The 5 Best Sit Down Coffee Shops In Paris, According To Locals

Paris's café culture has long been associated with many of history's greatest intellectuals, artists, and statesmen, who have once gathered in banquettes or on sidewalks overlooking the Seine. The city's oldest café, Le Procope, dates to 1686 and was a favored meeting place for figures from the Enlightenment, including Voltaire and Rousseau. Following Le Procope's success, establishments specializing in coffee proliferated, and by the mid-19th century, there were over 3,000 cafés in Paris. 

While cafés may not be quite as ubiquitous as they were at that peak, Paris still has close to 1,500 traditional cafés today. You'll see them in every arrondissement and on nearly every street, with terrace seating spilling onto the street, woven chairs in colorful patterns, and servers dashing in and out with porcelain cups in hand.

For travelers, visiting cafés offers an accessible way to experience local culture, especially in European cities where café culture is woven into daily life. People often linger over a single coffee for hours, as travel expert Rick Steves explained in his blog: "Cafés provide a place for people to gather socially and spend hours catching up and discussing everything from politics to sports." (Steves also shared some crucial coffee etiquette secrets to know before a trip to France.) In that sense, sitting down is just as important as the coffee itself. Parisian cafés are places not only to caffeinate, but also to relax and socialize. With those ideals in mind, these are five of the best coffee houses that Parisian locals recommend, sourced from reputable travel blogs, local guides, and traveler reviews.

If the Eiffel Tower is on your itinerary for the day, Bleu Olive makes a convenient place to sit down with a coffee after the queuing and tourist-crowd frenzy at the landmark. It's just a 15-minute walk away, at the corner of Rue de Grenelle and Rue Cler, which happens to be Rick Steves' favorite street in Paris. Bleu Olive holds 4.6 stars from around 500 reviews on Google – popular, but not yet overrun — and Paris-based blogger Destination Dreamer Diaries has called it "the best local coffee shop in the 7th arrondissement."

"The ambiance inside is perfect for remote working, writing, or just a quiet catch up with a friend," the blogger noted. "I love the mix of wood, blue, and yellow color schemes inside and the staff is always super nice."

Most of Bleu Olive's standard coffee drinks, including noisettes, cappuccinos, and lattes, range from €3 to €5 (around $3.50 to $5.80). Like many cafés in Paris, Bleu Olive serves light fare alongside its coffee offerings. The menu includes breakfast items such as avocado toast and granola, plus a rotation of juices and kombucha for non-coffee drinkers who still want to grab a seat. It's listed as a laptop-friendly café, with free Wi-Fi available. Rather than the sprawling, tourist-heavy cafés found along Paris' major boulevards, Bleu Olive tends to attract students from the nearby American University of Paris and locals setting in to work. Just note that since the café is rather small, on busier days, you may need to wait for seating to become available.

Opened in 2005, La Caféothèque has established a reputation as a place that's highly precise in its coffee flavors and brewing methods. Its founder, Gloria Montenegro, equated being a coffee connoisseur to a sommelier in Daily Coffee News, saying, "Tasting coffee should be like a garden in your mouth." Behind the counter, you'll see an array of coffee beans from over a dozen origins, though if you're not sure which roast to try, you can simply opt for the variety of the day.

La Caféothèque is well regarded, with a 4.4-star rating from over 3,500 Google reviews. It has also been recommended as a favorite of former Paris resident and travel blogger S Marks the Spots, who said, "La Cafeotheque has different rooms but my favourite is by far the one in the back as it has a lovely plant wall, coffee sacks slouched over chairs and vibrantly painted wooden tables." Indeed, several reviewers have appreciated the spacious indoor seating, which features abundant greenery and wooden furniture. Coffee drinks range from €3 to €6 (roughly $3.50 to $7), and the menu includes a decent selection of food and pastries to pair them with, including empanadas, daily soups, and pies.

The café is also a convenient stop if you're exploring Le Marais, Paris' oldest district. Located right by the Seine, La Caféothèque offers terrace seating with views toward the river and sits next to the Cité Internationale des Arts, which regularly hosts exhibitions and free studio viewings of its artists in residence. The café is accessible via the Pont Marie station.

Café de Flore is one of Paris' most renowned cafés — and for good reason. Serving coffee since the 1880s, it features a classic Parisian interior reminiscent of film, with mahogany woodwork, mirrored walls, and red leather banquettes. In fact, you may recognize it from the screen. The café is name-dropped in "Midnight in Paris" and was the backdrop for a scene in "Emily in Paris." Before its role in film, the café served as the real-life hangout of writers and artists like Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, and Pablo Picasso.

