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!
Love it 🙂 We are staying just around the corner from sugarplum and went there today. I had a flat white though, was lovely! Might go back for a cuppa 🙂