3 Days in Paris for Food Lovers

Paris is the only city in the world where a bakery queue at 7:30 in the morning tells you more about the place than its monuments do. Food is not a break between sights here; it is a reason to go, and this route treats it that way. It plans each day around the best food streets of three districts, with a few sights in between so that you walk off one meal before the next.

Day 1 is the Left Bank, home of the most famous bakery in Paris and the best pastry shops in the world, followed by a macaron class inside a Right Bank department store. Day 2 is the old market district of Montorgueil, with the oldest pastry shop in the city, the covered passages and a museum devoted to chocolate. Day 3 is the Marais and the islands: the oldest covered market in Paris, falafel in the old Jewish quarter and the ice cream every Parisian grandmother swears by.

The arrival day is for a first dinner, not for a food tour. Book a bistro near the hotel and start the three days the next morning, hungry. The days can go in any order; most bakeries close one or two days a week, usually Sunday afternoon or Monday, so check the ones you care about.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Only three tickets on this route; the rest of the budget goes on food. Each price is the cheapest option per person.

Arrival evening: the first bistro

Book a classic bistro within walking distance of the hotel for 20:00 and order what Parisians order: a starter, a main and a cheese plate or a dessert, with a carafe of the house wine. It sets the tone for the whole trip.

On the way back, note the nearest bakery and its opening time. Tomorrow morning, the first croissant from that oven is part of the plan.

• Dinner in Paris starts at 19:30 at the earliest; 20:00 to 21:00 is normal.
• Ask for "une carafe d'eau" for free tap water.
• Bread is always free and refilled in restaurants.

Day 1: Left Bank bakeries, a food hall and a macaron class

Start early at Poilâne on the rue du Cherche-Midi, the bakery whose round sourdough loaves, stamped with a P, are sold all over the world. Buy a slice of the famous bread and a small apple tart, then walk the streets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where the rue du Bac and the rue de Grenelle hold some of the best pastry shops in the world within a few hundred meters of each other.

Late in the morning, cross to La Grande Épicerie, the food hall of Le Bon Marché, the oldest department store in Paris. It is a museum of French produce: cheese, jams, butter from Brittany, oils, wine and counters for every kind of food. Have lunch at the counters inside, then buy whatever you want to take home.

In the afternoon, take the metro to the Opéra for a macaron class in a professional kitchen inside Galeries Lafayette. A pastry chef shows you how to make the shells, the ganache and the famous "feet", and you leave with a box of your own. Afterwards, go up to the free rooftop of the department store for the view, and have dinner in one of the bistros of the 9th arrondissement nearby.

Stops in order

1. 8:30 · Poilâne: the sourdough loaf and the apple tart
   8 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 75006, Paris
2. 9:30 · Saint-Germain-des-Prés: pastry shops on the rue du Bac and the rue de Grenelle
   3 Place Saint-Germain des Prés, 75006, Paris
3. 11:30 · La Grande Épicerie: food hall and counter lunch
   38 Rue de Sèvres, 75007 Paris
4. 15:00 · Galeries Lafayette: macaron class, then the free rooftop
   40 Boulevard Haussmann, 75009, Paris
5. 18:00 · Palais Garnier: from outside, dinner in the 9th nearby
   Place Jacques Rouché, 75009, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Buy pastry in the morning, eat it in the afternoon

Pastry shops sell out of the best items by midday. Buy what you want at opening time and keep it for your afternoon coffee; French pastry is made to keep for a few hours.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Every food stop on this day is indoors. The macaron class and the department store rooftop are on the same block, so the afternoon is unaffected.

Day 2: Montorgueil, the oldest pastry shop and a chocolate museum

The rue Montorgueil was the main street of the old Les Halles market district, and it is still lined with bakers, cheesemongers, butchers and fishmongers. At number 51, Stohrer has been making pastry since 1730, when a pastry chef of Louis XV opened it; this is where the baba au rhum was born, and you should order one.

Walk north through the Passage des Panoramas, the oldest covered arcade in Paris, full of small restaurants, stamp dealers and old shopfronts, and the neighboring passages of the Grands Boulevards. They are one of the best places in Paris for a long, quiet lunch on a weekday.

