20 Best Food Tours in Paris
Paris is a moveable feast, indeed, and most visitors tend to wonder: what are the spots every foodie shouldn't miss? From luxurious department stores to quirky bottle shops, coffee roasters to an English language cooking school, we've crafted an enviable itinerary of edible adventures for a DIY food tour. These are our picks for the best places to snack, sip, learn, and, when you inevitably must leave, to stock your suitcase with souvenirs.
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Jean-Philippe BaltelshopMaison Plisson
$$Plisson specializes in artisanal items that reduce waste, eschewing mass-market food (and indulging the growing expectation for transparent sourcing) for some 3,000 products, 80 percent of which are French. The market highlights the talents of leading food artisans from France: Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) butcher Didier Massot, cheesemonger Ludovic Galfione, and locally grown produce from Alexia Charraire of the Comptoir des Producteurs. The bakery area is run by Liberté, a beloved Paris boulangerie, and there's specialty coffee from roaster L’Arbre à Café.
Marc AoutchshopO/HP/E
O/HP/E is a silly name, but it also gets right to the heart of what's sold in this elegant little concept shop; that is, objects, homemade pâtisserie, and épicerie. In the housewares section, you’ll find a carefully curated collection of pretty paper goods, guide books, notebooks, coffee equipment, and modern decor. In the épicerie, stock up on hard-to-find honeys like carrot or coriander, English jams, and containers of O/HP/E’s house cookies. The café, meanwhile, serves homemade sweets, coffee from Terre de Café, P&T teas, Sassy ciders, and juices from Borderline.
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shopLa Grande Epicerie de Paris
Le Bon Marché's flagship food emporium underwent massive renovations in recent years and is even more expansive than ever before, with nearly 3,000 square meters of retail space and some 25,000 products. It's a veritable food lover's food store; additionally, there are several spots to eat on-site, including in the massive wine cellar with more than 3,000 different wines. You'll spend hours browsing the artisanal goods, colorful produce, and more.
activityLa Cuisine Paris
Cooking classes and food tours at La Cuisine, a recreational English-language cooking school, sell out fast, so be sure to reserve in advance for the three-hour macaron-making class. Ours had just eight people—meaning there was lots of room to move about comfortably in the large classroom, which is well-equipped with professional cooking gear, plastic aprons, and a large dining room table. You'll mingle with enthusiastic home cooks, some of whom have tried (and failed) to make macarons before and others making their first attempt.
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Lafayette Gourmet
Lafayette Gourmet is the food hall associated with—and across the street from—Galeries Lafayette, the iconic Parisian department store. It's its own four-story temple that's completely dedicated to eating, drinking, and home goods. You can really do a number on your credit card statement at Petrossian's caviar restaurant or at Maison de la Truffe, which specializes in (what else?!) truffle-infused dishes, but your best bet is to head straight to the Alain Ducasse chocolaterie for a box of stellar bonbons or a hefty jar of homemade Nutella.
shopPrintemps du Goût
The new gourmet food hall in the historic Printemps department store spans the 7th and 8th floors of the menswear shop. The space was specially designed to feel like the inside of a home, with numerous well-appointed food stands and enclaves with shelves stocked with beautiful French products. If it's not raining, plunk down on one of the 70 terrace seats outside and eat lunch while gazing at the Eiffel Tower.
barPaname Brewing Company
Although Paname Brewing Company was started by Michael Kennedy of the expat bar The Moose, this microbrewery stands out thanks to its historic location: an old granary along the banks of the Bassin de la Villette. Be sure to sample the craft beers from Paname’s brewers—on a recent visit, there were as many of 11. There’s a pub menu of wacky pizzas, burgers, the standard cheese and charcuterie plates, and less expected options like shrimp curry.
AlamyshopLaurent Dubois
This is the flagship location for award-winning fromager and affineur Laurent Dubois, who has been awarded the rare honor of Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF), which distinguishes him as one of the best in his industry. The cheeses are displayed as beautifully and pristinely as jewels in a case. You'll find an exceptional selection of top-quality cheeses, many of them aged on-site by Dubois and his staff, plus dairy products like yogurt, butter, and crème fraîche.
restaurantBelleville Brûlerie
Although you’ll find Belleville Brûlerie coffee beans served at specialty coffee shops all around town, the rue Pradier location is the brand's only boutique. Primarily a training center for new baristas, it’s a minimal space you could easily walk past, if not for the scent of freshly ground coffee beans, that is. Book a Saturday-morning cupping session (90 minutes, $37), where you'll learn to taste coffee like a pro.
activityLes Caves du Louvre
Les Caves du Louvre, run by the team at Ô Chateau, a well-known Paris wine bar, is an underground wine-discovery center in the 18th-century wine cellars once used by King Louis XV’s sommelier. To visit is to tour five rooms to learn the basics of terroir, smelling, tasting, labeling, and bottling wine. Entry is free for a self-guided tour (done with the Les Caves du Louvre app) or $39 for a guided tour in English.
shopLiquiderie
There’s a little something for every beverage drinker at La Liquiderie: obscure American and European beers, hard cider from small producers, natural and biodynamic wines, fancy British sodas made with fresh fruit, and bottled iced teas. Some of the most expensive items in the shop are imported bottles of beer from North America, the U.K., and Scandinavia—a rare treat for Parisians. There's also a good selection of French beers.
