Paris's best food shops
The capital's outstanding gourmet goodies
Rachel Lipsitz / Time Out
Whether you're tasting cheeses for a dinner party, looking for wine for your cellar, in need of a chocolate fix, or just feeling joyfully indulgent, Paris' gourmet food shops are a sensual pleasure based around quality. Give your taste buds a treat at some of these places.
Fromagerie Quatrehomme
Marie Quatrehomme runs this fromagerie. Justly famous for her beaufort and st-marcellin, she also sells specialities such as goat's cheese with pesto.
- 62 rue de Sèvres, 7th, Paris, France
Pierre Hermé
Pastry superstar Pierre Hermé attracts connoisseurs from St-Germain and afar with his seasonal collections. His vanilla slice (mille-feuille) is legendary, as are his macaroons - easily the best in Paris, if not France. Prices are high but your taste buds will thank you.
- 72 rue Bonaparte, 6e, Paris, France
Ladurée
Decadence permeates this elegant tearoom, from the 19th century-style interior and service to the labyrinthine corridors that lead to the toilets. While you bask in the warm glow of bygone wealth, indulge in tea, pastries (the pistachio pain au chocolat is heavenly) and, above all, the hot chocolate. It's a rich, bitter, velvety tar that will leave you in the requisite stupor for any lazy...
- 75 avenue des Champs-Elysées, 8e, Paris, France
La Tête dans les Olives
Tête dans les Olives on place St-Marthe (just north of Canal St-Martin) entices foodies with the promise of fruity olive oil fit for the finest of restaurants. Sicilian owner Cédric knows his oils like a sommelier knows his wines and can recommend types to match what you’re cooking. You’ll also find delicacies like sun-dried tomatoes made from beefy “patataro” Italian tomatoes, top-grade pasta,...
- 2 rue St-Marthe, 10th, Paris
Christian Constant
A master chocolate-maker and traiteur, Constant scours the globe for new ideas. His ganaches are subtly flavoured with verbena, jasmine or cardamom.
- 37 rue d'Assas, 6th, Paris, France
Poilâne
Apollonia Poilâne runs the family shop, where locals queue for fresh country miches, flaky-crusted apple tarts and buttery shortbread biscuits.
- 8 rue du Cherche-Midi, 6e, Paris, France
Saxe-Breteuil
Saxe-Breteuil has an unrivalled setting facing the Eiffel Tower, as well as the city's most chic produce. Look for farmer's goat's cheese, rare apple varieties, Armenian specialities, abundant oysters and a handful of dedicated small producers.
- Av de Saxe, 7th, Paris, France
Ryst Dupeyron
The Dupeyrons have been selling armagnac for four generations, and still have bottles from 1868. Treasures here include 200 fine Bordeaux wines and an extensive range of vintage port.
- 79 rue du Bac, 7th, Paris, France
Maison de la Truffe
Sliced, grated, chopped up in a sauce or in a crème-brûlée, the diamond of French gastronomy has taken pride of place in this chic eatery on Place de la Madeleine since 1932. Eighty years on, tubers of all kinds (Black truffles, White Alba truffles, Summer, Winter and Burgundy truffles) are still so adulated here that they’ve influenced the décor, which comes in shades of truffle brown, cream and...
- 19 place de la Madeleine, 8e, Paris, France
Lavinia
Lavinia stocks a broad selection of French alongside many non-French wines; its glassed-in cave has everything from a 1945 Mouton-Rothschild at €22,000 to trendy and 'fragile' wines for under €10.Have fun tasting wine with the dégustation machines on the ground floor, which allow customers to taste a sip of up to ten different wines each week for €10.
- 3 bd de la Madeleine, 1st, Paris, France
Fauchon
The city's most famous food shop is worth a visit, particularly for the beautifully packaged gift items and the stunning pastries and cakes - or, as Fauchon likes to call them, 'le snacking chic'.
- 26 & 30 pl de la Madeleine, 8th, Paris, France