Coffee in the morning in Paris

Where are you staying? I mean what neighborhood? And how early is early? My husband is a very early riser and he finds coffee in our ‘hood in Paris. Most bakeries I see in Paris sell takeaway coffee. Also, is instant coffee for the apartment out of the question? Finally, have you asked the person renting you the apartment?

If it was me, and it has been in many apartments I've rented, I'd bring my own small one-cup moka pot or buy one at any neighborhood housewares stores. Every neighborhood has several. Buy coffee and sugar/cream and make your own coffee. I hate having to go out to get coffee. But that's just me.

As an alternative, you could bring a “pour over” coffee cup with you and make it yourself.

I’m a little surprised your apartment doesn’t at least have a French Press or Moka pot. Like you, we like our coffee early in the morning before we head out!

I'm sure you can probably find coffee in the neighborhood, but if not, I've taken my AeroPress portable coffee press with me before when I knew the place I was going to did not have a coffee maker. It's very small and makes great coffee (better than a drip, imo). A lot of people use it for camping, but I actually use it a lot at home because it's easy, small and very portable.

I’m staying on Ile de la Cite, close to Notre Dame. I could buy a pot to make coffee but if I am being honest, I probably would just rather go out if there is nothing in the apartment.

There is a bakery very close to me that opens early but there’s no mention of coffee on the menu or in comments. I may just go to the Starbucks nearby bc I know what I’m getting, although I know that’s a silly thing to do in Paris.

Many European Air BnBs don't have drip coffeemakers like we have them in the US. In fact, I don't often see them in the Air BnBs I rent. But I'd be suprised if they didn't at least have an electric kettle and a French press or Moka. You should message your host and make sure they at least have a kettle.
European instant coffee is much better than what we have here at home - you can buy a small jar for your early morning cup, then get something better when you're out for the day.
And if all else fails and you can't find a bakery or coffee shop open, if there is a metro or train station near you, you can always get coffee there pretty early.

I have been criticized on newsboards for mocking AirBnb customers as demanding a pod coffee machine! Oh well.

Historically, Parisians on the way to work might stop at a tiny indoor stand-up bar, with a case of warmed but not necessarily bakery-quality savory pastries for breakfast. This is not at all like World Domination Coffee in the US, but more like a hot-dog stand for coffee. Sorry, that shorthand minimizes the ... neighborly fellowship of the "coffee bar", which again, does not mean the same thing as it does in the US.

I find Ile de la Cite a bit gentrified to easily find this, but I haven't been to France since before the pandemic. I remember one not that far from Avenue de L'Opera, on the short walk to tourist class Hotel L'Ile de France. But there were zillions of them.

I took a sleeve of "Happy To Serve You" (i.e. Greek Diner) take-out cups to Italy in the late 1980's. When I passed over a paper cup, and told them, "da portare via, per piacere", they looked at me like I was from the planet Mars. Why would I give up the warmth of the stand-up bar crowd, and the ceramic cups, for a lukewarm takeout? Well, now it's 40 years later. And you give good reasons for takeout. In your situation, I would not scorn a jar of instant coffee.

I always travel with a few Starbucks Via or Bustelo packets - just add hot water. Trader Joes also sells instant packets that include cream and sugar (don't buy them from Amazon though, that's just a link to show you what the package looks like). The packets are small and lightweight.

There's a small coffee chain, Noir, in Paris (Jay Swanson has covered). One on Ile St Louis, 63 rue St Louis; noircoffeeshop.com

Also another place I went to - Motors Coffee, 7 Rue des Halles in the 1st. motorscoffee.com

Ile de la Cite, close to Notre Dame...

Walk across the bridge between the two islands (Pont Sain-Louis) onto Ile Saint-Louis. As you leave the bridge you should see a place name St. Regis. It's on the corner of an intersection, but I don't remember the street names. They have wonderful coffee as well as baked goods and such for a light breakfast. Play around with Google Maps and you can locate it before you ever leave home.

One of the best coffee shops in Paris is near where you are. Cafeotheque located on rue Hotel de Ville not far from the Pont Marie Metro stop on the right bank. Excellent roasted on site Italian style coffee. They have a few pastries and such -- don't know about croissants in the morning as we usually stop there for afternoon coffee; in fact my husband is there right now.

Most bakeries do pod type coffee and most cafes make fairly bad coffee although having a grand creme with lots of milk improves that. But there are plenty of cafes near you (the location means they will be overpriced for average coffee)

We travel with a silicon drip cone which weighs little and collapses and a few filters and if the apartment, or more likely apartment hotel, we rent doesn't have a french press or drip maker then we just drip our own. Most places will have kettles and/or microwaves.

Rental houses or apartments we’ve stayed at in the past year (Ireland, Denmark, Norway, England, Italy) in have all had coffee makers - usually a Nespresso (or similar) with compatible coffee pods, and/or a Moka stove-top espresso pot, and/or a French Press. I often wind up buying extra-dark roast coffee at a local grocery or coffee shop once I arrive - but have a Ziploc bag to keep the package in, if you’re taking it to other places. Double-bagging isn’t a bad idea, as leaking grinded coffee is messy.

