Hidden amid the busy streets of France’s capital, these lush courtyard terraces are intimate retreats and perfect places to enjoy the sunny days and warm evenings of summer in the city. From an Italian restaurant, to an American-style burger joint, to an iconic palace hotel, here find Vogue’s guide Paris’s most beautiful courtyard terraces.
Le Patio de La Pagode de Cos
In the heart of La Réserve hotel, this patio is a verdant little Eden where wrought-iron tables are cleverly scattered amidst potted palms and giant ferns. Protected from the hustle and bustle of the street, you can enjoy the fine cuisine of three-starred chef Jérôme Banctel. The summer menu is an ode to the season and includes a variety of crudos (tuna takaki, sea bass carpaccio with lemon, giant red shrimp) as well as crab salad, beef tartare, and lobster linguine. And don't forget the desserts, including a fabulous chocolate and buckwheat creation and berries served with a vanilla chantilly.
Hôtel de Crillon
During Paris Fashion Week, there are few places as see-or-be-seen as the Cour d’Honneur at Hôtel de Crillon, a Rosewood Hotel, the majestic courtyard reimagined by the leading French landscape architect Louis Benech when the grande dame reopened in 2017 after a four-year renovation. Open from breakfast all the way through to the evening, over the summer months, there’s even live music two evenings a week—but the real excitement comes during lunch hour, where you’re likely to spot a fashion legend or two among the milieu.
Ralph’s
Tucked away in one of the Left Bank’s prettiest courtyards, the terrace at Ralph’s (named after its founder, designer Ralph Lauren) has azure banquettes and wrought-iron furniture in a lovely garden setting. The restaurant specializes in American favorites: burgers (including a veggie option), generous summer salads, New York-style steaks, grilled sea bass, and an array of gourmet desserts. Start your meal with a refreshing drink from the summer cocktail menu.
L’Eldorado
Located in a quiet corner of Montmartre, protected from the noise of city traffic and the comings and goings of onlookers, the recently inaugurated L’Eldorado hotel has a fabulous terrace serving alfresco meals all day long. Whether it’s in the early hours of the morning or a dinner by candlelight in the evening, the menu celebrates the great classics of French cuisine: deviled eggs, fresh oysters, escargots, sole meunière, mushroom omelette, beef tartare, and crispy chips. There’s also an inspired cocktail menu and an excellent selection of fine wines.
Le Bristol
Set in Paris’s largest palace hotel garden, the terrace at Le Bristol is one of the best places to (re)discover some of the city’s quintessential delights. Facing a large trellis covered with vines and surrounded by trees and plants, visitors to the terrace will discover a seasonal menu with surprising influences from around the world. White asparagus, carpaccio, marinated salmon, and grilled seabream are some standouts, all accompanied by carefully curated fine wines. New for summer 2024, the restaurant now offers a tea service created by chef Yu Tanaka. The menu includes lavender, black tea, and hazelnut scones topped with clotted cream.
Fabula
This summer, none other than celebrated Franco-American chef Thomas Chisholm has created the menu for Fabula, an outdoor terrace pop-up that will run through October. It sits amid the arcades of the Musée Carnavelet. Surrounded by a formal garden, visitors can enjoy summer cocktails as well as dishes like a vitello tonnato with squid ink and a smoked beetroot carpaccio with yogurt, apples, and peanut sauce.
La Cour Jardin du Plaza Athénée
Few addresses in Paris are more fabled than the Plaza Athénée with its iconic Cour Jardin. Immortalized many times on screen, big and small (including notably in the Parisian episodes of Sex & the City), this beautiful ivy-clad terrace offers a bucolic respite from the activity on Avenue Montaigne. What's on the menu from chef Jean Imbert? A celebration of summer with the signature avocado, white asparagus, and crab croque; a ratatouille-style tart; and a reimagined brioche tropézienne with berries. Cinephiles take note: The restaurant is presenting a series of open-air movie screenings from June 30 to July 4 with menus inspired by each film.
Espadon
Espadon, a legendary gourmet restaurant at the Ritz Paris, opens onto a beautiful terrace in the summer. In the landscaped garden, lit by candles, gourmets can savor the cuisine of chef Eugénie Béziat. Inspired by culinary memories of her childhood in Africa and summers spent on the Mediterranean. The menu features ingredients including lobster, manioc, hibiscus, grilled oysters, peppery watercress, and spicy yassa chicken(a traditional Senegalese dish).
Golden Poppy
In San Francisco, Dominique Crenn is a celebrated figure on the city’s restaurant scene. A French chef with an innovative, eco-responsible approach to cooking, she has now opened her first restaurant in Paris. At the Golden Poppy, located in the new La Fantaisie hotel, the focus is on the inspired and original menu, with a strong emphasis on vegetable-centric and sustainable seafood dishes. The restaurant is named after California’s state flower, announcing Crenn’s intention to bring some of the attitude of her adopted home to France’s capital. Some tables overlook the hotel gardens while others sit in the shade of its towering trees.
Caché
Near the Père Lachaise cemetery and located on the Villa Riberolle cul-de-sac with its picturesque lanterns, Caché lives up to its name (which means “hidden” in French). Led by Sylvain Roucayrol and Gianpaolo Polverino, who are passionate about serving the best natural wines and local dishes, this restaurant in a former print shop has a menu that celebrates the sea with its focus on Mediterranean dishes. Caché’s Italian-born cofounder Lorenza Lenzi is behind the menu which includes grilled octopus, fresh pasta, and vegetable dishes that highlight the best of local produce.
