In Paris, there is nothing harder than finding a good, real coffee, roasted just right for the bean to keep its fruitiness and natural acidity! There are indeed countless bars that serve a vile concoction and still charge €1.50... To remedy this, I recommend going to an artisanal coffee roaster where you will have the additional pleasure of breathing in the sublime fragrances of roasting into the bargain! In Rue Saint-Honoré, 100 yards or so from the Comédie Française, the Maison Verlet, which supplies some of the biggest restaurants in the city, has been an institution since 1880 and is one of the most attractive boutiques around. All the great arabicas are delicious here. I also recommend the marvellous coffee-flavoured ice creams that you can sample on the spot. The other coffee roaster not to be missed is the Maison Lapeyronie in the Quartier de l’Horloge (Clock Quarter) near the Centre Pompidou: its 25 varieties of coffee are also of exceptional quality and all roasted to perfection. Pleasant terrace set slightly back from the very busy Rue Rambuteau.

For those who travel and frequent hotels, there is nothing more dismaying than a so-called “French-style” breakfast… Miserable industrial jams served in their little aluminium tubs, defrosted croissants, concentrated orange juice, hospital yogurts… A ghastly thing that is usually billed at over 10 euros!

 

Delicious in its simplicity, the “coffee and croissant” beloved of Marcel Proust presupposes a croissant made that very morning with a minimum of fresh butter. Croissants I am prepared to go miles for are rare.

 

There are Christophe Vasseur’s – nicely flaky, plump and crisp made with Sel de Guérande sea salt, and Véronique Mauclerc’s, near the Buttes Chaumont: which is handy as they are also my two favourite bakers. So read on.  

Paris has a definite advantage over the provinces: its bakers! Each arrondissement has at least one good baker. Between the Canal Saint-Martin and Place de la République, the baker Christophe Vasseur makes bread with organic flour.

 

His croissants, fresh apple turnovers (chaussons), orange blossom brioches and galettes des rois (Twelfth Night cakes) are the work of a great craftsman. Likewise, Véronique Mauclerc specialises in organic produce and long fermentation of leaven.

 

Her baguettes, rye bread and “Viennese” brioches are delicious. Her entire output is baked in the last wood-fired oven in the capital.

 

On Sunday mornings, you can have brunch in her bakehouse. A lovely stroll in prospect near the Buttes Chaumont!

Hemingway, in A Moveable Feast, hit the nail on the head when he described the Parisian markets as open-air museums. Now that the Halles de Baltard are gone and the “little people” have left the capital, you have to go to the market to find a semblance of working class bustle, with the market gardeners of Île de France (whose tradition dates back to Louis XIV), the fishmongers, butchers, poulterers, flower sellers…

 

The market I prefer for the quality of its produce is unquestionably the one on Avenue du Président Wilson, between the Palais de Tokyo and the Palais Galliera. Here, everything is beautiful, fragrant and tasty! I recommend starting from the bottom of the avenue, 100 yards or so from the Alma-Marceau metro station, where the market is most sensational. The star is market gardener Joël Thiébault, known by all the gastronomes for the flavour of his vegetables and tomatoes, but you also have to go and see the others round about, who offer exceptional fruit and vegetables as well and are a little cheaper.

The grocer and Italian caterer Fernando Moschi, where Carla Bruni and the Vatican embassy get their supplies, makes the best gnocchi in the capital; his Rostello ham is magnificent, as is his buffalo mozzarella, his burata wrapped in rush leaves and, above all, his organic mountain parmesan.

 

Just opposite Fernando’s stall, in winter, a Breton woman comes to sell extraordinary oysters that are as good as the Gillardeau ones, but less expensive!

 

Further up, the fresh goat’s cheeses from Saint-Vrain are delicious.

 

Excellent olive oils from Italy. Semi-cooked foie gras from the Gers region. Artisanal jams. Fish and shellfish of first-rate freshness. Poultry kept in the open air and fed on grain for at least 120 days… Even the florist is excellent.

Since the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) crisis, which actually led certain great chefs (such as Alain Passard) to take red meat off their menus, meat eaters have become cautious. They justifiably want to know the animal’s origin, the place where it was raised and how.

 

Officially, only three AOCs – Taureau de Camargue (bull), Boeuf Maine Anjou (beef) and Mouton de Barèges-Gavarnie (mutton) – can more or less reassure them; for the rest, they have to rely on the numerous existing quality labels. The main thing is therefore to trust a dedicated butcher, who knows how to choose his meat and mature it in a cold room (for at least 12 days).

 

For Paris – it’s not exactly headline news – the real professionals are well known, whether it be the famous Hugo Desnoyer in the 14th arrondissement (lamb from Lozère, beef from Normandy, veal from Corrèze), Jean-François Jardin in the 15th (nicknamed “the lord of the lambs” for his magnificent salt-marsh lambs from Mont-Saint-Michel, Lozère, the Quercy, Pauillac, the Limousin, Corsica and Sisteron) or Serge Caillaux, who works masterfully at the Saint-Germain market in the 6th. I also recommend paying a visit to the less well-known Alain Tribollet in Rue Montorgueil, who offers succulent ribs of beef from the Cantal region.  

