That I visited Amsterdam and Antwerp during my road trip this summer is something that you know already due to this and this blog entry. Today I’ll take you to the third city, which I discovered a few weeks ago: Paris. So many different cities within such a short time, whether that is not too much? For me personally not because each and everyone of them had its own individual charm and inspired me in a different manner. Paris after this holiday for instance has become much more than the „city of love“ with beautiful architecture to me. During the past couple of years a lot of small and independent cafés have opened up in Paris that I of course needed to explore while I was there. At the end of my 4-day-long stay in Paris the list of my recommendations for you got so long that I decided – similar to the Amsterdam blog posts at the time – to start a small series. I will be starting today with the trendy neighbourhood called „Le Marais“, which belongs to the 3rd as well as the 4th district of Paris.

On our first day we went for breakfast at the Ob-La-Di. I had admired this café with its beautiful blue and white tiles several times before via Instagram. What I had not been aware of though was that the space itself was quite limited. The fact that the Parisian cafés in general are rather small became evident throughout our stay and I got used to it very quickly. The short time we spent waiting for a place to sit paid off in the end on the morning in question as the breakfast (chiapudding with fresh fruit and granola) as well as the coffee in the Ob-La-Di were excellent!

Ob-La-Di

54 Rue de Saintonge
75003 Paris

After the delicious breakfast we set out to go and see the surrounding shops. I particularly took to the papeterie „Papier Tigre“. In art and paper article stores I can usually look around forever, but in Paper Tigre in the Rue des Filles du Calvaire there were so many beautifully designed paper items that even after 15 minutes I couldn’t get enough of it. The design studio of the artists who are behind the many wirting pads, booklets, and other products is likewise situated in the shop. Apart from that, Papier Tigre has a second shop in our german capital. Worth a visit on my next trip to Berlin as soon as my nice new scratchpad – which I have been using for my ideas and notes every day since Paris – will be full.

Papier Tigre

5 Rue des Filles du Calvaire
75003 Paris

Our next stop was at the Boot Café. The space was even smaller than before in the Ob-La-Di. Not for nothing do the owners call it the smallest café in Pairs. I liked it very much for its warm atmosphere, its music, and its many art objects.The Boot Café simply is a place with a lot of charm for enjoying your coffee. Hence the old sign saying „shoemaker“ fits right in. My coffee (a Flat White) tasted delicious by the way.

Boot Café

19 Rue du Pont aux Choux
75003 Paris

The last thing for today will be to tell you about a café called „Le Peloton“. Founded by bike enthousiats, cycling – next to coffee – is at the centre of this café. That the Tour de France was going on during our visit did not impair the service though. And that we made quite a long break here in order to plan the next steps on our journey and, thanks to wifi, were able to take care of a few things, was no problem at all.