24/Sep/2026

Written by The Picnic Guide

Coffee Tones. Five cafés, five shades.

These are places that are an integral part of everyday life. Encountered by chance along a path, visited every morning around the corner from home, tried out by word of mouth. We like them noisy or studious, indulgent, intimate, sometimes to be seen there and often to go unnoticed. If we come for the coffee, we sometimes come back for other things. Here is the club of the 5 cafés of the week in the French capital.

Trombone Café

① For its brightness, summer and winter, through the large windows that surround the link

② For a changing coffee shop cuisine, Turkish Eggs, daily Mediterranean buns and zaatar as a recurring theme

③ For exceptional coffee sourced from L'Arbre à Café

④ For the neighborhood café atmosphere that brings together the neighbor next door and curious passersby

⑤ For a place open 7 days a week (worker-friendly)

Coffee in one hand with milk being poured into it

Turkish Eggs and zaatar with cherry tomatoes on a white plate

Veggie shawarma bun with red cabbage in kraft paper held in a hand

Wooden pastry display case with cookies and cakes

interior of the café with sunlight and colorful wooden chairs

Cappuccino

Bleuet

① For authenticity in spades, alongside Tina (the mother) and Lisa (the daughter)

② For homemade desserts that recall the best nostalgic childhood treats, between crumble and rustic seasonal fruit tart

③ For the coffee (Tanat), green, herbaceous matcha, the tea (Le parti du thé) and hot chocolate (Xoco)

④ For legendary granola bowls and cookies whose straight-from-the-oven aroma fills the room

⑤ For a little-known spot, for the delight of regulars and intimate atmospheres

Outside the café with two blue chairs from the 1970s

Rustic fruit tarts with peaches and cherries

Granola bowl with blueberries and a latte on a wooden table

Outside the café - @thecolordiet

White Coffee

① For its interior with a minimalist aesthetic: raw concrete, clean lines, extreme minimalism

② For its specialty coffee roasted in Paris (to-go)

③ For playlists as well curated as the coffee

④ For the pressed juices aimed at the anti-caffeine crowd

⑤ To take away a bag of whole or ground beans from the house in packaging as sleek as the interior design

Iced latte in a plastic cup on a metal sign

Barista White Coffee on a background of coffee bags and backlighting

Gray designer café storefront with blurred passersby

Iced latte

Bagarre Coffee Club

① For the iced mango matcha with homemade mango purée and no added sugar (Uji region of Kyoto, vibrant green and not bitter)

② To support a café that has just recently opened

③ For its boxing-inspired aesthetic, a nod to its name (“here we love coffee and a good fight”) and its branding down to the cups

④ For Léo’s cheerful welcome, barista and owner of the place

⑤ For the perfectly calibrated classics (coffee, matcha) and the extravagant ones (Ube Latte, black sesame latte)

Mango matcha latte and coffee with cookies on a wooden table in the sun

Black sesame latte and coffee in transparent glasses

Coffee and pastry on a white plate on a wooden countertop

Coffee machine and cups from Bagarre café

Owner of Bagarre Café in front of the sun and the storefront

Interior of Bagarre Café with a dog on the floor

Mango matcha latte

La Main Noire

① For its specialty coffees, with a different guest roaster every two months from France or elsewhere

② For the space divided into two floors: upstairs room and large communal table, intimate basement and open kitchen

③ For the house signature lattes: ube and purple sweet potato or also lavender, coconut and maca

④ For the brunch that changes every month and the seasonal cuisine ranging from Australia to the rest of the world

⑤ To leave with their house-made pastas designed and handcrafted in Paris, for creative lattes at home

Cookies on colorful plates served by a café waiter

Cafe storefront with blurred passersby passing by

Purple Latte with purple sweet potato in the sun in a white cup

Café storefront with wooden barriers and customers in the sun

Dish with confit eggplant and cucumber with a hand sprinkling sesame seeds

Golden Latte

In the same spirit

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Beef, fries and wine on the table of Aux Bons Crus in Paris

restaurantParis,FranceAux Bons Crus

The restaurant Bambino halfway between a food cellar and a old-fashion record bar in Paris

restaurantParis,FranceBambino

Portraits

A piece of Italy in Paris

Step inside the shop and you’re transported to another world. They gesture with their hands, they speak Italian—Carlo and Martina bustle behind the counter, serving the city’s most Italian Parisians—and vice versa. The conversation gets going right at the counter, as we try not to think too much about all the excellent products surrounding us so we can stay focused.

Gourmet grocery store

Diving into the most indulgent street per square meter

The Nile is one of the longest rivers in the world. Rue du Nil is only a few meters long. Yet, for eating, shopping, or taking a tasty break, it is probably the most gourmet street per square meter in Paris.

JJ Hings: the taste of childhood

Summer is already coming to an end. Ice cream asserts itself as the fleeting remedy for the nostalgia of the approaching back-to-school season. As luck would have it, today is a JJ Hings day. A turquoise-blue and orange shop gives off the scent of browned butter and toasted flour. No, it’s not a bakery, but here the cones are homemade, regarded as a product in their own right, on par with the ice creams that will be placed on top. Julia Bell greets me with a shy yet generous smile. We sit at a large wooden table that runs through the room. To my right, a lovely pastel-blue counter with stainless-steel lids contains ice creams that are hard to resist.

Coffee Tones. Five cafés, five shades.

In the same spirit

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restaurantParis,FranceAux Bons Crus

restaurantParis,FranceBambino

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