Your Opinion - Best Outdoor Cafe in Paris?
 

Hello,
I'm going to Paris for the first time in just a couple of weeks with a few friends, and hoping for pleasant weather. On all of our "lists to do" is just whiling away time sipping coffee/wine/tea in a cafe and watching the world go by. What are your favorite places for this?

Of course they're "touristy" and overpriced, but you must go at least once to Deux Magots and/or Cafe de Flore, on Blvd. St. Germain. And the world definitely goes by that corner!

Agreed- wouldn't miss it anytime I'm in Paris.... exciting area!

We preferred Cafe Bonaparte, just a few steps away.

We love Cafe Bonaparte. It is not far from Deux Magots and Cafe Flore. The waiters are friendly and pleasant, it is more reasonably priced, the croissants are better and the people watching is better.

Outside table at Chez Eugene in the very touristy Place du Tertre...lots of fun to watch the crowd mill around from a sitting position, glass of wine in hand. (Chez Eugene is off to the side, rather than on the main 'thoroughfare').

Cafe Esmeralda across from the little park behind Notre Dame - you can watch the busloads of tourists, look at Notre Dame, and see if there are any street entertainers on the little bridge.

On our recent trip we did go to Deux Magots. As an ex-English teacher, I'm of course a Hemingway reader. As they say, it is a must. However, I was surprised at the level of street noise. We spent a few different times having wine in outdoor cafes since the weather was very good. Eventually, we yielded to the peace and quiet inside. We even returned twice to eat at a restaurant on Rue Buci. Maybe eventually I'll find the name--across the alley from the little shop selling olive oil and sea salt.
It's true, it is more peaceful outdoors at the cafes on the two isles.

Chez Francis (opposite Alma Marceau metro station).

Le Dôme at Place École Militaire, a very busy corner just down from the Champ de Mars.

Scossa on the Place Victor Hugo in the 16th, esp. on a sunny day when you can watch the fountains and the Parisians and nary a Rick Steves guidebook in sight! (not that there's anything wrong with that)

It's definitely Cafe Flore!!! I have had an arrival-night-in-Paris tradition for decades of dropping by the Flore on arrival night and having a kir royale...a glass of cassis and champagne...there's not much better in life...it's as smooth as silk and worth every expensive Euro! Happy Travels!

>... a kir royale...a glass of cassis and champagne..<

I should hope that it is Chambord and champagne.

(Doesn't really matter what the bubbly is.)

((I))

La Chope Café at 2-4 Place de la Contrescarpe.

So many places. . .

Deux Magots and Cafe Bonaparte, bien sur. Also, at Carrefour Vavin, any of the "American" cafes--La Coupole, La Rotunde, Le Select, Le Dome.

On Place Contrescarpe, we like Cafe Delmas. There's a place in the 7th--Cafe Malar? maybe, on rue Malar--where we spent a lovely spring afternoon sipping Beaujolais at just the perfect temperature and watching the world go by.

Cafe Viaduct, at the Viaduct des Arts. Cafe Beauborg, right across from the Pompidou Center, is fun in a manic sort of way. We also like sitting on the terrasse at La Tartine, a wine bar on rue St. Antoine in the Marais. I'm sure I'll think of more. . .

Tut Tut Ira! chambord and champagne is not a Kir Royale.. A Kir or Kir Royale is creme de cassis and white wine or champagne. chambord is a raspberry liquour

Yes, the traditional Kir Royale is made with Creme de Cassis but Chambord lovers enjoy an absolutely marvelous variation on this storied classic. Many call it the Chambord Royale, of course, but Chambord simply calls it "Chambord and Champagne." For a wonderful website design experience, check out http://www.chambordonline.com/

I'm noticing more and more specialty "kirs"--white wine with something other than the traditional cassis. Auberge Nicolas Flamel has a house "kir" that uses a fraise de bois eau de vie--it is soooo good. I bought a bottle and started making drinks that I called "kirs sorcieres" as an homage to Flamel (and Harry Potter).

Chez Janou's specialty kir last time we were there featured a chestnut-flavored liqueur. And in the south of France, if you ask for a kir, they may steer you toward a "myro"--white wine (probably NOT Bourgogne aligote) and creme de myrtilles (blueberries). Also tres yum.

But jody is correct--un kir veritable features cassis. Chambord sounds like a Loire variation.

And then of course is the Communard which is red wine & creme de cassis!

To continue hopingtotravel's vein, Hemingway (and Miller) also mentioned the big 3 in Montparnasse: Le Select, Le Dome & La Rotonde at the crossroads of bd du Montparnasse, rue Delambre (where the Dingo used to be) and bd Raspail.

Fouquet's on the Champs Elysées was James Joyce's and Hemingway's favorite.

And there's great people watching on the Place des Vosges at Ma Bourgogne & my fave little place, Nectarine.