For all its prestige and pedigree, the Café de Flore has remained a staple: "Sure it will have tourists but locals still go there as well and for a coffee/breakfast, it's fun," a local Reddit user said. The café has a terrace and two indoor floors. "I prefer to sit outside on the terrace, even on cold or rainy days. The inside has a different vibe, and the upstairs is a hot spot for locals," Paris blogger Everyday Parisian shared.

The café sits on a prominent corner in the chic 6th arrondissement, just steps from the Saint-Germain-des-Prés metro station. It's also about a 10-minute walk from the magnificent Saint-Sulpice Church, the second-largest in Paris. Coffee here is a bit pricier than at other cafés around the city — a café crème (the Parisian answer to a typical latte) costs €7 (about $8) as of this writing — though you're paying for the experience of perching at a legendary institution as much as the coffee itself. The menu has lots of food options, including over a dozen salad variations.

Another gem in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Maison Fleuret is a bit smaller and less famous than nearby Café de Flore, making it a solid option if you're looking for a cozier, less crowded place to sit and linger. The cafe holds 4.1 stars from just over 400 Google reviews, and locals have given it a stamp of approval. Parisian local Genesis Arnisto wrote in a Facebook post, "If you love coffee, this one's a must. Their lavender latte is fragrant and smooth, and the carrot cake is just the right amount of sweet." Its prices are standard, mostly in the €3 to €5 range (approximately $3.50 to $5.80), with a selection of specialty lattes (including chai, hazelnut, and the aforementioned lavender latte) that are slightly pricier. 

What sets Maison Fleuret apart for sit-down coffee drinkers is its interior, lined with books and preserving the atmosphere of its former life. It brands itself as a "literary coffee shop," housed in what used to be a mid-19th-century bookstore. A spiral staircase leads up to a snug mezzanine, where one wall is made up of stocked bookshelves, and you can pick out a book to peruse while you sip. "The interior strikes that perfect Paris balance," wrote travel blogger Le Travel Style, "minimalist but warm, with plenty of natural light and thoughtful details that make you want to linger a little longer."

Maison Fleuret is a 5-minute walk from the Saint-Germain-des-Prés metro station. It's also under 15 minutes from the Musée d'Orsay, a gorgeous Beaux-Arts-style building known for its collection of works by Impressionist painters like Claude Monet. In addition to coffee service, it also hosts a variety of culinary courses, including a croissant class, held right at the café.

Located near the famously hilly Montmartre neighborhood on the Right Bank of the Seine, Café Lomi is a well-known spot for a caffeine boost and a break between sightseeing. Lomi is especially suited to those who like fine-roast, craft coffee. Before it was a café, Lomi was a specialty coffee roaster founded in 2010, and launched its Montmartre café in 2012, serving its own bean roasts. "If you're curious about the art of coffee-making, this is the place to learn while sipping a stellar cup brewed by some of the best baristas in the city," said local blogger My Parisian Life. A menu highlight is its variety of espresso: It has an "espresso du jour" (espresso of the day), though the allongé (espresso lengthened with added hot water) is a set staple. Espressos are typically €2 to €3 (around $2.35 to $3.50), with more craft coffee options in the €3 to €6 range.

The café's appeal extends beyond the coffee. Café Lomi has a roomy interior with ample seating and huge windows that flood the space with light. Blogger Inside the Upgrade, who travels between Paris and Mexico, describes Lomi as "[s]pacious, industrial, and excellent for learning more about Parisian coffee culture." Customers are welcome to sit down and do work here (except on weekends, when laptops aren't allowed).

From the Marcadet-Poissonniers metro station, it's about a 5-minute walk to Café Lomi. The café is also within walking distance of several of Montmartre's must-see stops. The Sacré-Coeur Basilica, one of France's most gorgeous churches, is a 15-minute walk away, while Dalí Paris, a museum dedicated to Salvador Dalí, is about 20 minutes on foot.

To truly take part in Parisian coffee culture, sitting down is as much a part of the experience as sipping the drink itself. We selected five of the best cafés in Paris where seating is central to the experience — whether through airy terraces, distinct interiors, or spacious banquettes. Our picks draw on a mix of local sources, including neighborhood guides, blogs by Parisian locals, and online reviews, highlighting places that get the most praise and local affection. The quality of the coffee and access to major sights and public transportation were also factored in, so each coffee stop can easily fit into a day's travel itinerary. To capture a broad range of Paris café culture, we deliberately included shops from multiple arrondissements, on both the Right and Left Banks.