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TAKA & VERMO - Artisans Fromagers
Taka & Vermo prioritizes cheeses made with raw milk, cheeses made by traditional methods, and cheeses from artisanal producers, but it also offers some modern house creations, including a fresh goat’s cheese topped with yuzu confit and lime zest. An on-site cave for affinage (cheese ripening and aging) allows the cheesemongers to be more creative with their stock. Evening classes—including one about pairing sake and cheese—underscore the shop's commitment to pushing the envelope.
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shopTerroirs d'Avenir
You’ll find products from Terroirs d’Avenir all over the city, often without knowing it, as the shop started as a food supplier to star chefs and restaurants. It's now branched out to offer the same quality products to customers at a butchery, poissonnerie, bakery, and grocery, a retail quartet perched along rue du Nil in the 2nd arrondissement. The butcher shop works exclusively with whole animals, and offers a range of game birds, specially cured dry-aged grass-fed steaks—hard to find in France—and rare poultry.
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La Chambre aux Confitures
This is one of a handful of La Chambre Aux Confitures boutiques scattered throughout Paris. Each one resembles a sleek jam vault, of sorts, with more than 100 varieties. You’ll find basics like strawberry, apricot, and raspberry, as well as unexpected flavor combinations like raspberry Champagne, apricot with gingerbread, and mango with coconut and white chocolate. Clementine marmalade may sound boring, but we assure you it's not—especially not when it's laced with rum and vanilla.
shopJulhès
Julhès is a series of family-owned specialty food shops that have lined the rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement since 1996. With its multiple storefronts side by side, convivial family ownership, and lengthy history in the area, Julhès feels like the mayor of that stretch of street. The three associated shops along the same street are loosely divided into a boulangerie/patisserie/traiteur (bread, sweets, and cooked foods), an epicerie/fromagerie (cured meats, condiments, cheese, and booze), and a market selling international foods, antipasti, snacks, and (more) booze.
shopMarché des Enfants Rouges
The Marché des Enfants Rouges is the oldest food market in Paris (it first opened in 1615), and is now a buzzing Marais hub for food sellers of all types. Stroll through the dense maze of stalls selling everything from North African grains to Italian deli specialties. For those who want a break from the formality of the traditional French dining experience, this market offers a relaxed and (mostly outdoors) convivial atmosphere (and a great place to stock up on snacks for your hotel room or Airbnb).
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Maison du Whiskey
Maison du Whisky is a leader and standard bearer in importing and distributing whisky throughout France. There are two boutiques within Paris and two abroad; additionally, the company distributes to bars, hotels, and restaurants in France and throughout Europe. Inside, the shops look like the modern and more streamlined version of a wood-paneled library—you know, the kind where you’d retire after dinner for cigars and cards. Most people come to Paris to drink wine, but if you’re a whisky drinker with cash to spend, this is the place for you.
restaurantLe Bel Ordinaire
Making good on its name—which is French for “the beautiful ordinary”—this shop, which is strewn with beautiful pendant lighting, sells extraordinary versions of ordinary things. For example, oeufs mayo (a.k.a. hard-boiled eggs) with mayonnaise are a classic Parisian snack you’ll find at almost any bar, but here the mayonnaise is homemade. Wooden shelves are lined with superb dried pastas, more than 300 wines, a small selection of cheeses, honey, salt, and more.
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Frenchie Caviste
Frenchie Caviste, a small wine shop, is the latest addition to the Frenchie restaurant group, chef Gregory Marchand's mini-empire that also includes Frenchie (the restaurant), Frenchie Wine Bar, and Frenchie To Go. Although the store offers wines at almost any price point, plus a handful of liquors and digestifs, for a truly memorable splurge, take the two-hour Carte Blanche wine-pairing class ($147 per person). Participants sample five wines from prestigious appellations while nibbling small bites.
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Arthur EnardshopFederation Française de l'Aperitif (FFA)
FFA, a luxurious épicerie with reasonable prices, has dedicated itself to preserving and diversifying the French tradition of the apéritif—having a snack and drink before dinner to stimulate the appetite. It’s a great spot for a drink with friends, and for cheese and charcuterie boards that go above and beyond. You'll find all things apéro sourced directly directly from artisanal French producers: local craft beer, cured sausages, a handful of cheeses, and much more.
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