In the afternoon, visit Choco-Story on the boulevard de Bonne-Nouvelle, a museum of the history of chocolate from the Maya to the great Paris chocolatiers, with tastings along the way and a demonstration by a chocolatier at the end. In the evening, the streets around the rue Montorgueil fill with wine bars; it is one of the liveliest areas in Paris for a drink before dinner.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Stohrer: the oldest pastry shop in Paris: order the baba au rhum
   51 Rue Montorgueil, 75002, Paris
2. 10:00 · Rue Montorgueil: bakers, cheesemongers and fishmongers
   Rue Montorgueil, 75002, Paris
3. 12:00 · Passage des Panoramas: covered arcade, lunch
   Passage des Panoramas, 75002, Paris
4. 15:00 · Choco-Story Paris: museum with tastings
   28 Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle, 75010, Paris
5. 17:30 · Musée Grévin: the Grands Boulevards, wine bars nearby
   10 Boulevard Montmartre, 75009, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Ask for the baba with extra rum

At Stohrer the classic baba is soaked in syrup; the "Ali Baba" adds rum and raisins and is the original recipe. Order one of each and share it.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The covered passages and the chocolate museum keep you dry for most of the day; the rue Montorgueil has awnings over the shopfronts.

Day 3: The Marais markets, falafel, the Sainte-Chapelle and Berthillon

Begin at the Marché des Enfants Rouges in the northern Marais, the oldest covered market in Paris, opened in the seventeenth century. Its stalls serve Moroccan couscous, Japanese bento, Italian antipasti and French crêpes at shared tables, and it is the best place in the city for a market breakfast or an early lunch. It closes on Mondays.

Walk south through the Marais to the rue des Rosiers, the heart of the old Jewish quarter, where the falafel shops serve the most famous cheap lunch in Paris: pita filled with fried chickpea balls, grilled aubergine, cabbage and tahini. There will be a queue; it moves quickly.

Cross onto the Île de la Cité for the one monument of the day, the Sainte-Chapelle, and its walls of stained glass. Then walk across the bridge to the Île Saint-Louis for an ice cream at Berthillon, the ice-cream maker every Parisian knows. Choose one of the seasonal sorbets; the wild strawberry, when it is on, is the classic.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Marché des Enfants Rouges: covered market, closed Mondays
   Rue Charlot, 75003, Paris
2. 12:30 · Rue des Rosiers: falafel in the old Jewish quarter
   Rue des Rosiers, 75004, Paris
3. 14:00 · Sainte-Chapelle: stained glass and the Conciergerie
   8 Boulevard du Palais, 75001, Paris
4. 16:00 · Île Saint-Louis: cheese and wine shops on the main street
   Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île, 75004, Paris
5. 16:30 · Berthillon: seasonal sorbets
   Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île, 75004, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Eat the falafel standing, not seated

The takeaway window is twice as fast as the sit-down room and the falafel is identical. Take it to the Place des Vosges, five minutes away, and eat it on a bench under the trees.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The market is covered, the falafel shops have rooms inside and the Sainte-Chapelle is indoors. The ice cream is worth a wet walk.

Departure morning: food to take home

Use the last morning to buy what you want to take home. Hard cheeses, vacuum-packed charcuterie, chocolate, jams, mustard and boxed pastries all travel well; soft cheeses travel better in the hold than in the cabin.

La Grande Épicerie, the Galeries Lafayette food hall and the shops of the rue Montorgueil all pack for travel if you ask.

• Liquids over 100 ml, including jams and honey, go in the hold.
• Ask the cheesemonger to vacuum-pack cheese for the flight.
• Bakery bread is best eaten on the day; buy a last loaf for the train or the plane.

Which day goes where

The three days can run in any order. Use this table to keep every sight off its closing day.

What to eat in Paris: a 3-day checklist

Every item on this list is on the route above, and none of them costs much. It is the shortest possible guide to eating like a Parisian in three days.

💡 Pro Tip

Follow the queue of locals, not the guidebook

A queue of people in work clothes at 8:00 outside a bakery is the best restaurant review in Paris. If you see one, join it and order whatever the person in front of you orders.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Bistro rules that make every meal better

• Book dinner for good bistros, even on weekdays; many have only twenty tables.
• Order the formula at lunch: a fixed-price starter and main, or main and dessert, is the best value in French dining.
• Ask for the bill: in Paris it never comes until you ask for "l'addition".
• Tipping is included in the price; leaving a few euros for good service is appreciated, not expected.
• Cheese comes before dessert, not after it.

More 3-day routes

• Wine, cheese and markets: the companion route for the savory side of Paris.
• The Marais and east Paris: Belleville's cheap eats and the canal-side wine bars.
• Romantic 3 days in Paris: long dinners and a cruise.
• Paris on a budget: eating well for very little.
• The best time for 3 days in Paris: the seasons for strawberries, oysters and game.
• 4 days in Paris: a fourth day means a fourth bistro dinner.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme