Paris secret: you want to warm up with tea, you want those pastries you’ve been seeing everywhere, but you also want to sit down, dammit, and not just get hustled out the door with your warm little paper sack of croissants. So don’t bother searching for ‘pâtisseries’ on Google Maps. Search instead for ‘salons de thé’, which is code for ‘pastry shops’. There, you can actually sit down, thank you very much…unless the listing mentions ‘chicha’ aka hooka, then it’s a bar for people who don’t drink, but smoke instead. Totally different vibe, FYI.

The Brits aren’t the only ones who know how to do tea, as Paris has its fair share of tea houses, and they are doing it Frenchly. If you’re looking for a peaceful place to relax or just prefer the steamy leaf water to hot brown bean water, these Parisian tea-centric cafés are worth looking into (and perhaps crossing arrondissements for).

Camelia

If you haven’t heard about Camelia yet, it’s high time to check it out, as we already know that this new kid in the « Le Marais » block will make some noice, just you wait. With its vari­ety of drinks, home­made desserts and lunch­es as well as cute inte­ri­or and vin­tage porce­lain, this trendy, yet classy (in an total­ly je-ne-sais-quoi way) tea salon per­fect­ly fits its loca­tion. The menu includes almost 50 dif­fer­ent types of tea and at least half as many lattes, so you don’t even need to black­mail any of your friend­ly bean lovers to con­vince them to drop by. More­over, it’s one of not-so-many places that are open sev­en days a week (That’s tru­ly like a uni­corn around here…) so if you hap­pen to find your­self in a neigh­bor­hood (as you should, because, come on), there’s total­ly no excuse not to drop by.

ADDRESS: 12 Rue Dupetit-Thouars (3rd arr.)

MÉTRO: Tem­ple (line 3)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Haut Marais

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 57 40 82 80

DEETS:  open 7/7, lunch avail­able, veg­e­tar­i­an friend­ly, women owned business

INSTAGRAM: @cameliateatimeparis

 

Bontemps

Bon­temps has the for­tune of hav­ing one of the best desserts in Paris (their cook­ies, called sim­ply “Bon­temps”), beau­ti­ful­ly com­ple­ment­ing their dual­ly amaz­ing tea. More­over, it’s delight­ful­ly locat­ed in the Marais and gar­nished with a frilly, pas­tel, sug­ary aes­thet­ic that ten­der­ly whis­pers, ‘This is the Paris you were promised,’ into your ear. There’s absolute­ly noth­ing wrong with a dessert focused tea, espe­cial­ly when it’s locat­ed in Bon­temps’ lush and idyl­lic “secret gar­den” ter­race. In case of naughty weath­er, sit inside which is a dul­cet, Parisian dream.

ADDRESS: 57 Rue de Bre­tagne (3rd arr.) 

MÉTRO: Tem­ple (line 3)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Haut Marais

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 42 74 10 68

DEETS: gar­den, dessert shop, take-out avail­able, closed Mon­day & Tues­day, dain­ty but luxe vibes

INSTAGRAM: @bontempsparis

Kodama

Kodama is a sleek, indy, tea-tem­ple that maaaaaybe takes itself a bit too seri­ous­ly, but makes up for it with a great prod­uct. Tea here is less about the frilly sand­wich­es-and-scones expe­ri­ence, and more about the intri­ca­cies and emo­tions of the bev­er­age of choice (don’t wor­ry, you can still get a smat­ter­ing of baked goods to go with your expert­ly craft­ed cup of tea). Every sin­gle one of the 40+ teas offered at Kodama’s tea bar is hand­made by their “alchemists,” and they range from herbal infu­sions, to green tea, to black tea, and every col­or in between. Like all great things, you can also just buy the tea online.

ADDRESS: 30 Rue Tique­tonne (2nd arr.)

MÉTRO: Éti­enne Mar­cel (line 4) or Sen­tier (line 3)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Les Halles/ Montorgueil 

PRICE:

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 45 08 83 44

DEETS: tea house, tea box­es for sale, open dai­ly, dine-in open

INSTAGRAM: @kodamaparis

Thé-ritoires

Come to Thé-ritoires for the eth­i­cal­ly sourced tea, stay for the god-awful puns. Seri­ous­ly. If it weren’t enough that Thé-ritoires’ archae­ol­o­gist/tea-aca­d­e­m­ic own­er has been pho­tographed drink­ing tea out of a wine glass (some­where in the dis­tance the Hun­dred Year’s War has restart­ed), his web­site has French tea puns every­where (degust-thé, véri-thé, the very name of the store itself, it’s ‘tea-rito­ries’ on French). If you can move past the puns (some­how), you’ll also find that Thé-ritoires serves a wide vari­ety of teas in pret­ty much every col­or of the rain­bow in an old-timey Eng­lish style tea house along with house made pas­tries, sand­wich­es, and tarts. They care­ful­ly pur­chase most of their teas direct­ly from grow­ers across Asia with, wait for it, inte­gri-thé. Ugh. Great place, they don’t mess around, but lol. 

