A Picnic in Paris Made Easy: Your Practical Guide

I love and I mean LOVE having a picnic in Paris. Between the abundance of good baguettes, cheese, and sandwiches, and the numerous gorgeous parks and gardens around Paris, it feels like Paris was made for picnics!

Plus, restaurants in Paris aren’t generally cheap. While lunch at a café or restaurant can quickly exceed €15-25 per person, you can enjoy a fantastic Parisian picnic for two for around €10-15 total.

I’ve visited Paris 7 times now (including a 3 month stint in college where I was always looking for an economical meal), so I’ve had a TON of experience with picking up a little something here and a little something there, and eating outside at a square or park.

Not only is it a good way to save money, you will also be eating some truly delicious food, and having a lovely time in the beautiful Parisian outdoors. Definitely a win-win-win.

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Food Options For Your Picnic in Paris

There are many places to get food for a delicious picnic in Paris – here are some different places and items you can consider picking up:

1. Boulangerie Items

Boulangeries (bakeries) can be a great one stop shop for lunch, OR they can lay the groundwork for a delicious spread.

If you want a quick, one-and-done-type lunch, just about every boulangerie carries a variety of sandwiches. You will often see variations of chicken + vegetable sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, or ham + butter sandwiches. If they don’t offer outright, you can ask to turn your sandwich into a panini.

The case of a Parisian bakery - housemade sadnwiches, salades, quiche, and crepe are stacked in the case.

Some boulangeries will also offer quiche, salads, croque monsieurs (a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with béchamel sauce on top) or a pizza-like slice. These are all great takeaway lunch items, and generally cost around 5 euro.

Pastries

And of course, it’s never a bad time for a pastry in Paris! There are two main categories of pastries: viennoiseries and patisseries.

Viennoiseries are more “bready” and are commonly eaten for breakfast: croissant, pain au chocolat, croissant aux amandes, pain aux raisins, chouquettes, une suisse, une brioche, etc.

The display of a boulangerie case - with multiple types of breakfast pastries displayed.

A hand holds up a circular, twisted pastry in front of the Jardin de Luxembourg- one of the best places for a picnic in Paris. — Matthew’s favorite: Pain aux raisins

A hand holds up a croissant aux amandes )a croissant filled with almond creme and dusted with powdered sugar) in front of a garden landscape. — My favorite: croissant aux amandes

Patisseries are more dessert-type items, such as éclairs, Paris-Brest, réligieuse, millefeuille, tartes, etc.

A pastry case in a boulangerie filled with fancy desserts, including eclairs, fruit tarts, flan, and lemon tarts.

You’d be hard pressed to go wrong with any of these pastries, and you can buy all types all day long. Some of my favorites are the fruit tarts, the millefeuille (lots of super flaky layers interspersed with custard), croissant aux amandes, or a suisse (sometimes also called a pain suisse or a brioche suisse).

Whatever you end up choosing, it will make a great addition to your Parisian picnic.

Baguettes

If you want to create a nice lunch spread (more on that below), you absolutely must start by picking up a baguette from the boulangerie. A great Paris lunch always starts with a baguette!

Lunch for one? You can also ask for a half-baguette (a demi-baguette).

Shelving in a boulangerie with a bread slicer, baskets of baguettes, and other artisanal, rounded loaves of bread.

2. Grocery Stores

Okay, if you’re going the route of a “lunch spread” instead of a one-and-done sandwich or salad from the boulangerie, we’re going to pick up a few items from the grocery store.

I love doing this, both because you can quickly and easily create a lunch with interesting variety, and because I find it fascinating to visit grocery stores when I travel internationally. I just really like looking at what types of foods people eat in their day-to-day lives.

Little grocery stores are all over Paris and you’re usually never more than a few minutes from the closest one. The most common grocery stores are Monoprix, Franprix, G20, or Aldi. A quick Google search will show you your closest options.

Some Grocery Store Favorites:

Taboulé

A hand holds a tub of roasted chicken taboule in front of a grocery store fridge door.

This concoction of couscous, vegetables, and herbs tastes so fresh. I like the taboulé orientel, poulet roti (roast chicken) or the taboulé libanaise.

Carrottes Rapées

A hand holds a tub of grated carrots in front of a grocery store fridge door.

Carrottes rapées are just grated carrots in a marinade. This is a common and popular side dish for a casual meal in France. I like how crisp and flavorful these carrots are!

Yogurt Drinks

While French yogurt is delicious, the yogurt drinks are over the top. We drink these all the time in France. You can find YOP brand drinks everywhere, but the Vache a Boire brand is the absolute best. It’s so thick and creamy!

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

Just about every grocery store in France has one of these fresh orange juice machines in them. For a couple of euro, you can fill up one of the bottles with fresh orange juice that gets fresh squeezed at the press of a button! It’s delicious! (And Matthew wants to point out that the machine is mesmerizing.)

Butter

Oh French butter, I love you oh so very, very much. French butter (beurre) is sweeter and saltier than its American counterpart, and some butters have a unique flavor to it as well. Skip the “beurre doux” (unsalted butter) and always, always get the “beurre demi-sel” (salted butter).

A hand holds up a slab of butter in a French grocery store. Butter is an essential part of any Parisian picnic. — Ahhhh, “demi-sel”, much better!

Pro tip: If I have a checked bag, I like to pack plastic silverware in my suitcase specifically for these picnics. I usually bring several plastic knives to cut butter and cheese, and spoons for taboulé, yogurt, or shredded carrots.

Pro tip: I love bringing butter home with me – it makes for a great souvenir that I enjoy for the next 2 weeks as I eat toast at home.

Fruit

No explanation necessary on this one. Just be prepared for the grapes to be seeded!

Deli Meats

There are a lot of varieties of high quality deli meats available, if you want to make a sandwich with your baguette.

Cheese

You can get cheese at the grocery store, which can be quite good. But I think hitting up a fromagerie is such a fun and authentic experience, I highly recommend you go at least once. I’ll go into types of cheese in more depth in the fromagerie section below.

French Cookies

In every grocery store, there is an aisle that is dedicated solely to French cookies (called biscuits in French). I love getting a sampling of many kinds and have several favorites.

These are a fun little dessert for your picnic, but we also always bring a bunch of boxes home with us – they make excellent gifts!

Petit Ecolier

To me, these are the OG French cookies, the most iconic type. A tablette of chocolate is set on a crispy, slightly buttery shortbread cookie. I like the milk chocolate, but I ADORE the white chocolate variety. I don’t notice a difference between name brand and off brand.

Boxes of cookies with chocolate on them on a grocery store shelf.

Lulu Fraise

These are Matthew’s favorite. The cookie is soft and chewy and light-as-air, and there is a strawberry jam-type filling in the center. You can also find raspberry and chocolate flavors.

Speculoos

So good I couldn’t wait for a picture to dig in!

Speculoos are nearly identical to biscoff cookies, which are becoming more and more common in the US (hallelujah!). Since I can get essentially the same thing at home, I technically don’t neeeeeed to eat these in France, but I do anyway because I love these crisp, cinnamon-y cookies!

Palmiers

A hand holds up a box of flaky french cookies in a grocery store.

Palmiers are super flaky and sprinkled with sugar. I think they are delicious! (Though a bit crumbly.)

3. Fromageries

A long case full of artesanal cheese is displayed in a French fromagerie - an essential for a picnic in Paris.

Hitting up a fromagerie (cheese store) is one of my favorite things to do in Paris. Fromageries are not nearly as ubiquitous as, say, boulangeries around Paris, but you can usually find 1-2 in every arrondissement of Paris.

I love the whole experience of buying cheese from fromageries. There are these massive blocks of cheese out in the display sitting next to these cute little single serve rounds. And there’s something about seeing the big rounds with sections cut out that reminds you how authentic everything is.

You can discuss what types of cheese you want with the fromager and maybe sample a small bite of one you are considering. After deciding on the type of cheese, you specify how much you want as they place a large knife on the block of cheese (a little more, a little less, etc).

Then they wrap up your (delicious) selection of cheese in wax paper and you’re ready to go. I like to ask the worker to write the name on the paper to help you remember the name of the cheese.

If you are buying cheese to bring home, you can also ask them to vacuum seal it. This helps contain the smell and preserve the cheese.

Types of Cheese

There are several ways to categorize cheese. The first is by what animal it comes from: cow (vache), sheep (brebis), or goat (chevre).

You can also categorize by hardness (dur) or softness (molle).

Or, you can categorize by the strongness of the taste of the cheese (aka how “stinky” it is). You can get a stronger cheese (fort) or a milder cheese (doux).

With that introduction, here are some of my favorite French cheeses:

My Favorite Cheeses

Comté: This cheese is hard, nutty, and salty and is my absolute favorite French cheese.
Brie: You can’t come to France and not try a really good brie! At a fromagerie, you’ll most often see “brie de meaux” – a type of brie from the city of Meaux that is very soft and creamy.
Tomme de Savoie: Creamy, nutty and salty. It’s harder than brie but not as hard as comté.
Cantal: Very mild and hard
Roblochon: This cheese is soft, similar to brie, but has a stronger flavor. I like it though!
Camembert: Another classic French cheese. I personally think Camembert has a similar flavor to brie, just stronger. Sometimes you’ll see baked camembert on restaurant menus, which is delicious.
Boursin: A super soft, spreadable cheese seasoned with garlic and herbs. This cheese is delicious (and if you love it, it’s very widely available in the US.)