I have a very compact French Press with a glass cylinder and plastic protective frame (came from a tea shop in Scotland, of all things), and have brought it on many trips, as well as camping, but haven’t needed to pack it recently. If you know your place won’t have an acceptable coffee option, getting one would be a good investment.

One of the main reasons for getting a short term rental Airbnb, vrbo, etc., rather than a B&B or hotel room, has been being able to get coffee and breakfast without having to get cleaned up and dressed for the day first.

I have become an early riser @ 6:30 a.m. and find it hard to wait for coffee shops to open in Paris, so I've switched up my morning routine. I now shower first and then go out for cappuccino and croissant. I do feel a bit odd about going to a Starbucks, occasionally, in France, but I also want a venti size coffee. Anyone know of a great place in Paris that pulls a great coffee that's at least 10 ounces and doesn't charge an arm and a leg??!!

Skunklet has solved your problem by mentioning Noir on the next island over. Of course there is the question of whether they open early enough for what you are going to want. But their coffee is excellent.

You may well need to decide you'll make coffee in a moka pot, get the travel maker Mardee is talking about, or get some decent Euro instant coffee to get yourself through your morning until you can get somewhere that is open for coffee. Places in Paris just don't open that early.

And there's no shame in Paris getting a Starbucks. Until the advent of mostly Australian-owned coffee houses about 10 years ago, coffee in Paris was a dismal proposition. It still is, unless you go somewhere that prides itself on its coffee. But as Janet or someone mentioned above, coffee in an average French cafe/brasserie is pretty meh.

coffee in an average French cafe/brasserie is pretty meh.

as is, IMHO, coffee in many French hotels' buffets.

@Cyn, we have one of those, too, along with a small Moka pot we got in Italy. Minus our most recent trip, we almost always pack it. Granted, we aren’t light packers, but they’ve been handy to have.

I'd pack instant or a lightweight plastic pourover if you need coffee immediately upon wake up.
But I stumbled across Cuppa near Musee d'Orsay in April, and it was exactly what we needed. Carefully made coffee, with various options and flavors, including oat milk. https://www.instagram.com/cuppacafeparis/

@Indyhiker, I’m originally from Anderson, IN … maybe there’s something about location and coffee cravings, LOL.

In addition to assorted French Presses, I’ve also got three Moka pots, in different sizes. But my main device at home is a DeLonghi Magnifica machine, where I make a cup with 6 shots of espresso every morning. After more than 4 years, the milk steamer has stopped steaming, and now the bean grinder isn’t always working perfectly. I don’t think it’s been abused, and the Italian engineering worked so well for a while. Glad I’ve got some back-ups.

In case you're interested in reading an article about the beloved Moka pot:
https://sprudge.com/italian-coffee-drinkers-are-rediscovering-the-moka-pot-169901.html

Fortune has a wonderful article published in April 2021 that I can no longer access, but it is more thorough and has a personal-interest angle.

periscope, there is not a single MD cited in that Vogue (!) magazine article on the (alleged) hazards of oat milk. What about "last week's" health bulletin (no more reliable, I mean) that soy milk was as bad for women as guzzling estrogen pills?

Goodbye, Oat Milk—Since Learning This, I No Longer Put It in My Coffee

if that isn't a clickbait header I don't know what is... gotta see what "this" is.... nope, I don't click.

Tim and recent research has shown that guzzling the estrogen pills was actually not terrible for women's health either.

Cyn, you sound like me. I also have moka pots in at least three different sizes. I use one of them every morning.

We’d rented a house in Italy many years ago, and the listing mentioned a coffee maker. It was a moka pot. We had no idea what to use in it, so we went and stood in the local grocery store at the head of the coffee aisle. To a one, locals were buying Lavazza espresso. It’s what I drink to this day.

Like CL, I usually bring along some Starbucks Via packets in case of need. I rarely use them but they're very convenient when there's no coffee maker or the hotel in-room coffee isn't as good. If you have a kitchen you can boil water and put in the Via contents (half a packet is enough for me).

I'm in the Starbucks VIA camp for early coffee...I usually want it at 530-6A and it's hard to find.

You KNOW we are going to want an update when you get home on what worked for you!!

Our experience in Paris in February: most bakeries do have coffee but it's almost always a machine they just push buttons. You need to know the name of the coffee you want. We made the mistake the first day of asking for 2 americanos (espresso with hot water) thinking they could just give us a splash of milk in each. But this bakery didn't have any milk available, I felt terrible but the woman just took back the americanos and gave us 2 lattes. I'm fine drinking black but my husband prefers some milk. After that we always just ordered cappuccinos in the morning (that has less milk but with foam than the latte according to a very nice hostess at a specialty coffee shop in Bordeaux). My preference would have been a double shot of espresso with a little bit of milk but I never figured out how to say that in French!

