The café of the Grande Mosquée de Paris is one of the city's most enchanting hideaways — a jewel-box Moorish tea room attached to the 1920s mosque in the 5th, all zellige tiles, carved cedar, fig trees and chirping birds. Parisians and students have come for decades to sip sweet mint tea in the leafy courtyard, a little pocket of North Africa a few steps from the Jardin des Plantes.
The ritual is simple and lovely: a glass of piping-hot, sugary mint tea and a plate of honey-drenched pastries — baklava, cornes de gazelle, makroud — taken under the trees or in the tiled salon. Next door the fuller restaurant serves couscous and tagines, and there is a hammam in the same complex if you want to make an afternoon of it.
Local tip: Come mid-afternoon for the full courtyard magic, and do not miss the little sweets counter. It is cash-friendly and busy at weekends — the terrace is first-come, first-served, so be ready to hover for a table.
Good to know
- Where: 39 Rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, 75005 Paris
- City: Paris