The Best Market Streets in Paris

Where to shop like Parisians do

Let me make one thing quite clear: Parisians do indeed have supermarkets, including organic shops like Bio Coop and smaller grocery stores like Franprix or Carrefour City. Monoprix is a bit akin to Target and is one of my favorite places to shop for gifts for folks back home, including but not limited to dark chocolate Maltesers, flaky sea salt, and Amora mustard. (You know who you are.)

But some foodies, including yours truly, are far more often found shopping along one of our many shopping streets – and this for a number of reasons.

First of all, Parisian apartments – and by extension, our kitchens – are tiny. It’s far easier to source just what you need when you're buying from an artisan than when you're buying in bulk. (Though to be fair “bulk” in Paris is about six toilet paper rolls or four chicken breasts.)

But secondly – and perhaps most importantly – chatting with artisans is part and parcel of the shopping experience in Paris. As I explained in this piece for Vice, in France, the customer is nearly always wrong… and what’s more, we like it that way.

Shopping at food shops in France has a similar appeal to shopping at farmer’s markets in the U.S. (especially seeing as most of Paris’ outdoor markets do not have any farmers in attendance). Your charcutier or your cheesemonger is the expert who's going to point you towards a cantaloupe that will be ripe on Tuesday, an exceptional Brie that just came in, or the last of the season’s pâté-croûte. It’s for this reason that I take most of my tour guiding clients to at least one market street – and why, moreover, I do most of my own shopping at them too.

There are market streets in nearly every Parisian neighborhood, from rue Cler in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower to rue Daguerre just steps from the Catacombs. Below, in no particular order, you’ll find my personal favorites.

Rue Montorgueil

Rue Montorgueil is located just steps from the former covered market of Les Halles, once dubbed the Belly of Paris by Emile Zola. What was once a street largely dedicated to peddling oysters has since become a veritable foodie mecca, especially if the food you love is pastry.

Along this semi-pedestrian cobbled street, you can dig into éclairs from Paris’ oldest pastry shop, Stohrer (51 Rue Montorgueil) or take advantage of novelty at Fou de Pâtisserie (45, rue Montorgueil), which eschews an in-house pastry chef in favor of showing off the best pastries from about a dozen pâtissiers all over the city. Snag a cream puff at Odette (18, rue Montorgueil), grab a gelato at Grom (96, rue Montorgueil), or dig into a Lebanese ice cream at Baltis (technically 54 rue Tiquetonne, but it’s right on the corner, so I’ll give it to them – especially since the stretchy-textured lemon sorbet is out of this world). You can even sit while you dig into your pastry if you visit the brand-new Jeffrey Cagnes (73 Rue Montorgueil) outpost, which has kept its old-school signage but totally revamped the offerings – and has added a few outdoor tables besides.

If your tooth veers less sweet than savory, rue Montorgueil is also home to one of my favorite primeurs, Le Palais du Fruit (62, rue Montorgueil), an airy, bright shop with loads of seasonal produce out front, where Spanish avocados are frequently on offer (I can't bring myself to buy the ones from Peru). I quite like La Fermette (86 Rue Montorgueil) for cheese and Boulangerie Blouet (4, rue des Petits Carreaux) for bread, plus there are loads of cafés with terraces perfect for people-watching before or after making your purchases. (I’m partial to Brasserie Les Petits Carreaux [17, rue des Petits Carreaux]).