where to get a good cuppa tea in paris?

Not builder’s tea, no-one has yet opened a cross-Channel nostalgic / ironic greasy caff. (Career opportunity? Hm.) But for real tea leaves, pretty glasses and actual scalding-hot water – you’d be surprised how often the French get this wrong – these are my favourite places for a cuppa with a book:

• Sugarplum Cake Shop – a whole blackboard full of teas! plus layer cakes and polite Americans who will top up your hot water!

• Merce and the Muse – as well as leaf tea, try the lavender lemon infusion or the earl grey latte

• Mariage Frères – the queen grandaddy of tea saloons, worth going just to open all the jars and sniff the expensive blends

• La Petite Rose – cute fat brown teapots and intriguing names, like Secret Tibetan or Caramel Gourmand

• La Mosquée de Paris – little glasses of mint tea and sticky pastries in a mosaic and tree-lined courtyard

• Le Loir dans la Théière – always packed with cool people, there for tea or tisanes and the mile-high lemon meringue pie

• L’ OisivéThé – for tea and knitting!

• La Fourmil Ailée – all kinds of tea served in Japanese teapots, walls lined with books – real charm in the heart of tourist Paris

Here – I made you a map to track them all down!