Tucked away on Rue de Grenelle, with a gorgeous view of the ornate exterior of Musée Maillol through its glass windows, the third outpost of Cuillier (after Montmartre and Galeries Lafayette) takes coffee very seriously. Here the coffee is strong, with a velvety body and slightly fruity aftertaste, both of which are tough to find in Paris, despite its much heralded coffee shop revolution. Swing by in the morning for some quiet time with a book, but be sure to bring friends in the evening because it gets noisy and lively.
While Paris excels when it comes to café culture, from sitting out on the terrace of the historic Café de Flore to popping in to your favourite local bar for a classic grand crème and a croissant, until now that culture has not extended to the quality of the coffee itself. The French themselves do not even seem to care that their coffee is unanimously condemned as lousy, happily sipping an espresso made with bitter pre-ground beans, not bothering that the barman uses pasteurised long-life milk for the cappuccino. All that is changing fast though, with a new generation of coffee bars and wifi coffee shops opening up all over the city, many run by Australian and American baristas who take their espresso-making skills very seriously, alongside French coffee enthusiasts who are travelling the world to visit plantations, then importing and roasting the fragrant Arabica beans themselves.
These born-again cafés serve potent double espressos made with freshly ground beans from Ethiopia or Rwanda, Salvador or Guatemala. They are introducing the French to the subtleties of strong-tasting V60 filter coffee, flat white or the siphon Aeropress. Many are also gaining a reputation for their healthy food, from natural yoghurts at breakfast to grilled vegetables, crispy salads and organic grilled chicken at lunch, though don't count the calories too much when it comes to the chocolate cakes and cream pastries. New coffee bars seem to be opening up every month, and the craze is also spreading out from Paris, as far as Lyon, Lille and Nice.