ADDRESS: 5 Rue de Condé (6th arr.)

MÉTRO: Mabil­lon (line 10)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Latin Quar­ter

PRICE: lunch/pastry €, tea €€

HOW TO BOOK: Sun­day brunch by reser­va­tion only

NUMBER: +33 1 42 03 31 51

DEETS: tea cen­tric, closed Mon­days, dine-in open, curb­side pick up, break­fasts + home­made pas­tries, tea box­es for sale, gifts available

INSTAGRAM: @the.ritoires

Artéfact

Arté­fact is a bit hip­ster but we love it. Pri­mar­i­ly a cre­ator of var­i­ous eth­i­cal­ly sourced, del­i­cate­ly craft­ed teas and blends, Arté­fact also con­sid­ers itself a “project space,” using their bou­tique to pro­mote the books and music of var­i­ous artists while also hold­ing their own exhibits and events. It’s a dar­ing, com­pelling dive into cul­ture and a pur­vey­or of a fine bev­er­age all in one, and well worth a long in-store visit. 

ADDRESS: 23 Rue des Blancs Man­teaux (4th arr.)

MÉTRO: Ram­buteau (line 11) or Hôtel de Ville (lines 1, 11)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Le Marais

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 40 09 96 58

DEETS: tea house, project space, art exhibits, veg­e­tar­i­an friend­ly, veg­an options, takeout

INSTAGRAM: @artefact_marais

Le Valentin Vivienne

If you like secret pas­sage­ways, clan­des­tine meet­ings, and a decent cup of Earl Gray, Le Valentin Vivi­enne is the place for you. No, it’s not actu­al­ly in some top secret loca­tion, but it is tucked away in the Galerie Vivi­enne, a stun­ning cov­ered pas­sage­way that sim­mers with old-fash­ioned Paris charm. Le Valentin Vivi­enne is known for their remark­ably home­made and col­or­ful pas­tries and desserts, but they also have a lunch menu of French tarts and sand­wich­es for the savory secre­tive tea-goer (also dip into their sis­ter loca­tion in Pas­sage Joufroy. They have the Cov­ered Pas­sages game down pat).

ADDRESS: 35 Galerie Vivi­enne (2nd arr.)

MÉTRO: Bourse (line 3) or Pyra­mides (lines 7 & 14)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Sen­tier / Palais Royal

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 42 86 80 81

DEETS: tea cen­tric, dine in open, home­made pas­tries & choco­lates, lunch available

INSTAGRAM: @levalentinvivienne

Lai’Tcha

Lai’Tcha might be the coolest tea place ever, prob­a­bly because it’s not real­ly a tea place. It’s a nar­row, min­i­mal­is­tic cave that so hap­pens to be a satel­lite off­shoot of the incred­i­bly pop­u­lar, Miche­lin-rec­og­nized, Chi­nese restau­rant Yam’Tcha. So, not only can you get all sorts of tea here (includ­ing the house spe­cial lai’tcha, tea with sweet­ened con­densed milk), you can also get gourmet dim sum or some killer entrees. There’s also a stel­lar savory small plate brunch worth check­ing out on Sundays.

ADDRESS: 7 Rue du Jour (1st arr.)

MÉTRO: Lou­vre-Riv­i­o­li (line 1)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Les Halles / Lou­vre / Rivoli

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 40 26 05 05

DEETS: tea cen­tric, Asian

Mariage Frères Marais

Found­ed in 1854, Mariage Frères is a sta­ple in the French tea scene and has tea­rooms all over Paris and the world. Their Marais tea­room, a bright, time­less, vague­ly trop­i­cal salon, can often be dis­missed as snob­by (or worse, touristy), but their intrigu­ing offer­ings of tea-infused food and drink, and the allure of clas­si­cal­ly schmoozy after­noon tea make it worth the well-trod­den trip. Let’s start with the tea-infused salmon: it aston­ish­ing­ly exists, and if that doesn’t imme­di­ate­ly tell you how won­der­ful­ly over-the-top this expe­ri­ence is, maybe the note at the bot­tom of the menu that guests can choose one of the one thou­sand icon­ic-for-a-rea­son avail­able teas to accom­pa­ny their matcha-infused mar­ble cake or roast­ed chick­en with rose tea might be a big clue. This is not a drill. Heads-up: you can’t sim­ply pop in for a cup here as they require you to com­mit in a big way. A full high-tea or at least lunch is required. You won’t get in and out for less than €30.

ADDRESS: 30 Rue du Bourg Tibourg (4th arr.) / 90 rue Mon­torgueil (2nd arr.) / 13 rue des grands Augustins (6th arr.) / 56 rue Cler (7th arr.) / 260 Faubourg Saint-Hon­oré (8th arr.) / 17 Place de la Madeleine (8th arr.)

MÉTRO: Hôtel de Ville (lines 1, 11) 

NEIGHBORHOOD: Le Marais 

PRICE: €€€

HOW TO BOOK: from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., for lunch and brunch email: reservations@mariagefreres.com

NUMBER: +33 1 42 72 28 11

DEETS: tea cen­tric, luxe, brunch, lunch

INSTAGRAM: @mariagefreresofficial

T’Cup

T’Cup’s mis­sion is to pro­vide a tea expe­ri­ence as authen­ti­cal­ly British as pos­si­ble with­out actu­al­ly hop­ping on a train at the Gare du Nord, and they pret­ty much deliv­er on that promise. T’Cup offers the clas­sic three-tier tea good­ie pre­sen­ta­tion com­plete with sand­wich­es, some god-tier (sor­ry) scones with cream and jam, and delec­table pas­tries, all accom­pa­ny­ing a looooong and detailed tea list includ­ing cus­tom blends. All of this (includ­ing some lunch sand­wich­es and a brunch option for the meal-ori­ent­ed tea-goers) gets served up in a cozy, cutesy tea­room with a self-described, “Har­ry Pot­ter meets Alice in Won­der­land” aes­thet­ic. We love self-aware­ness, and we also love sav­ing mon­ey by vis­it­ing two coun­tries at once (and scones, we also love scones). Like Mariage Frères, there is a gen­er­al vibe that this is not like a coffeshop but with tea, but more an expe­ri­ence one must com­mit a full meal to: not just a place to pop in to to warm up and recharge, but to let them do their whole thing.

ADDRESS: 16 Rue des Min­imes (3rd arr.)

MÉTRO: Chemin Vert (line 8)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Le Marais 

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: reser­va­tions made only by phone

NUMBER: +33 1 42 72 00 98

DEETS: tea cen­tric, Britain inspired café, closed Mon­day & Tues­day, brunch

INSTAGRAM: @tcupparis

Le Salon du Cinéma du Panthéon

Film buffs, this one’s for you. Locat­ed in the famous and his­toric Ciné­ma du Pan­théon, one of the old­est con­tin­u­ous­ly run­ning movie the­atres of Paris (est. 1907), Le salon du Pan­théon is a tea room on the sec­ond floor that radi­ates with the exclu­siv­i­ty and glitz of an old school movie house. Think of it as the clos­est you’ll prob­a­bly get to the Oscars, but with much bet­ter food. Dec­o­rat­ed by icon­ic actress Cather­ine Deneuve, the salon is a hub for cin­e­ma nerds, actors, artists, and direc­tors alike (trans­la­tion: crowd­ed with wannabes, book well ahead). If the vibe isn’t enough to sus­tain you, there’s a great selec­tion of house made lunch spe­cials, fan­tas­tic desserts, and of course, tea.

ADDRESS: 13 Rue Vic­tor Cousin (5th arr.)

MÉTRO: Maubert — Mutu­al­ité (line 10)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Sor­bonne  / Latin Quarter

PRICE:

HOW TO BOOK: lunch reser­va­tions call +33 1 56 24 88 80

NUMBER: +33 1 40 46 01 21

DEETS: tea cen­tric, movie the­ater, closed Sat­ur­day & Sun­day, light meals, event space avail­able, Wifi

Désirée

A florist and a barista walk into an emp­ty store­front. The punch­line? They both work there. Désirée is a café/florist hybrid (stop me if you’re heard this before) that serves tea, cof­fee, and home­made cook­ies on one hand, and pro­vides stun­ning flo­ral arrange­ments for wed­dings and par­ties on the oth­er. Their cafés (two loca­tions) offer home­made baked goods, sand­wich­es, and a rotat­ing list of dai­ly savory spe­cials in addi­tion to their short but curat­ed drink list. And of course, the sim­ple, white cafés that spe­cial­ize in edi­ble plants are dec­o­rat­ed with the most dar­ling flo­ral arrange­ments, result­ing in a charm­ing, warm aes­thet­ic that feels so of the moment.

ADDRESS: 5 rue de la Folie Méri­court (11th arr.)

MÉTRO: Saint Ambroise (line 9) or Richard Lenoir (line 5)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Folié Méri­court

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 9 81 02 52 13

DEETS: flower shop, break­fast, brunch, tea cen­tric, open Tuesday-Saturday

Le Loir dans La Théière

And the Alice in Won­der­land theme con­tin­ues! Le Loir dans La Théière trans­lates to “the dor­mouse in the teapot,” a nod to the unfor­tu­nate lit­tle rodent in the Alice in Won­der­land sto­ry. With its kitschy, non­sen­si­cal decor and well-worn fur­ni­ture, Le Loir dans La Théière looks more like an invit­ing, intrigu­ing liv­ing room than a high-pol­ished Parisian café, but its immense pop­u­lar­i­ty (espe­cial­ly the week­end brunch­es, get. there. ear­ly.) speaks for itself. Though their savory options, hand­made and sea­son­al, pleas­ant­ly range from sal­ads to pas­ta dish­es, the main attrac­tion is the baked goods. They’re awe­some. Try the lemon meringue or just about any­thing. It’s all house made, fresh­ly made, and well worth the poten­tial wait.

ADDRESS: 3 Rue des Rosiers (4th arr.)

MÉTRO: Saint Paul (line 1)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Le Marais

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 42 72 90 61

DEETS: tea house, break­fast, week­end brunch, open daily

INSTAGRAM: @leloirdanslatheiereofficiel

Au Petit Versailles du Marais

If you’re name-check­ing Ver­sailles, the poster-child of exces­sive­ness, in your store title, you have to live up to the classy expec­ta­tions. And boy do they in a Potemkin sort of way. The tea-room side of pop­u­lar bak­ery Au Petit Ver­sailles du Marais has a small but insane­ly dec­o­rat­ed venue full of opu­lent paint­ed ceil­ings, chan­de­liers, faux Greek columns, fan­ci­ly uphol­stered chairs, and of course, oodles and oodles of deli­cious baked goods from a renowned pas­try chef who hap­pened to have won the dis­tin­guished Meilleur Ouvri­er de France title for patis­serie (it’s a lit­tle bit kitsch not gonna lie). Despite the flair, it’s still a rea­son­ably priced expe­ri­ence, espe­cial­ly if you like (umm­mm… imi­ta­tion) glam­our but don’t want to deal with the schlep and the lack of elbow room of the real-life Ver­sailles. It’s also well-locat­ed in the thick of his­toric le Marais, so you might find your­self there for oth­er rea­sons and in need of a place to recharge. In fact, it’s locat­ed on the same street as our hum­ble lit­tle office and where the Curios­i­ty Col­lec­tive (our sis­ter posse) meets with their guests to ride into the Paris sun­set. So yeah, it’s our ‘hood. We are par­tial to their Gougères which are savory pas­try puffs and their deli­cious baguette.

ADDRESS: 1 Rue Tiron (4th arr.)

MÉTRO: Saint Paul (line 1)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Le Marais

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 8 93 02 53 61

DEETS: tea­room, bak­ery, break­fast, lunch, brunch, dine in open, closed Sundays

INSTAGRAM: @aupetitversaillesdumarais

Nina’s Vendôme

Before Marie Antionette lost her head, she drank Nina’s tea. Orig­i­nal­ly found­ed in 1672 as a per­fume store by the “aro­ma magi­cian” of Ver­sailles, Nina’s prides itself on its unique tea blends with ingre­di­ents in as com­mon­place as their roy­al his­to­ry. Each of their teas fea­ture ingre­di­ents hand­picked from the pure, pes­ti­cide-free, endan­gered species sanc­tu­ary known as the Ver­sailles gar­den. Their Marie Antionette blend in par­tic­u­lar is made from rose petals and apples (and we are going to resist the urge to sug­gest that it be enjoyed with some cake) plucked right from the palace. Nina’s flaunts their roy­al his­to­ry to the extent of hav­ing a carved bust of Marie Antionette in their stark white bou­tique by the Place de Vendôme, a choice as bold as their decor and their fla­vors. This place is dress­ing up like a Sofia Cop­po­la ver­sion of Marie Antoinette but in a cup.

