The Nutu conscious guide to Paris
Spending a week in Paris doesn’t mean you have to give up on your healthy and sustainable way of life for an orgy of snails, red wine and binge shopping (unless you really want to, of course). New spots focused on local and organic food, eco-friendly beauty products, yoga and wellbeing have popped up all over the French capital. Here are Nutu’s 10 favorites.
You missed the neighborhood farmer’s market this morning? No worries: head to « Au bout du champ » (“At the end of the field”) for your daily dose of vitamins. In this mini-chain of « farm to table » stores, all the fruit and veggies are seasonal, extra fresh and super local: they’re picked early in the morning in a network of small farms located no further than 70 miles around Notre-Dame, and delivered to the shops in their wooden crates. Cardboard signs on the wall provide recipes for delicious soups, pies or gratins, and you’ll also find a nice selection of honeys, jams and juices…made in “Ile de France”. Locavorism made easy at last!
Parisian pharmacies and « parapharmacies » are an Eden for American beautistas, who love to stock Nuxe, La Roche-Posay or Caudalie products, available much cheaper than at home. If you’ve been there, done that, this time, you should instead, pay a visit to « Pharm’O’naturel », a new concept of drugstores that specialize in natural healing. (They have 15 locations in Paris, and more than 60 all over France). In an eco-friendly environment, surrounded by plants, you’ll find an amazing choice of apitherapy, phytotherapy (herbal medicine) and aromatherapy organic products, and of course… top-notch advice from the pharmacists!
A very interesting new addition to the thriving Parisian self-care scene, Le Centre Elements aims to reconcile ancestral holistic healing and new technologies. It’s all about balancing energies, air purifying, therapeutic music, “detox domes”, and these guys are even very much into…quantic physics! If this sounds intriguing, register for one of their various workshops, such as “Breathe in Paris” or “Hormonal Yoga”, or try a soundbath and guided meditation session. Located in the heart of Le Marais, they also have more classical Kundalini or Ashtanga classes (A trial lesson is just 10€, a 5-class pass is 98€), and a “zen shop” offering much more than the usual crystals: herbal soaps, ceramics, innovative water bottles, wooden vessels, hand woven baskets, Finnish skin care…
Circus Bakery
Youssef Li is a young French Moroccan hipster who plans to “invent the “boulangerie” of the 21st century”, no less ! (He is also a partner in the very cool cocktail-bar Cravan ( 16th arrondissement ) and the coffee-shop Fragments (Le Marais). Most of the time, you’ll find him in his flagship Circus Bakery, an exposed brick walls space where you can watch the team make incredible sourdough or multigrain bread, together with amazing cinnamon buns and seasonal fruit tarts. Everything is fresh, homemade and organic, including Kombucha and delicious non-dairy milk. From Thursdays to Sundays, at 5pm, Circus Bakery fires the oven back up to make pizzas…that they forbid you to take out: they’re too good to travel in a cardboard box! Just sit on a bench in the shop, next to the flour bags and the crates of apples, and enjoy it with a bunch of lucky strangers. You’ll make friends!
Prepare to be pampered at “Les Petits Soins”, a new generation of beauty salons founded by Claire Martichoux, an ex-communication consultant who thought, rightly so, that traditional French beauty parlors needed a serious update. Hence she created her own concept, Les Petits soins, cosy neighborhood spas with a modern feel. All facials and body treatments are reasonably priced (try the signature treatment, “kinéplastie”, a firming and anti-wrinkle facial massage), manicures are performed with eco-friendly Kure Bazaar nail polish, and all the beauticians are highly motivated experts. Maybe because, according to the house’s recruiting policy, they’ve all transitioned from a previous career, just like their boss!
As far as we know, Paris doesn’t have the equivalent of New York City Brodo and its famous bone broths to take out. But it has soup bars, an interesting concept as well, especially if you visit the city in winter! Le Bar à Soupes is an institution for veggie lovers since almost 10 years, and Potage is a newcomer, with innovative recipes that are both healthy and yummy. The cauliflower “potage” is topped with cocoa nibs, the butternut velouté with maple flakes, not to mention the chorizo petals with the piquillo peppers soup! As both soup bars are located near Bastille, maybe you can make up your mind according to the menu, that changes daily …
Le Bar à Soupes, 33 rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris, 0143575379
Potage, 16 boulevard Beaumarchais, 75011
What the Flower!
French plant lovers used to know Justine Jeannin, the owner, from her successful blog “Sweety Oxalis”. But this young and enthusiastic plant-lady is also a hair artist, particularly focused on natural hair care. Two years ago, she decided to combine her two passions and opened What the Flower, a hair salon that doubles with a plant shop. Seated in vintage salon chairs and surrounded by huge ferns and Monsteras, you’ll be taken care of by nice and professional stylists, who use Hairborist plant-based dyeing products (and are also committed plantlovers). In this green & relaxing space, getting a hair cut has never been less stressful! Before leaving, you’ll sure fall in love with a Pilea or a Begonia Maculata that you can bring as a dinner gift to your Parisian friends!
35 Rue du Chemin Vert, 75011 Paris
La Laiterie de Paris
Did you know that Paris was a new « terroir » for French cheese ? It is, actually, since Pierre Coulon opened La Laiterie de Paris, an urban cheese factory, in the most unexpected part of town: Château Rouge, a traditionally African neighborhood that’s getting hipper and hipper. In his lab, located among wax fabric shops, he creates and matures a whole collection of cheese named after the nearby streets (Le Labat, Le Myrha),that compare very favorably with AOP-AOC Camembert or Reblochon. His cow or goat milk yoghurts, sold in returnable glass jars, are also a must–try. And as Coulon, an ex-farmer, believes in a new way to make business, he partners with local farmers and makes sure he pays their milk at a fair price. All the more reason for going!
74 Rue des Poissonniers, 75018 Paris
01 73 77 87 18
Le Tigre Yoga
Your Parisian friends probably told you already about this fancy yoga club, with great interior design and 3 upscale locations across the French capital ( 16th arrondissement, Le Marais and Rive Gauche). The latter is a great place to hang out on a rainy afternoon, because it has a nice wellness shop and a vegan café operated by the renowned juice bar Wild & The Moon. Even more interesting: while you’re in town, you can sign up for their “semaine découverte” (intro week) and enjoy unlimited top level yoga classes for just… 75€ (80 $)!
You want to throw a small dinner-party in your AirBnB, but don’t feel like cooking? Ask Elsa & Justin, a vegetarian caterer who recently opened their over the counter and take out shop near Gare de l’Est. Justin cooks delicious soups, salads, falafels, coleslaws, savory shortbreads, quiches, gratins, using only organic and seasonal vegetables and cereals produced by small local suppliers, while Elsa welcomes you at the shop. You can stop by for a quick and healthy lunch, but if you place your order up to 48 hours in advance, they will deliver anywhere in Paris, of course.
Contributor : Marie-Odile Briet - journalist , co-founder of The Futiloscope, a trends newsletter