3 Days of Wine, Cheese and Markets in Paris

France makes around a thousand cheeses and more wine than almost any country on earth, and Paris is where all of it ends up. The city's open-air markets, cheese shops and wine bars are some of the best places in the world to taste it, and they are spread across neighborhoods most visitors never reach. This route takes you to three of them, one per day, and saves the monuments for the gaps between tastings.

Day 1 starts at the Marché d'Aligre, the cheapest and most local market in Paris, walks the old railway viaduct of the Coulée verte and ends in the vaulted wine warehouses of Bercy before a cruise with a glass on the river. Day 2 is the Left Bank: the rue Mouffetard market in the morning and the rue Cler, the cheese street of the 7th arrondissement, for a picnic under the Eiffel Tower. Day 3 climbs to Montmartre, home of the best-known vineyard in Paris, and ends in the wine bars of Pigalle.

The arrival day does not count. Start with a glass of wine near the hotel on the first evening and begin the three days in the morning, when the markets are at their best. Most Paris markets close on Mondays and in the afternoon; the route takes that into account.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Markets and cheese shops need no tickets. These three bookings structure the days; each price is the cheapest option per person on the booking page.

Arrival evening: the first glass

Find a wine bar near the hotel, the kind with a chalkboard of wines by the glass and a plate of cheese or charcuterie to share. Ask for a "verre de vin" and let the person behind the bar choose; Parisian wine bars are proud of their lists and happy to talk about them.

Order a cheese board and pay attention to the order: mild to strong, soft to hard, goat's cheese first and blue last. It is the best preparation for the next three days.

• A "planche mixte" is a board of cheese and charcuterie to share.
• "Nature" on a wine list means natural wine, made with little or no added sulphur.
• Plan an early night: the Marché d'Aligre is best before 10:00.

Day 1: The Marché d'Aligre, the Coulée verte and the Bercy warehouses

The Marché d'Aligre is the market Parisians use. Its open-air stalls sell fruit and vegetables at the lowest prices in the city, and the covered market hall next to them, the Marché Beauvau, has cheesemongers, butchers and a wine merchant. Around the square, the cafés and wine bars open early for the market crowd. Go before 10:00 and buy bread, cheese and fruit for later. It closes on Mondays and in the afternoon.

Walk ten minutes to the Coulée verte René-Dumont, a garden built on an old railway viaduct above the avenue Daumesnil. Under the arches below it, the Viaduc des Arts houses craftsmen's workshops; above, the planted walkway runs east to the Bois de Vincennes. Picnic on a bench in the gardens.

In the afternoon, take the metro to Bercy Village, where the nineteenth-century warehouses of the old Paris wine market have been turned into shops and restaurants along the original cobbled lanes and rails. It is the place to understand how wine reached Paris before the railways, and there are wine bars in the old cellars. End the day on the Seine with an evening cruise and a glass of champagne from the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Stops in order

1. 9:00 · Marché d'Aligre: open-air market and covered hall, closed Mondays
   Rue Théophile Roussel, 75012, Paris
2. 11:00 · Marché Bastille: Thursday and Sunday market on the boulevard Richard-Lenoir
   Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, 75011, Paris
3. 12:30 · Coulée verte René-Dumont: garden on the old viaduct, picnic
   Coulée Verte René-Dumont, 75012, Paris
4. 15:30 · Bercy Village: old wine warehouses, wine bars in the cellars
   Cour Saint-Émilion, 75012, Paris
5. 19:30 · Bateaux Parisiens pier: evening cruise with a glass
   Port de la Bourdonnais, 75007, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Taste before you buy at the cheese stalls

Every Paris cheesemonger offers a taste if you ask: "Je peux goûter?". Try three, buy two, and ask them to cut a piece the right size for a picnic for two.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The Marché Beauvau is covered and Bercy Village has its cellars and arcades; skip the viaduct garden in heavy rain.

Day 2: The rue Mouffetard, the rue Cler and a picnic at the Eiffel Tower

The rue Mouffetard is one of the oldest streets in Paris, and its lower end has been a market for centuries. Its fromageries are among the best on the Left Bank, its bakers and charcutiers set up their counters on the street, and on weekend mornings a small open-air market fills the Place Monge at the top. Hemingway lived around the corner; the cafés where he wrote are still there.

Cross the city to the rue Cler, the market street of the 7th arrondissement, a pedestrian strip of cheesemongers, wine shops, bakers and delicatessens five minutes from the Eiffel Tower. This is the place to build the perfect picnic: a baguette, two or three cheeses, a slice of pâté, fruit and a bottle with a screw cap from the wine shop, which will lend you plastic cups if you ask.