ADDRESS: 29 Rue Danielle Casano­va (1st arr.)

MÉTRO: Pyra­mides (lines 7, 14) or Opéra (lines 3, 7, 8)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Lou­vre / Tuileries

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 55 04 80 55

DEETS: tea house, luxe, closed Sundays

KL Pâtisserie

KL Pâtis­serie is a fun bakery/tearoom with an open-con­cept, chic gray and yel­low aes­thet­ic and adorable ani­mal cakes (the bears in par­tic­u­lar are soooo cute!). When they’re not whip­ping up dar­ling eye-can­dy (they do have some tasty stuff that aren’t ani­mals but are still very nice to look at), KL also serves tea with sev­er­al insane­ly inex­pen­sive for­mule (that’s French for price-fixe…uh which is also French for set menu) options that can range from one drink and one pas­try to a cham­pagne fest. Most impor­tant­ly how­ev­er, is the vari­ety of their bev­er­age options: they have milk­shakes. Do you know how hard it is to find good milk­shakes in France? Very. Trea­sure this place. Wait, was­n’t this list about tea? 

ADDRESS: 78 Avenue de Vil­liers (17th arr.)

MÉTRO: Wagram (line 3)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Batig­nolles

PRICE: €€€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 45 71 64 84

DEETS: pas­try shop, dine in avail­able, order online avail­able, closed Mon­day & Tuesday

INSTAGRAM: @kevin_lacote

Maison Nicoulet

Even die-hard tea con­nais­seurs have to agree that noth­ing is bet­ter than choco­late, and this place has both. Mai­son Nicoulet, a bou­tique-salon hybrid, pri­mar­i­ly han­dles the lat­ter, and it offers tea and rich cups of hot choco­late (choco­lat à l’an­ci­enne if you’re feel­ing fan­cy) in con­junc­tion with a few pieces of the more sol­id gourmet ver­sion. Here, the salon du thé is mere­ly an excuse to sam­ple the main prod­uct (morsels like pra­line choco­lates, caramels, and spiked truf­fles) in a com­fy, acces­si­ble set­ting. As excus­es go how­ev­er, the tea is pret­ty good, and at six euros for a hot drink and some choco­late, all sug­ar enthu­si­asts win. Plus the own­er who runs the show, bust­ing about left and right, is a charm­ing and enthu­si­as­tic tea and choco­late expert who is entire­ly hap­py to wel­come you.

ADDRESS: 32 Rue Duret (16th arr.)

MÉTRO: Neuil­ly — Porte Mail­lot (line 1 and RER C)

NEIGHBORHOOD: far­ther end of Champs-Élyseés

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 45 01 76 97

DEETS: choco­late shop, tast­ing on site, takeaway

INSTAGRAM: @maisonnicoulet

Rose Bakery at Musée de la Vie Romantique

The Musée de la Vie Roman­tique is a quaint bou­tique muse­um housed in a stocky 1830’s town­house that fea­tures col­lec­tions of art, jew­el­ry, let­ters, and the like from Roman­tic era artists and writ­ers. But let’s be real, you’re here for the tea and the cul­ture is only a plus (or maybe you are bet­ter than me and you are a real con­nois­seur of art and not just a lazy slob cal­cu­lat­ing the next place to sit down and do the calories).

This spot does not dis­ap­point. Behind the muse­um there’s a breath­tak­ing hid­den court­yard full of lush green­ery and tiny green tables straight out of an impres­sion­ist paint­ing. The tea­room itself is run by Rose Bak­ery, an inter­na­tion­al chain that serves a sweet and savory after­noon tea expe­ri­ence fea­tur­ing baked goods, sal­ads, and savory tarts. It’s the deli­cious, seclud­ed, back-in-time gar­den par­ty of your dreams. 

ADDRESS: 16 Rue Chap­tal (9th arr.)

MÉTRO: Pigalle (lines 2, 12)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Almost Mont­martre but real­ly Pigalle

PRICE: €€

HOW TO BOOK: no reser­va­tions

NUMBER: +33 1 55 31 95 67

DEETS: tea room, dine in open, closed Mon­days, out­door gar­den, greenhouse

INSTAGRAM: @rosebakeryparis

More Stories
Visiting Versailles