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tp/fc74a/


Also, another fave of mine is Café de la Mairie, one of Henry Miller's haunts, on Place St-Sulpice in the 6th.

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tp/ff86e/

Next trip, I'd like to check out Closerie des Lilas, Hemingway's favorite, which is on the bd du Montparnasse at the end of rue Nôtre-Dame-des-Champs (where he once lived with Hadley).

And just to confuse things even further, a Communard can also be called a Cardinale. . . guess it depends whether you're Marxist or Catholic?

Wow! There are so many options (not that I expected any less). Thanks so much for your suggestions. Looks like I'll be squeezing in time for things like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, instead of the other way around! And, as I'm not a coffee drinker, a Kir it will be...

If it's a warm day, try a tea with fresh mint leaves. Is all the rage during the summer months and it's really refreshing. Or try one of the Mariage Freres salons (or L'Esplanade, the chic cafe overlooking the Esplanade des Invalides in the 7th by the LaTour Maubourg metro stop--good cocktails and a nice selection of MF teas).

I'll add the cafe on rue de lutece, on Ile de la Cite. Large patio, near Law Courts, Notre Dame, St Chapelle...good breakfast place. There are also a couple on Place de la Bastille where there is much world going by.

And I'll second the Place de la Bastille, although I don't think I know the names of any of the cafes there. But it doesn't matter--just pick a table and watch the show.

Ahhh, I had not heard that, Elle. Thank you!

bookingmarking

ok, so I can't spell. bookmarking. :)

I second Beatchick's vote for Cafe de la Mairie. My morning routine while in Paris typically includes getting a pastry at Gerald Mulot on Rue de Seine, eating it while sitting in one of the park benches in Place St. Sulpice and then having a cafe creme inside the cafe while reading my book. It didn't take but two days for the waiters to recognize me. It's also very lively in the evenings.

I'm glad to see a couple people choose the Place de la Contrescarpe and one person mention my favorite there, La Chope Café. I stayed near there in August'98 and spent each evening at one or other of the cafes. It's a great coloful, local spot; not toristy but with lots of tourists walking across to the cheap ethnic restaruants at the top of rue Moufetard. Plus locals going home with string bags full of groceries; Sorbonne students in leather and spike hair; and motorcyclists who hang out, their bikes propped against the fence around the fountain. The first night I was there the dirt around the fountain was bare, but by the second nights the parks people had put down sod, and before I left Paris they had the fountain working again.

"Le Dome" didn't sound familiar to me from our stay at Hotel de Turenne a few years ago, so I looked it up..
It's located on place du General Gouraud, where aves. Rapp, Bourdonnais and St Dominique meet up. There's an Eiffel Tower view from the terrace tables.
(not to be confused with Le Dome at Montparnasse)..

Friends living in Paris for seven months tried hot chocolate all over the city and said that in their opinion Cafe Flore had the best.

Joe18:
Sadly, when we were at Place Contrescarpe in June, La Chope was gone and is now sort of a modern, "hip" looking cafe. Darn.

What nothing on the Boul Mich?. I guess most of the good ones have also become non descript clothing stores.
Hopefully Deux Magots and Flore will always be there although they are a lot more touristy than they used to be.

I second Chez Francis. Perfect place to sit outdoors at night and have a great dinner while watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle. We ate there the first night of our honeymoon and it was just perfect.

Café Beaubourg (Hôtel de Ville)
Café Marguerite (Hôtel de Ville)
Café de la Musique (Porte de Pantin)

Just wanted to post here that I took Elle's advice & did people-watching at Café des Phares on the Place de la Bastille. I've posted the photos (fashion shots - what people are wearing) here:
www.pbase.com/beatchick

Thanks, Elle - it was a great experience!!

beatchick:
Fabulous photos. I LOVED theyellow sneakers. Oh my gosh, those picts made me want to go back to Paris so bad...

We enjoyed Le Dome near the Eifel Tower. We've also enjoyed many cafes that we just happened by and stopped in.

I suppose we must have gone to the Cafe Flore in a parallel universe. It was the worst meal in seven visits to Paris. The onion soup tasted like bath water, the waiter was surly and bread was non-existent. We love Paris and this is the only absolutely negative experience we have had there.

Chez Francis, (sigh!) I have the menu framed from my visit there over 25 years ago, my new favorite is the Brasseerie de L'Isle Saint Louis on the Quai de Boubin that faces the bridge where a jazz group plays and I watched the tourists and locals walk by. I recently found out it was a favorite of a friend who lives in France and also has taken a photo of a jazz band on the bridge but long ago.

Any votes for La Palette? I didn't actually get to sit down there, but I have a Parisian friend that loves it. In the 6th, rue de Seine. Crusty old waiter.

adding to my notes...<font color="red">great !!</font>