Carry it to the Champ de Mars and eat it on the lawns facing the tower, as Parisians do on every sunny weekend. Then climb to the second floor in the late afternoon for the view over the city you have been eating your way through.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Rue Mouffetard: market street and fromageries
   Rue Mouffetard, 75005, Paris
2. 11:30 · Jardin des Plantes: the botanical garden for a walk between markets
   Paris
3. 13:00 · Rue Cler: cheese, wine and charcuterie for the picnic
   Rue Cler, 75007, Paris
4. 14:00 · Champ de Mars: picnic on the lawns
   Avenue Bosquet, 75007, Paris
5. 16:00 · Eiffel Tower: second floor
   5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Ask for a cheese that is "à point"

Cheesemongers age their cheeses and know which ones are ready to eat today. Tell them you are eating it within the hour and ask for something "à point"; it will be at its best.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The shops of both market streets are open in any weather. Swap the picnic for a cheese lunch in a rue Cler café and keep the tower if the cloud is high.

Day 3: The Montmartre vineyard and the wine bars of Pigalle

Montmartre was a village of windmills and vineyards until the late nineteenth century, and one vineyard survives: the Clos Montmartre on the rue des Saules, planted in the 1930s and harvested every autumn, when the neighborhood holds its Fête des Vendanges. You can see it from the street and, best of all, from the gardens of the Musée de Montmartre above it.

The museum is the oldest house on the hill, where Renoir, Suzanne Valadon and Utrillo had studios; its gardens are named after Renoir, who painted in them. After the visit, walk down past La Maison Rose and the vineyard to the rue Lepic, Montmartre's market street, where the cheesemongers and wine shops serve the neighborhood.

In the evening, walk down to South Pigalle, the streets between the Place Pigalle and the rue des Martyrs, where some of the best natural-wine bars in Paris are clustered. Order a bottle, a board of cheese and whatever is on the chalkboard; it is the right way to end three days of eating and drinking in Paris.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Place des Abbesses: the climb up the hill
   Place des Abbesses, 75018, Paris
2. 11:00 · Musée de Montmartre: museum and gardens over the vineyard
   12 Rue Cortot, 75018, Paris
3. 13:00 · La Maison Rose: lunch and the vineyard from the street
   Rue de l'Abreuvoir, 75018, Paris
4. 15:00 · Sacré-Cœur: basilica free
   Rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018, Paris
5. 19:00 · Pigalle: natural-wine bars
   Place Pigalle, 75009, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Come for the Fête des Vendanges if your dates allow

Montmartre celebrates its harvest every year in early October with a parade and food stalls. The streets get busy, but there is no better weekend to see the vineyard.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The museum is indoors and the wine bars are the evening plan in any weather; take the funicular instead of the stairs to the Sacré-Cœur.

Departure morning: cheese and wine for the suitcase

Buy what you want to take home on the last morning, not the first. Ask the cheesemonger to vacuum-pack hard cheeses for travel; they keep for days. Wine should go in the hold, wrapped in clothes or in a wine shop's protective sleeve.

Within the EU there is no real limit for personal use; outside it, check your own country's allowance for wine and cheese before you buy.

• Hard cheeses such as Comté and Beaufort travel best.
• Liquids over 100 ml go in the hold, including olive oil and honey.
• Wine shops pack bottles for flights if you ask.

Which day goes where

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

Paris markets on this route and when they open

Paris has dozens of markets, and their days and hours are the key to planning a food trip. The table shows the ones on this route; all are closed on Mondays except where noted, and open-air markets wind down around 13:00.

💡 Pro Tip

Go to the markets before 11:00

The best stalls sell out, the crowds arrive at noon and the open-air markets start packing up around 13:00. Shop first, sightsee second.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Five French cheeses to try in three days

• Comté: a hard mountain cheese from the Jura, nutty and sweet when aged.
• Brie de Meaux: the soft cheese from just east of Paris, creamy at the center.
• Roquefort: sheep's milk blue from the south, salty and strong.
• Saint-Marcellin: a small, runny cow's cheese, eaten with a spoon.
• Crottin de Chavignol: a little goat's cheese from the Loire, perfect with a glass of Sancerre.

If you want to go further, a day trip to the Champagne region from Paris adds tastings at the great houses of Reims. It replaces one city day and works best mid-week.

More 3-day routes

• 3 days in Paris for foodies: the sweet side, with pastry and chocolate.
• The Marais and east Paris: canal-side wine bars and Belleville.
• Montmartre and beyond: three days based on the hill, with its studios and bars.
• Romantic 3 days in Paris: champagne on the river and a cabaret night.
• The best time for 3 days in Paris: harvest, cheese seasons and markets.
• 5 days in Paris: time for a day in Champagne.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme