It’s raining, it’s pouring, your elderly Parisian neighbors are not snoring (they’re complaining about the central heating system in your building). In an effort to encourage yourselves to get out of the house and stop Netflixing in order to be a social creature, here are a few cafes we recommend for a rainy day or bad weather day or just…quite frankly any day. You can bring yourself a book to read, or bring a book to cover the tabloids of a gossip magazine, so people think you’re reading Tolstoy when in reality, you’re just seeing how Carla Bruni is doing. These cafes are known to be Anglo friendly (because, let’s face it, bad weather is rough enough and if one more person scorns at you today…) along with yummy treats to accompany your coffee. Voici in no logical order (remember, this is France), here are five cafes in various parts of Paris except for the 8th, 16th, and 9th – that’s because we’re lazy and can tell you off of the top of our heads that there are decent centrally located Starbucks in these areas and goddamn it, who doesn’t love a pumpkin spice latte? May the force be with you in locating outlets and wifi at the following cafes you should be visiting anyways:
10th
Oh, the 10th arrondissement, where hipster dreams come true. Like its California gentrified cousin Silverlake, this area is full of choices for coffee, all organic and fair trade and where the coffee beans have been massaged before grinding, etc. Since French coffee will never be Italian coffee, finding a place with good coffee can be difficult to determine amongst so many 4-6 euro a cup choices in this area. This all being said, based on our experience for good coffee, Craft is the obvious winner in the 10th. With a menu of solid classics to get your caffeine fix, the team at Craft…sure knows their craft (sorry, couldn’t resist). The last time we went there, it seemed to also have a coworking space which we can’t comment on (we do our work at home far away from the huffing and puffing masses of the city we are in a sadistic love/hate relationship with), but if that’s your sort of thing, tant mieux to go check it out. It’s also ridiculously close to the Canal St. Martin so you can go and take some photos to filter to let everyone know the sort of perfect day you were having, millennial Lou Reed style.
24 rue des Vinaigriers, 75010 Paris
19th
Le Pavillon des Canaux
It’s a house. It’s a bar. It’s a cafe. It’s all of that, and so much more right near the Canal de l’Ourcq. Come here for the coffee and the view, and to host a book club session due to their ample seating and big tables inside. You can even get in the bathtub upstairs for a photo.
39 quai de la Loire 75019 Paris
11th
Not to be confused with a band opening up at Coachella, there really is a cafe called Folks and Sparrows in the 11th and it really is rather the best cappuccino we’ve had in Paris. In fact, regret is felt just sharing this spot because now you can go and try them for yourself and the line will be even longer than before.
14 rue Saint-Sébastien 75011 Paris
7th
While using K instead of C usually reminds us of Krusty the Klown, the multiple locations of the Kozy cafe have proved themselves to be anything but funny business. With three locations around the city to get comfortable in, head on over to the spot in the 7th to do some political people watching on the avenue Bosquet.
79 avenue Bosquet 75007 Paris
8th
What more do we say about a cafe with the name that says it all? HONOR. That’s because they honor coffee at Honor, and even their description about themselves on their site begins with a criticism about French coffee. They keep it real because they really do honor coffee, and so we love them. Go, go, go.
54 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré 75008 Paris
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Dadⅾy wins!? The twins declareⅾ.