Hidden Paris: La Fontaine de Belleville

A table setting at la Fontaine de Belleville

In the capital of café culture, good coffee is surprisingly hard to find. But La Fontaine de Belleville stands out thanks to its roaster ties. When you think of best Parisian cafes, what do you picture?  Perhaps a corner spot with small round tables and wicker chairs facing the street. Or maybe friends chatting over […]

The 7 Best Places for Coffee in Paris + Essential Coffee Vocab

One of our favorite Saint-Germain-des-Prés restaurants is actually a cafe serving excellent coffee and pastries.

In Paris, cafe culture runs deep.  Coffee culture, well—as others have reported, it’s still developing.  For many years, the only available coffee options in Paris were very average, at best. This is for a number of reasons, among them strict regulations for opening new cafes, France’s history of colonialism, and general lack of innovation in […]

How to Order Coffee in French Like You Know What You’re Doing

Not sure how to order coffee in French? A tip: refer to how "tight," or "serré," you want your coffee, not how "strong."

It seems like an easy task: ordering a coffee. But as with many things in France, there’s a right and a wrong way.  French coffee culture is guided by a number of spoken and unspoken rules. There’s the somewhat confusing nomenclature, unique coffee shop dynamics and a strong tendency toward over-caffeination.  As a visitor to […]