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Make the most of the summer weather with our guide to the best places to buy picnic food and then gobble it all up in Paris one of these beautiful sunspots
With a whole host of marvellous green spaces across the capital, it can be hard choosing where to lay down your hamper for a lazy summer picnic. So that’s why we’ve come up with a helpful shortlist of the best spots in Paris to soak up the sunshine while enjoying your food. From the verdant mounds and ponds of the Parc des Buttes Chaumont and the Parc Monceau, to the buzzing hodgepodge architecture of the Canal Saint-Martin and of course the Seine, you can be sure of a truly Parisian picnicking experience, in one way or another.
And if you’re bored with the bog-standard baguette and cheese, why not try our run-down of Paris’s best alternative food shops? From Paris Saint Bière’s unusual craft beers to the scrummy biscuits at La Cure Gourmande, you’ll soon find that a Parisian picnic can quite easily end up a rather gourmet affair.
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Covering 500 square metres, it contains two spaces: to one side, a small food hall full of fresh produce and fine French ingredients. To the other, a restaurant where the foodstuffs on display are transformed into delicious dishes by chef Bruno Doucet. It’s open all day, seven days a week, but that doesn’t mean a reduction in quality – it’s worth queuing. Pick a place at the long bar next to the window...
This temple of good taste is located on the ground floor of Le Bon Marché, Paris’s oldest department store, where its bakery, patisserie, butcher’s and cheese shop will all urge you to give in to gourmet temptation. Prices depend on the age and origin of the product, so you can just as easily enjoy a delicious pistachio macaroon for two euros as bankrupt yourself for a bottle of olive oil. The main advantage of this great grocery is the incredible diversity and exclusivity of its products. Red salt from Hawaii, truffle tagliatelle, rosewater infusions, bergamot-scented financier biscuits...
Delicatessan fans will be in heaven with over 200m2 of beautiful jars, bottles and tins to peruse. Personally seeking out the finest providers from across France, and beyond. To boot, these artisans have chosen to work with Terra Gourma exclusively; meaning there are some products here that you won't even find in France, let alone Paris...
Is there a lovelier beer shop in the capital than Paris Saint Bière? If so, the honour surely goes to its sister venue, situated around the corner on Rue de Charonne. Between them, the pair stock an extraordinary range of brews from Belgium, Germany, the UK and France, alongside novelty brands from the likes of Senegal and Jamaica. The owner's catalogue extends to over 2,000 varieties, including some of the world's rarest...
‘Buffalo mozzarella, pesto Genovese and grilled artichokes’, ‘home made potted tuna, capers, artichokes and radishes’, ‘brawn with vinaigrette, sweet onions and Polish cornichons'... Even though it might seem like it, you’re not reading a high-end bistro menu – this is the list of sandwiches at l’Epicerie du Verre Volé...
Customers stop into La Crèmerie for the company as much as for the great cheeses. Shop owner Dominique used to be a nurse so is a past master at cheerful chat (and watching calorie counts). French cheeses are her speciality, from a colourful wheel of wildflower Tomme from the Austrian Alps to Black Brie from Île de France, Saint-Félicien from Isère, small goats cheeses coated in cranberries from the Dordogne and many more...
Hands up if you’ve seen Amélie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 2001 blockbuster. It was the Canal St-Martin’s iron footbridges and tree-shaded quays that formed the backdrop for some of the film’s most atmospheric scenes. Nowadays, this ever-gentrifying, 19th-century waterway draws a trendy crowd to its shabby-chic bars and appetising bistros. But if you’d prefer something even less formal, then the banks of the canal are also ideal for a makeshift picnic meet-up...
Place des Vosges, separating Bastille from the Marais, is the perfect example of how Paris unabashedly mixes residential zones with tourist districts. Here, you're just as likely to meet a well-heeled local popping out for a baguette as you are a coachload of American teenagers. The reason, of course, is that Place des Vosges is pure eye-candy – a 17th-century peach stone beauty that was built for Henri IV...
There are plenty of handsomely ordered opportunities to indulge in a bit of park life in Paris, from the pathways of the Jardin des Tuileries to the ponds of the Jardin du Luxembourg. But if you're looking for something a little less formal, one patch of greenery definitely worth a stroll is the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. Set high up in Belleville and often missed by weekenders keen not to stray too far from the tourist loop, this 19th arrondissement gem is one of the city's most magical spots...
This park is a fun, postmodern version of a French formal garden, designed by Gilles Clément and Alain Prévost. It comprises glasshouses, computerised fountains, waterfalls, a wilderness and themed gardens featuring different coloured plants and even sounds. Stepping stones and water jets make it a garden for pleasure as well as philosophy...
Dotted with red pavilions, or folies, the park was designed by Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi and is a postmodern feast. The folies serve as glorious giant climbing frames, as well as a first-aid post, burger bar and children's art centre. Kids shoot down a Chinese dragon slide, and an undulating suspended path follows the Canal de l'Ourcq. As well as the lawns, which are used for an open-air film festival in summer, there are ten themed gardens bearing evocative names such as the Garden of Mirrors, of Mists, of Acrobatics and of Childhood Frights...
Running through the centre of Paris, the Seine offers all sorts of wonderful spots for a picnic. The Square du Vert-Galant on the Île de la Cité offers an alternative to the picnic-saturated Tuileries gardens. But of course, there’s always the quais of the river itself, or for those who want to make the most out of the (short-lived) summer months, then you should head straight down to the Paris Plages...
Covering 865 hectares, the Bois was once the Forêt de Rouvray hunting grounds. It was landscaped in the 1860s, when artificial grottoes and waterfalls were created around the Lac Inférieur. The Jardin de Bagatelle is famous for its roses, daffodils and water lilies, and contains an orangery that rings to the sound of Chopin in summer.The Jardin d'Acclimatation is a children's amusement park, with a miniature train, farm, rollercoaster and boat rides...
Surrounded by grand hôtels particuliers and elegant Haussmannian apartments, Monceau is a favourite with well-dressed children and their nannies. It was laid out in the 18th century for the Duc de Chartres in the English style, with a lake, lawns and a variety of follies: an Egyptian pyramid, a Corinthian colonnade, Venetian bridge and sarcophagi...
Up the slopes of the Hauts de Belleville, there are views over the city from rue Piat and rue des Envierge, but as far as panoramas go, you’ll be hard pushed to find a better skyscape than the one rolling below the Parc de Belleville. This modern but charming common, was created in 1988 to bring a stretch of greenery to the park-deprived 20th, and from its slopes you can see as far as the Eiffel Tower in the west...
The Paris botanical garden - which contains more than 10,000 species and includes tropical greenhouses and rose, winter and Alpine gardens - is an enchanting place. Begun by Louis XIII's doctor as the royal medicinal plant garden in 1626, it opened to the public in 1640. The formal garden, which runs between two dead-straight avenues of trees parallel to rue Buffon, is like something out of Alice in Wonderland...
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