SOS – charcuterie is fast disappearing in Paris! Above the Canal Saint-Martin, in Rue de la Grange aux Belles, Philippe Piel is one of the last pork butchers to make his own ham by boiling it in salt and bouillon with no preservatives: wonderfully tasty and tender!

 

This is the place to go for real old-style Jambon de Paris (boiled ham), now that Joël Meurdesoif is no longer practising in the 13th. 

 

There are still a few safe bets, such as Vérot in the 6th (renowned for their brawn and orange-flavoured meat pie) or Dubernet in the 7th where you will find some of the best fresh, semi-cooked and tinned foie gras in the capital.

In Rue d’Assas, a stone’s throw from the Jardin du Luxembourg, the famous confectioner, pastrycook and chocolate maker Christian Constant owns a small tearoom “with terrace” (a few tables set out on the pavement) where you can sample the most delicious sorbets in existence… His secret? 99% fruit, 1% water, no preservatives. His peach, raspberry and redcurrant sorbets are incredibly intense. But you must also sample his Mexican hot chocolate, which is thick and creamy, flavoured with cinnamon and chilli: to die for.

 

Between Place Monge and Rue Mouffetard in the 5th, the Maison des trois thés founded by Madame Tseng is a unique address, and an absolute must if you want an introduction to the philosophy of tea. Here, over 1,000 teas from China lie in a cellar that is as well protected as a Geneva bank! Some precious teas are over 50 years old and can be sampled on the spot following a precise ceremony. The green tea flavoured with real jasmine flowers is captivating.

 

We Parisians were beginning to get a little bored of having to go and buy cakes from the same old places in the 6th arrondissement. And now, wouldn’t you know, two new pastry makers are creating a stir. First of all, hats off to this couple from Pierre Gagnaire’s restaurant: Nathalie Robert and Didier Mathray. They met while working for the great chef of the Rue de Balzac and one day decided to set up their own cake shop: Pain de sucre in Rue Rambuteau in the Marais.

 

Success was immediate! Besides the beauty of the window display full of multicoloured glass globes, Didier’s creations are exquisite and never too sweet, like his brilliant “éphémère” (a coconut and hazelnut meringue biscuit covered with blackcurrant marmalade, all coated with a coconut crémeux…), his “tentation” (rich shortbread pastry with almonds, lime and pistachio almond cream, raspberry pulp and fresh raspberry), his lime and lemon tart, rum baba and, more recently, “Eugénie”, a cake created in homage to chef Michel Guérard from Eugénie-les-Bains (pistachio and coconut meringue biscuit, apricot pulp, sweet almond milk and verbena infusion crémeux)… The bread, macaroons and marshmallows are also delicious, as is the goat’s milk ice cream made in Ardèche.

 

The other pastry maker I recommend is Fabrice Le Bourdat, former pastrycook at the Bristol who has recently set up on Square Trousseau, not far from the Aligre market. His pastries look simple but are absolutely exquisite! I recommend his tartes tatin, his mont blanc and his exceptional millefeuille. The Viennese pastries are also excellent. Everything is half as expensive as at the well-known stars’ places. 

Paris is an El Dorado for cheese shops, so no revelations here – all you have to do is go for a stroll. At the top of the hierarchy, you always find the same ones – notably Nicole Barthélemy, who has been supplying the Elysée palace and Matignon (President’s and Prime Minister’s residences) for ages.

 

She runs her tiny shop on the corner of Boulevard Raspail and Rue de Grenelle alone. Her wonderful cheeses include fantastic Camemberts from the Pays d’Auge, Tomes de Brebis matured for 30 months from Ossau Iraty, Reblochons, Chevrotins des Aravis, Brie with truffle and – the ones that made the firm famous – Monts d’Or (or Vacherins du Haut Doubs)!

The same goes for wine – I will not be telling you anything new by mentioning the Parisian institutions that are the Caves Augé on Boulevard Haussmann, Legrand in Rue de la Banque, or Lavinia on Boulevard de la Madeleine (the biggest wine cellar in Europe).

 

For my part, however, I prefer paying a visit to the dedicated small wine merchants like Juan Sanchez, whose attractive cellar called La dernière goutte is tucked away near Place Furstenberg, in the heart of the Saint-Germain district. His selection is superb: Ostertag Rieslings, Sélosse and Egly Ouriet Champagnes, Cuilleron and Gangloff Condrieux, Jamet Côte Rôties, Grosperrin Cognacs. I

 

f you have a soft spot for Burgundy, then head to Vincennes and pay a visit to Francis Bessettes, who was one of the first to market the current stars – Jean-Marc Roulot in Meursault, Christophe Roumier in Chambolle-Musigny, Anne Gros in Vosne-Romanée, the Joblot brothers in Givry and Claude Dugat in Gevrey-Chambertin…