Strada Café

Just a few steps away from Beaubourg, there’s a place you can park your books and your laptop and settle in for an afternoon. This petite café boasts free Wi-Fi, a mix of comfortable chairs and desk-like arrangements and a variety of different coffees and teas. The coffee menu caters to both anglophones and French, proven by the fact that they differentiate between a café crème, a café au lait and a cappuccino. They’ve also got an alcohol license so you can grab a beer if the work gets too much.

If you come at lunchtime you can take your pick from one of the delicious salads (complete with homemade dressing) or homemade savoury tarts such as the leek and bacon, and later maybe a slice of their cheesecake or chocolate fondant for an afternoon pick-me-up. The clientele tend to be students and freelancers so the atmosphere is conducive to working, if you’re okay with the hum of traffic from outside and a constant soundtrack of indie music in the background. It’s a shame that there’s no outdoor seating, but the bilingual staff, great coffee and I-just-stumbled-upon-a-Paris-gem feeling makes up for it.