18 delicious Paris summer dining ideas

Your experience of the market depends largely on where you go: the top of the street is where to head for seasonal fruit and veg (€1-3/kg), whereas a detour through the covered Beauveau market will take you through the pricier fishmongers’ and butchers’ stalls. Don’t miss the motley collection of books, African masks and other trinkets that line the artisanal stands in the main yard...  

The picnic spot: From here, walk along the Coulée Verte (atop the Viaduc des Arts) to modern Parc de Reuilly, with its fizzy public water fountain.

The lowdown: This pretty, compact market is set on a leafy square. It has a high proportion of producers and is much less touristy than nearby rue Mouffetard. The breads here are particularly good, and if you don't fancy traditional picnic staples (cheese, paté and wine) you'll find stall hawking spicy Asian nibbles, ready-to-eat Lebenese dishes and Creole curries.

The picnic spot: From here, it's just a few minutes walk to Jardin des Plantes, where you can nab a park bench, or head to the Arènes de Lutèce – a peaceful public garden set in a former Roman arena.

This 'wonderful, narrow crowded market street', as Hemingway described it in 'A Moveable Feast', still sports bright and bustling stalls of fruit and veg in its cobbled lower stretches, its atmospheric buildings making it one of the city’s loveliest street markets. Many grocers – also hawking charcuterie, patés, seafood, cheeses and sticky patisseries – only select organic and fair-trade goods. On Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings, Mouffetard’s stalls run into the Marché Monge...

One of the biggest markets in Paris, the Marché Bastille's food stalls sprawl up the Boulevard Richard Lenoir twice a week, with more produce than most hypermarkets – it's a particularly great source of local cheeses, free range chicken and excellent fish. The atmospheric and beautiful piles of fruit, veg, saucisses, olives and so on are interspersed with stalls offering African batiks, cheap jewellery and bags, but that doesn't detract from the overall sense of bountiful goodness...

The lowdown: Saxe-Breteuil has an unrivalled setting facing the Eiffel Tower; it also has the city's most chic produce. Look for farmers' goats' cheese, rare apple varieties, Armenian specialities, abundant oysters and a handful of dedicated small producers.

The picnic spot: When your basket is full, spread your blanket on the Champs de Mars and tuck into your feast under the Eiffel Tower's iron gaze.

In France, picnics often mean chacuterie, cheese, and bread, bread, bread. Which is, of course, wonderful - but our stomachs do need a break from time to time. Enter Jour, the healthy option for hungry Parisians. 

There are seveal signature salads to choose from Crunchy Niçoise (with a juicy tuna fillet, organic hard-boiled egg, and the pinkest radishes), Rainbow Caprese (organic creamy burrata, green tomates and rocket), Sweet Italy (farmhouse chicken, artichokes, dried figs, cherry tomatoes etc.) and the festive Summer Time (watermelon, cantelope, feta, cucumber, mint, olives). Yeah, we're peckish now too.

There's also light wraps, desserts, energy bars, and matcha green teas. 

How much? A picnic basket costs €29.90, and individual salads are €8.90. 

Delivery? Yes, all over Paris to a specified address or a pick-up point in a Jour shop. 

Say good buy to awkwardly chopping saucisson or Tupperware leftovers, with Frichti's elegant options for picnic dining. 

With baguettes from Éric Kayser boulangerie, yoghurts from Jean-Yves Bordier, pastrami from Schwartz's Deli, tartinade from Les Niçois - you can literally taste you way around Paris via Frichti providers. 

Plus, the seagrass bag that the food comes in, is a real keeper - either for future picnics or as a chic beach bag. In their big formulas, there's even anti-bacterial handgel. They really think of everything...

How much? Formulas from €18. €28 for a 4-person picnic.

Delivery? Even to Parisian parks. Just give them your desired address, they do the rest. Order within one hour windows, from 12pm to 3.30pm.

If you really want to go all out, you go to the best. Le Burgundy Paris is a hip hotel in the 1st arrondissement, a stone's throw from Rue Saint Honoré, Place Vendôme etc. The Liberty picnic is created by the hotel's team of chefs, is quite simply, a notch above the rest. 

A menu for two comprises: Homemade lemonade infused with violet syrup; Dorado tartare with cauliflower purée; smoked eel with potato salad;, rice pudding with acacia honey, granola, bluberry confits; roasted apricot, almonds and lavander cake to share. And more, and more...you get the idea it's rather posh. 

How much? €135

Delivery? Yes, wherever you wish - by some of the hotel's snappily dressed grooms. Le Liberty picnic is available from June 15 to September. Call 01 42 60 34 12 to book.

Covering 500 square metres, it contains two spaces: to one side, a small food hall full of fresh produce and fine French ingredients. To the other, a restaurant where the foodstuffs on display are transformed into delicious dishes by chef Bruno Doucet. It’s open all day, seven days a week, but that doesn’t mean a reduction in quality – it’s worth queuing. Pick a place at the long bar next to the window...

This temple of good taste is located on the ground floor of Le Bon Marché, Paris’s oldest department store, where its bakery, patisserie, butcher’s and cheese shop will all urge you to give in to gourmet temptation. Prices depend on the age and origin of the product, so you can just as easily enjoy a delicious pistachio macaroon for two euros as bankrupt yourself for a bottle of olive oil. The main advantage of this great grocery is the incredible diversity and exclusivity of its products. Red salt from Hawaii, truffle tagliatelle, rosewater infusions, bergamot-scented financier biscuits...

Delicatessan fans will be in heaven with over 200m2 of beautiful jars, bottles and tins to peruse. Personally seeking out the finest providers from across France, and beyond. To boot, these artisans have chosen to work with Terra Gourma exclusively; meaning there are some products here that you won't even find in France, let alone Paris...

Is there a lovelier beer shop in the capital than Paris Saint Bière? If so, the honour surely goes to its sister venue, situated around the corner on Rue de Charonne. Between them, the pair stock an extraordinary range of brews from Belgium, Germany, the UK and France, alongside novelty brands from the likes of Senegal and Jamaica. The owner's catalogue extends to over 2,000 varieties, including some of the world's rarest...

‘Buffalo mozzarella, pesto Genovese and grilled artichokes’, ‘home made potted tuna, capers, artichokes and radishes’, ‘brawn with vinaigrette, sweet onions and Polish cornichons'... Even though it might seem like it, you’re not reading a high-end bistro menu – this is the list of sandwiches at l’Epicerie du Verre Volé...

Customers stop into La Crèmerie for the company as much as for the great cheeses. Shop owner Dominique used to be a nurse so is a past master at cheerful chat (and watching calorie counts). French cheeses are her speciality, from a colourful wheel of wildflower Tomme from the Austrian Alps to Black Brie from Île de France, Saint-Félicien from Isère, small goats cheeses coated in cranberries from the Dordogne and many more...