my apartment to get a flat white is a 7-minute walk, way too far when you need a caffeine boost ASAP.

About a 6 weeks ago, I saw a sign for the opening of a new coffee shop, City of Light, just across the street from me. Jumping for joy, and waiting with bated breath, they finally opened last week.

City of Light is run and owned by a pleasant couple, Charles and Catalina. Vincent and I ordered a Flat White and a Cortado, and a few minutes later, Charles brought the coffee in ceramic cups to our table on a handsome wood tray. The flavor was rich and satisfying and the foam done just right. We had a fudge-alicious brownie but they also have cinnamon rolls, croissants, and pain au chocolat. 

The interesting décor has curved, burgundy colored, curved banquettes with small, round tables in front. In the rear of the café, is an intimate room, with a long, wraparound, upholstered bench, perhaps for private or small groups.

City of Light also sells their own brand coffee beans, sourced from Mexico, Brazil, and Ethiopia.

This is Charles and Catalina’s first coffee shop, and I wish them good luck.

3 rue Mahler, 75004

Metro: Saint Paul

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours,Vintage Clothing  Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 275€ for up to 3 people, and 90€ for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you, my insiders, Paris.

 

 

Café of the Month February 2025: La Crème du Palais Royal

As many of you know, the Palais Royal Gardens are one of my favorite places in Paris, so after having coffee at La Crème du Palais Royal, it was another good excuse to visit.

The elegant café, decorated with white mosaic tile floors, trimmed in a leaf motif, a Watteau-like wall mural, and handsome wood stools, is inviting and cozy. I had my requisite café noisette, in a China cup with the chic logo of the café, along with a slice of their super yummy banana loaf. Kudos for serving warm milk in a separate pitcher, so I had control over how much milk to add.  I struck up a conversation with some cool American expats who had a ginormous dog. Besides a full coffee and drink menu, La Crème du Palais Royal also has a food menu with avocado toast, lobster rolls, broiled eggs with Serrano ham, and a few other appealing choices. In summer they serve ice crem and have tables in the garden area.

39 General de Montpensier, 75001

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours,Vintage Clothing  Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 275€ for up to 3 people, and 90€ for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you, my insiders, Paris.

Café of the Month, January 2025: Café Laperouse Concorde

Café Laperouse Concorde is a more casual off shoot of the famed Laperouse restaurant on the Left Bank from 1766, known for its private dining rooms.

Located in the courtyard of Hotel de la Marine on Place de la Concorde, the sumptuously decorated dining room and café are two of the most beautiful in Paris.

The café part when you enter, has soaring ceilings, black background carpeting decorated in gold leaves, vintage Baccarat chandeliers, and the square tables have backgammon and chess/checker boards ingrained in them. It was a chilly day, so I opted for a hot chocolate instead of my usual café noisette. Served in a lovely, white china cup with a S on it, along with a piece of chocolate (Only in Paris would they be so extravagant to serve chocolate with hot chocolate).  It was rich, satisfying, and velvety, warming my insides from the cold. I sat for a long while admiring the interior.

Designed by Cordélia de Castellane, she is the artistic director of Dior Maison. The design was inspired by a portrait in Hotel de La Marine of Jean-François de Galaup, the Count of Lapérouse, a French naval officer in the late 1700s, who disappeared in a shipwreck. He sailed around the world to exotic destinations such as Tierra del Fuego, Easter Island, Hawaii, and Japan.

Backgammon tournaments are organized once a month.

Café Laperouse Concorde also has a lovely outdoor terrace which is open in the warmer months.

Please note: Coffee or tea is served after 3pm. Before 3pm you can have lunch from the a la carte menu.

 

2 Place de la Concorde, 75008

https://laperouse.com/en/page/home.17930.html

Chocalicious hot chocolate

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours,Vintage Clothing  Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 275€ for up to 3 people, and 90€ for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you, my insiders, Paris.

 

Café of the Month October 2024: Au Rocher de Cancale

Last week I was supposed to see my dentist, but he texted to say he was running late by 30 minutes.  With some time to kill, and needing a late afternoon caffeine fix, I meandered over to rue Montorgueil.

Au Rocher de Cancale on the rue Montorgueil, is the oldest cafe on the street, dating from 1804. Founded by Alexis Balaine, the restaurant was a meeting place for supper after theatre and cabaret performances ended. Filled with aristocrats and creatives including Honore De Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, and Theophile Gautier, it boasted a overwhelming menu of 60 main courses and 30 desserts. The restaurant went bankrupt with the next owner, and then moved to rue Richelieu and eventually back to rue Montorgueil but a different address. Frescoes are by Paul Garavani and it was declared a national historic monument in 1977.

I had my usual, café noisette, and watched the crowd. A very expressive woman who frequently used her hands to speak to her friend, was also balancing her toy dog on her lap. The rattan, cafe chairs outside had bright blue blankets for customers to keep warm. Inside, under the dark wood beams were old movie and jazz album covers.

78 rue Montorgueil, 75002

Café of the Month, July 2024: Petit Palais

Having a coffee in the stupendous rotunda in the Petite Palais is one of my favorite café experiences and the Petite Palais is one of my favorite buildings in Paris, so it’s a double treat: excellent coffee and stunning architecture.

The Petite Palais, constructed for the 1900 World’s Fair, was designed by architect Charles Girault and is supreme example of the Beaux Arts style, which was at the height of its heyday in the early 1900s. The courtyard is comprised of a trapezoidal shape garden with soaring columns of pink Vosges granite and gilt-bronze gracing the semicircle, covered gallery.

In addition to coffee and tea, the Le Café 1902 offers a light lunch menu of sandwiches, salads, and plats, plus desserts and pastries.