Grocery Store or Fromagerie for Cheese?

You can absolutely get great cheese from a grocery store in France! I do think that for many of the cheeses, the quality is even better at a fromagerie.

However, grocery store cheese is more practical, especially if you are pressed for time, as it is just more accessible. But I think it’s a fun and interesting experience to go to a fromagerie at least once in your Paris itinerary.

I will say, I have never seen Boursin at a fromagerie – so you’ll have to get that at a grocery store.

How to Eat Cheese Like a French Person

The French always eat cheese with a crusty baguette, never with crackers. You can slice the baguette or just rip off chunks with your hands.

4. Fruit Stands

At different places around the city, especially on market streets like Rue Cler, you can find fruit stands set up, with particularly fresh fruit offerings. If I happen to pass a stand like this when looking for lunch, I usually stop and grab something, so keep your eyes open!

Extras + Cutlery

Two other extremely helpful things to have for a picnic is a little blanket and some cutlery – even plastic cutlery is helpful!

I’m a very scrappy traveler and I don’t want to be hauling a bunch of extra stuff around with me, so for a blanket to sit on and put our food on, we do one of the following three things:

Use a scarf and drape it so it forms a square shape
Borrow a kitchen towel if we’re staying at an apartment rental
Just wing it and put things on top of a backpack, purse, or wrapper

For cutlery, I’ve sometimes brought plastic spoons + knives in my checked bags (or just spoons in my carry-on if I’m not checking a bag). If you’re staying in an apartment rental you could also borrow some of their silverware to bring with you for the day.

Finally, you can also buy plastic silverware at a grocery store. I actually saw little single-serve packets of silverware in the refrigerator section at Aldi for €0.40 the last time I was in Paris, which is very convenient.

Great Picnic Combinations

So, how to put all that information together into a great picnic experience?

Obviously there are many options, but here are some combinations we eat regularly and recommend:

Sandwich from boulangerie + fruit (if we can find something easily)
Baguette + butter and/or cheese + fruit
Baguette + butter and/or cheese + taboulé OR grated carrots
Taboulé + fruit + biscuit cookies or pastries

Honestly, you won’t go wrong adding dessert to any meal 😉 I don’t drink wine, so my beverages are always either water, juice, or drinkable yogurt, but you are allowed to have wine open in public.

Best Places For Your Picnic in Paris

The Eiffel Tower is in the background, and the greenspace on the Champ de Mars is in the foreground. You can also see the walking paths and the trees lining the path on the right side of the picture - a perfect place for a picnic.

It’s not hard to figure out where to have your picnic, as there are parks and gardens and squares all over Paris that are perfect for enjoying an easy outdoor meal. Some of my favorites are:

The Champs de Mars – the green space right in front of the Eiffel Tower. Lounging on the grass while you have a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower is a very romantic activity in Paris.

The Jardin de Luxembourg – A lovely, expansive park in the Latin Quarter with so many great photo spots: reflecting pools, statues everywhere, the beautiful Fountain de Medici, landscaped flower beds, courts, playgrounds, and plenty of park chairs to sit on.

The Jardin de Tuileries – Just adjacent to the Louvre and runs along the Seine River. From the middle pathway of the garden, you have great views down to the Arc de Triomphe. There are multiple pools and fountains with park chairs surrounding them, which are good places for your picnic.

Sitting along the banks of the Seine – There are areas where you descend the stairs to walk right on the banks; you’ll often find locals hanging out and enjoying a meal.

Place des Vosges – This is a great place to have a picnic that is popular with a younger, trendy crowd in Paris.

Parc des Buttes Chaumont or Parc Monceau – These pretty parks are hidden gem spots in Paris to enjoy a picnic if you want to go to more residential gardens, away from the tourist crowds.

Pro tip: It is rare to find a bench on most streets. Your best bet is to find a park or go to the river bank.

Final Thoughts on Crafting the Perfect Parisian Picnic

I hope this guide gives you a lot of confidence to create a great picnic in Paris, from choosing the foods you are going to eat, to finding the best picnic spots in Paris. There are a lot of options, delicious things to eat, and great parks and gardens to eat them in.

Bon Appetit!