Hôtel Particulier Montmartre
You have to climb to the top of Montmartre and then walk down a little alley off of Avenue Junot to find this secret Parisian address. With its small courtyard and garden, an area to play pétanque, and its vegetable garden, the Hôtel Particulier is a magical corner of the city. In this country house decorated by Pierre Lacroix, summer evenings are accompanied by cocktails and gourmet dishes.
Saint James
The newly renovated Saint James Paris, decorated by Laura Gonzalez, is Paris's only château-hotel. While it feels like a country estate with a fabulous summer terrace, it’s only minutes from the Arc de Triomphe. Bordered by Japanese maples, rosebushes, and hydrangeas, the hotel’s terrace is a discreet spot where guests can sit around ceramic tables under a green gazebo, admiring a fresco on the bar by Pierre Mesguich and the twinkling lights that illuminate this magical garden at night.
Terrazza Calabria
Inaugurated in May at the Hoxton Hotel in the second arrondissement, the new Terrazza Calabria is decorated in the colors of Calabria and recreates the warm atmosphere of the piazza of an Italian town. The Mediterranean details include a turquoise Vespa and guests can choose from summer cocktails and delicious small plates. The cocktail menu includes several that feature Italicus liqueur (a Calabria spritz; the Di Paloma, with Italicus, gin, and grapefruit juice) along with wines, champagnes, and mocktails. The food choices include focaccia, arancini, and aubergine alla parmigiana while a lively music program completes the scene.
Laurent
A Parisian institution with enduring charm, Laurent was first Louis XIV's favourite hunting lodge, it later became a guinguette (or tavern), and then a café, before becoming this gastronomic restaurant that has become a must-dine among gourmets. The space was taken over last autumn by Laurent de Gourcuff (the force behind the Paris Society group, which includes the celebrated restaurants Bonnie, Gigi, Bambini, MUN, Girafe, and CoCo) and Michelin-starred chef Mathieu Pacaud (of Apicius and Divellec), the restaurant now boasts a new décor designed by Cordelia de Castellane, as well as a beautiful tree-lined terrace. In this verdant setting, visitors can order classic French dishes: croque-monsieur with truffles, green asparagus topped with caviar, lobster salad, and sole meunière with buckwheat butter. There is also an excellent selection of home-made pastries (including the signature strawberry cake). The wine list has a number of great Bordeaux options, some bottles from Burgundy, and a curated selection of Champagnes.
Mimosa
Opened in autumn 2022, Mimosa is Elodie and Jean-François Piège’s restaurant just to the north of the Place de la Concorde. Developed with the Moma Group (the firm behind Lapérouse, La Fontaine de Gaillon, Manko, and others), the restaurant is inspired by the French Riviera and its sun-kissed recipes. A new feature is a terrace with azure-striped banquettes. Highlights of the menu include the Niçoise salad, Mediterranean tuna with spicy cucumbers, and lobster pasta.
GrandCoeur
Tucked in the courtyard of the famous Centre de Danse du Marais, under the open windows of studios where ballerinas and dancers rehearse, GrandCoeur is a charming Parisian brasserie with alfresco dining atop centuries-old cobblestones. With chef Mauro Colagreco at the helm, the restaurant offers a range of seasonal dishes, including pea velouté; ponzu-marinated mackerel; lamb with carrots, peas, and kumquats; and yogurt ice cream with elderberries, almonds, and rhubarb syrup.
Riviera Paris
To mark the arrival of summer, Mathieu Pacaud and Laurent de Gourcuff (of the restaurant group Paris Society) are inaugurating a new terrace, Riviera Paris. Set in the heart of the verdant garden shared with Pacaud’s Apicius restaurant in the eighth arrondissement, the space is decorated with garlands and wrought iron furniture with delicate prints. The new Parisian hot spot offers a menu of summer recipes inspired by the Mediterranean. The Michelin-starred chef has created a menu with a multicolored heirloom tomato salad, fish crudos, Breton blue lobster, and grilled lamb chops.
Le Camondo
Adjacent to the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Le Camondo has one of the prettiest terraces in Paris. Surrounded by palm trees and other large leafy plants, visitors can explore the new menu by Fanny Herpin (formerly of Alain Ducasse) and Medhi Boucenna (formerly of Les Fables de la Fontaine). Advocates of using locally grown, seasonal produce, the pair regularly reinvent their menu according to what they find at the market. At the moment, that means white asparagus from the Landes region, a French burratina with jalapeño, pollack with ponzu, and Gariguette strawberries with Breton shortbread.
Maison Revka
The terrace at Maison Revka, which has opened just in time for the arrival of summer, stretches across 1,000 square meters of patio with immaculate ivy-covered trellises, basins overflowing with flowers, stately trees, vintage lampposts, fringed parasols, and statues of Greek goddesses. Inspired by the world of Visconti’s films, the décor, by designer Laleh Amir Assefi, also features wrought-iron furniture adorned with country-chic fabrics. The menu is full of seaside favorites, including generous platters and seafood towers overflowing with langoustines, whelks, prawns, oysters, and lobsters. Other favorites include smoked salmon, coulibiac, caviar linguine, and, for dessert, strawberry-basil pavlova and chocolate tart.
Translated by John Newton.