I just love the fact that anyone can enjoy the gorgeous visual of the Petit Palais, for a mere 3€ for a cup of coffee or even for free. (Admission is free of charge for the permanent collection).

Petite Palais

Ave. Winston Churchill Ave. Winston Churchill, 75008

https://www.petitpalais.paris.fr/en

Café of the Month- July 2024- Café Francoeur

While photographing the doors on rue Custine earlier this month, I needed a caffeine fix and stopped by the delightful Café Francoeur. The sidewalk part of the café has bold red and white striped awnings festooned with gold fringe, so Parisian. The chairs are trimmed with attractive red and black, waxed rattan and there is a narrow white tile wall with inserts of Art Nouveau, painted signs with the offerings of the café.

The inside is a dazzling mélange of golden light from yellow, fluorescent tubes, glass sconces casting a pale golden light, and a highly ornate ceiling painted in gold contrasted by highly polished, dark wood banquettes, and wide planked, wood floors. I had my usual café noisette indoors, to soak up the atmosphere. A well-dressed couple having lunch in the corner and others were enjoying a late morning coffee.

The reasonably priced and appetizing menu has French staples such as escargot, country style paté, steak tartar, steak frites, and foie gras, and a decent choice of vegetarian dishes.

Café Francoeur 129 rue Caulaincourt, 75018

https://www.thefork.fr/restaurant/cafe-francoeur-r802323/menu

 

Café of the Month: Café Sevenly Heart

I have a new favorite café: Café Sevenly Heart

After visiting Musee de la Chasse last Sunday, I was craving a good, strong coffee. Right across the street I peered through a glass door with a cool door handle into a cool looking café. It was 11:50 and they opened at 12, and while patiently waiting, a queue started after me with about five people. It was obvious I was on to something.

Once inside, the interior was lovely and adorable. The coffee menu was painted on white cotton fabric (very Margiela, circa early 2000’s). I ordered an espresso and looking at the vitrine with a wood frame, the row of cakes beckoned me, and I had to have a slice of banana bread.

I sat on a stone bench with individual cushions with a three-legged, dark wood table with a tarnished candle stick with melted wax that had dripped down. The natural daylight coming through a window with an old-fashioned Victrola and a tasteful floral arrangement set the pleasant mood of the café. A few minutes later my espresso arrived in an ornate, white porcelain cup with a stem on it and the cake was served on a small, stemmed cake plate of pewter ceramic. It looked like it was right out of a Martha Stewart home set.

While enjoying my hefty, moist slice of banana cake (it was so big, I saved half for Vincent) and the excellent espresso, I took in the remainder of the interior. It’s just fabulous. I love the purposely unfinished walls, the bric a brac and antiques, a wall lined with colorful bottles, and the chic bathroom sink.

I went to their website before I wrote this, and much to my delight, I discovered it’s also a wine bar in the evening which also has small plates and charcuterie platters.

55 rue des Archives, 75003 https://www.sevenlyheart.com/

That face, that face, that fabulous face

I WANT that sink

CAKE!

VINCENT'S cake, sweetly wrapped 

 

Cafe of the Month, April 2024: Café Kitsune

Coffee meets fashion at Café Kitsune.

Starting off as Maison Kitsune, a music label created in 2002 by partners Gildas Loaec (French) and Maysaya Kuroki (Japanese), the brand extended with men’s and women’s clothing, followed by coffee shops, Café Kitsune. From Bangkok to Brooklyn, Café Kitsune is now an international phenomenon. 

In Paris, there are four Café Kitsune’s, mostly clustered near the Louvre and Palais Royal. I went to the one on rue de Rivoli by the Tuileries, which has limited seating on benches and stools. I ordered a flat white, which is one of the best in Paris. While sipping my coffee, a bevy of casually, well dressed women carrying the most stylish handbags embellished with C’s, G’s, and LV’s, ordered their lattte’s and dirty chai’s. Besides great hot and ice coffee, Café Kitsune has a menu of hot and ice teas, soft drinks, ice cream, and cookies and cakes. 

In the back of the café is the Maison Kitsune clothing boutique with fun, cheerful spring clothes. 

Café Kistune 208 rue de Rivoli, 75001

https://maisonkitsune.com/mk/fr/trouver-un-cafe-2/

Should I buy that jacket? 

 

Café of the Month, March 2024: Café Beaubourg

Opened in 1987, across from the Pompidou Museum, Café Beaubourg was a startling, modern version of the old-fashioned Paris café. Architect Christian de Portzamparc’s daring, Memphis like design was a match for the audacity of the architecture of the Pompidou, opened in 1977. 

Outside, white iron chairs tufted in red, black, and white vinyl, with scalloped edges, replace the typical rattan café chairs at most French cafes. Inside, the same chairs are done in brown leather, with a black metal frame, giving the interior a club like feel and the two story structure has soaring ceilings and seating on the upper level. If you sit outside, you are greeted with a spectacular view of the Pompidou Museum. 

Café Beaubourg was also the first establishment opened by the Costes brothers, Thierry and Gilbert,who went on to own and operate some of the chicest and most popular café and restaurants such as Societe, Café Marly, and Georges, hotels, bars, and private clubs. 

My café noisette came with a meringue puff, a nice touch. 

Interestingly enough, Café Beaubourg is now a classic Parisian café. 

43 rue Saint Merri, 75004 https://cafebeaubourg.com/

Experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens, and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Shopping Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, Emily in Paris tours, and Chocolate and pastry tours.

Tours start at 275 euros for up to 3 people, and 85 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you, my insiders, Paris.

 Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com