Such good responses, will look for instant coffee at the supermarches when I get there. I also look forward to exploring early morning around me to find a cup of coffee that will wake me up. I also look forward to making mistakes and looking like a silly American on day 1 and 2, only to learn from my mistakes and feel like a pro by day 3.

I'll add that if you do find a place that is open early and you go there days 1 and 2, by day 3 they'll treat you like a regular! Be sure to "bonjour' them when you go in.

“Be sure to "bonjour' them when you go in.“

Just get in the habit of “bonjouring” everyone!

Another vote for taking at least a few Starbucks Via packets with you to get you started. I love, love, love my hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning, and I find these to be a very decent back up plan when traveling.

I just spent 3 weeks in Italy and France staying at 7 different places, and none had a coffee maker. Most had a kettle, which would be fine for a pour-over or a French press. I don't care for instant coffee or hot tea. Coffee makers are often listed in the amenities, but I was told by one host they haven't had coffee makers since COVID. Maybe they were considered unsanitary? At hotels, it wasn't a problem, unless it was after 10, because I could get as many refills as I wanted. We didn't have any trouble getting coffee at bakeries to go, but at 3 euros a cup (and not an American-sized cup either), it could get expensive for this caffeine addict. Next time I will take a French press and buy my coffee supplies when I arrive. You could also take a Keurig mini. K-cups are available in Europe. I've taken my Keurig mini on family road trips, but I would have to sacrifice clothes or shoes to fit it in my suitcase to fly by plane. I can stuff underwear or socks in a French press and justify the space it takes up.

I would not bring a Keurig mini. You then get into needing voltage converters etc to be able to plug it in (and converting electronics that contain heating elements doesn’t really even work that well — and that category would definitely include a coffeemaker!). Unless it's battery-powered, in which case it would be okay I guess.

soonerjace,
Last May/June in France all the various family members we visited were using Keurig or Keurig-type coffee machines. They all still had their French press and used it as well, but the "one cup at a time" bug seems to have taken hold there. Also, the gites we rented and the apart/hotels we stayed in had the Keurig machines as well as a French press or electronic coffee maker. Maybe it was because all but one of them were in the countryside without a nearby cafe.

stuff underwear or socks in a French press and justify the space it takes up.

Well, there’s your filter, right there! LOL

Kim is right. The Keurig is not dual voltage, so scratch that idea. I looked on Amazon and the only 220v coffee makers I see are drip style. Better to stick with some type of pour over. (And darn, I was seriously considering taking my Keurig.)

Almost all travel involves giving up a few "must haves" that we take for granted at home. In this case, turn that into a postive experience by getting out and having coffee at a local place with the local people.

The issue is that depending on how early SoonerJace wants their coffee, there may not be any local people out having their coffee. Paris isn't a terribly "early" city.

I'm not recommending this because I haven't tried it, but if you go to amazon.fr and search for Keurig, there are many machines listed for the French market. I would assume they are 220V, but can't confirm. I also don't know if they will ship those to the States, or if you would have to have them shipped to somewhere in France where you could pick it up. Caveat Emptor.
https://www.amazon.fr/Dolch%C3%A9-Machine-Capsules-Am%C3%A9ricain-Compatible/dp/B077ZDVGSS

...I also look forward to exploring early morning around me to find a cup of coffee that will wake me up.

From the OP's later post.

I really love to have my coffee first thing in the morning, while puttering around my room. I need to wake up and I don't want to go out for it. Then I like to shower and get ready for the day, then I can go somewhere local for some breakfast.

If I was staying at an apartment without a coffee maker, I would bring some cone filters for the whole stay, and a little coffee to get me started, using a mug for a pour over. Then I would buy more coffee there and maybe an inexpensive ($20) stove top maker. It would be cheaper than 2-4 coffee purchases a day. It would be worth it to me, and you can always leave it as a donation to the unit.

So many good responses here from some seasoned travelers (I would not fit in the category.)

When I woke up in Paris, it was 6:45 and I did not feel like getting dressed and trying to find some coffee out. I did take note of the pour over method suggested by some and purchased ground beans and coffee filters from a local Carrefour Express the day we arrived. Not the greatest coffee in the world but more than took care of my caffeine craving.

My wife is not a fan of the pour over without cream and sugar (which I neglected to get.) I got her some coffee from Noir one morning and found a bakery that serves coffee from a machine around the corner from the Airbnb today. So we are holding our own in the coffee department in the mornings.

Thanks for circling back with your experience! I'm glad you found coffee nearby and have it at "home" as well.

Glad you have found something that works. And you are a very good person to go buy your wife Noir while you are making do with Carrefour beans!!

And i keep meaning to say . . . .

BOOMER

"And i keep meaning to say . . . .

BOOMER"

As an ex-Okie I think that every time I see soonerjace's name come up, hahaha!