City Guide: Paris
Discover the key to Paris through the lens of team FRAMA as we highlight spaces with a commitment to craft and connection.
FRAMA has a longtime kinship with Paris—a city that fosters art, culture, and ideas. Recently, an ongoing collaboration brought team FRAMA to the Marais to launch a temporary installation at Maison Rocher. See Paris through our eyes in the Paris City Guide.
1. Eat and Drink
The oldest food market in Paris, and an essential stop to take in the breadth of food culture. Not to miss: Chez Alain Miam Miam’s outpost and any dish that shares the North African influence of the area, as well as any grocery item you could hope to find.
Early June
Run by Camille Machet Sostarić and Victor Vautier, Early June defines the culinary energy that has been growing in the city for the past several years. They host new chefs constantly—whether for a weekend or months at a time—but their excellent wine list, irresistible hospitality, and scallop shells for cheque plates are constants. Go early to put your name down and then wander the Canal St Martin area until a spot opens up for you.
Dreamin Man Café
Owned and operated by couple Yuichiro Sugiyama and Yui Matsuzaki, Dreamin Man is unassuming in its appearance, but every detail has nonetheless been thought through. Some of the best coffee and pastry in the city—and a beautiful example of a community of regulars developing around a space.
Lolo Bistrot
An uncharacteristically (for Paris) open kitchen turning out noteworthy scotch eggs with playful service and memorable music. Come for the food, stay for the wine.
An intimate café with coffee and seasonal baked goods and drinks that set it apart. A beautiful interior with exposed ceiling beams and warm wooden finishes that are worth a visit alone.
A design-minded hi-fi bar with a wood oven and enviable vinyl record collection. Bambino is a quieter spot for a drink during the week, but don’t be surprised if the jewel-box space becomes a dancefloor on a Friday or Saturday night.
Now an institution for those in the fashion, design, and art worlds in particular. A familiar yellow glow and perfect music selection welcomes any guest to the space. Jambon and wine is an order on the right track.
La Belle Epoque
A buzzing former-cabaret turned ultimate-bistro. The dining room of La Belle Epoque, which is originally from 1920, is filled with the warm glow of fabric-covered lighting and chatter from the social gathering place of the city on any given evening. An ideal place for large groups and several martinis.
2. Shop
Barthelemy Cheese
A non-negotiable stop, Tuesday-Saturday, to understand why this is where so many restaurants in Paris get their cheese from Barthelemy.
Ogata
A singular space in the city that manages to be many things at once, and self-described as basing their approach on “tea, cuisine, craftsmanship, hospitality, and culture.” The space considers so many possible moments of one day, encompassing a tea salon, an open-kitchen Japanese restaurant, a whiskey bar, and a shop with many aspects of these experiences available to take home.
Magasin Sennelier
As a space in which to take in the history of the city, Magazine Sennelier is an unexpected but essential stop. At it's most essential, Sennelier is an art supply shop, but its beautiful selection and stories of figures like Degas, Cezanne, and Picasso shopping for supplies makes the 7th arrondissement shop a timeless visit.
3. Inspire
A former studio of sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, the Bourdelle museum is a remarkable space to visit—details point to the ateliers of turn of the century Paris, and now the space contains work in marble, plaster, and bronze, as well as paintings, pastels, and fresco sketches.
OFR gallery
Connected to the beloved art book shop, OFR gallery will often show an up and coming artist in the back area of the space. An industrial space with Parisian charm.
Le sentiment des chose
A design and antiques gallery flooded with light and craft during the day, showing temporary exhibitions of Japanese art and home objects.
The authority on the artist's life and work. The immersive space in Montparnasse, where Giacometti lived, is made up a reconstruction of his studio as well as temporary exhibitions. The Art Deco building alone is worth a stop.
Fondation Cartier
Housed in its often-referenced Jean Nouvel building, the Foundation Cartier is the home of contemporary art in Paris. As curator Hans Ulrich Obrist put it, "with every Fondation Cartier exhibition, the spaces are reinvented," so no two visits will be quite alike.
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