From Small Budget to luxury: I try 6 typically French breakfasts in Paris from 10 to 50€

Bonjour and welcome back to Paris Top Tips. I'm Alain and today we're diving into one of the most delicious parts of French culture, le petit-déjeuner à la française, the French breakfast. Instead of settling for your hotel's buffet, why not head out and enjoy the real thing? Just for you, dear viewer, I took on the delicious challenge of testing six French breakfasts across Paris. From a charming 10 euros pot to the ultimate 50 euros experience at the Ritz on Place Vendôme. Each one had to include the Parisian breakfast essentials, a hot drink, fresh juice, crusty baguette with butter and jam and of course a flaky croissant. So come with me and we'll stop at iconic places like Les Demagos in Saint-Germain and see how each breakfast stacks up. Let's get started and of course, bon appétit! We begin our journey with the most budget-friendly option, Le Rempart, a classic bistro tucked away in Le Marais. It's one of those countless neighborhood spots you'll find all over Paris. But this one stands out. It's a good spot and it serves the real Parisian breakfast. In fact, they call it Le Parisien and it's just 10 euros. At every place we'll visit in this video, you can also order a more elaborate option that includes eggs. But to me, that's no longer a French breakfast. That's an English or an American one. The presentation is simple and efficient. Everything fits neatly on a small tray and nothing is missing. That said, you don't get to choose your jam. It's apricot by default and the orange juice isn't freshly squeezed. It's pasteurized straight from the bottle. Still, the butter is from a quality brand and the baguette is nicely crispy, just as it should be. I've seen croissants of a better quality but this one will do. All in all, it's an okay breakfast, especially for the price. And beyond the food, you're getting the real Paris bistro experience with locals at the counter sipping their patinoire before heading to work. So overall, I give Le Rempart a 13.1 out of 20. It's a decent start to the day if you're looking for a real Parisian bistro vibe in the heart of the Marais, but don't expect miracles from the croissant or the juice. Our second stop, Le Nemours, just steps from the Louvre, is one of my favorite places to enjoy breakfast on a sunny summer day. Sit at the terrace and sip on a café au lait, an earl grey tea, or a creamy hot chocolate, my personal favorite. Indulge in a freshly baked croissant and some crispy baguette with butter and jam and soak up the morning ambience at a local café. This is the perfect way to embrace the French way of life. Here, for just three euros more, you get a noticeably better croissant and this time the orange juice is freshly squeezed. The only downside, you still only get one type of jam. I gave Le Nemours a solid 15.1 out of 20. The location is fantastic, the terrace atmosphere is lovely, and the quality of the food and drinks really makes it worth the price. Just be prepared for a slightly rushed service, especially if it's busy. Next is the Café Les Deux Magots, established in 1885. A renowned attraction for tourists, this café holds historical significance as the former rendezvous point for France's literary and intellectual elite. After World War II, Les Deux Magots attracted artists and thinkers, hosting stars like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Boris Vian, and Juliette Greco. Named after the previous shop that was installed there, from which remain two wooden statues depicting Chinese mandarins, Les Deux Magots is renowned for its breakfast offerings. Today, I'll be enjoying breakfast at this iconic café, seated at my table on the inner terrace. I'm going to take the complete formula at 22 euros, which offers what is for me the typical Parisian breakfast. Here's my breakfast. Since I'm not a coffee drinker, I opted once again for the hot chocolate in the complete formula. This delightful package includes a croissant, a baguette with strawberry jam, and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. We've clearly stepped things up here. Everything from the butter to the rich creamy hot chocolate and the deliciously flaky croissant is top quality. Les Deux Magots scores 16.3 out of 20, and honestly it's hard to find any faults. The location is iconic, the quality is excellent across the board, and sipping your hot chocolate where literary legends went sat feels pretty special. Great value with no real downside. Our next breakfast spot is one I truly wanted to love. It has so much going for it, starting with a picture-perfect location right on the magnificent Place de la Concorde. It's called Café La Pérouse, not to be confused with the historic La Pérouse restaurant near Ile de la Cité. This café has been getting a lot of buzz on social media lately for its breakfast offerings. So I brought my daughter Charlotte along to enjoy a lovely breakfast with me on this beautiful, if a bit chilly, Saturday morning. It's too cold to sit outside, let's get in. The café's interior is beautifully decorated, and we were seated at a comfortable, well-placed table. A great start to the experience. First but slight disappointment for this video, there's no breakfast formula without eggs, so I went with it anyway. You also get a granola bowl with the fruit cleverly layered right on top of the cottage cheese, a nice touch in terms of both presentation and flavor. The hot chocolate is excellent too, thick, creamy, and just the way it should be. And the Earl Grey tea was good too. Their signature breakfast eggs are soft-boiled, elegantly stamped with the café's logo, and served with finely chopped chives and tender buttered brioche mouillette, perfect for dipping. And that's where the first real disappointment hits. If you're not a fan of soft-boiled eggs, you can ask for fried eggs instead. But what you get is rather sad, two plain fried eggs alone in the middle of a large plate, with nothing to accompany them. And to top it off, they charge you an extra 4 euros for that. That said, the soft-boiled egg with chives was excellent, perfectly cooked and full of flavor. Second disappointment, the bread was soft and lacked any real crispness, not what you'd expect from a Parisian breakfast. And finally, though I couldn't show it on this video, we were there at 9 in the morning and one of the waiters reeked of bad transpiration. Really not something you'd expect from a place that aims for fine dining standards. Café La Perouse gets only 13 out of 20. While the setting is stunning and the soft-boiled eggs were truly excellent, the experience fell short in a few key areas, from the overpriced and underwhelming fried eggs to the soft bread, and even a surprising lack of attention to staff hygiene. A mixed experience, despite the beautiful surroundings and the hype. Also on the stunning Place de la Concorde is one of Paris's most luxurious hotels, the Hôtel de Crayon. It's an iconic address and surprisingly you can enjoy here a palace-style breakfast without completely breaking the bank. At the Hôtel de Crayon, breakfast can be enjoyed in one of three exquisite settings. The Jardin d'Hiver, which I didn't film as it was quite full that morning. The charming patio, perfect when the weather cooperates. And finally the Bar des Ambassadeurs, a magnificent room adorned with woodwork and gilding, where I was lucky enough to be seated. For 45 euros, the Hôtel de Crayon offers a typically Parisian breakfast, fittingly named Le Parisien. While most places offer just one jam, here you're treated to a selection of four different jams and honeys, a refined touch that sets the tone. Each morning, the pastry chef at Le Crayon creates a unique pastry for breakfast. Today's treat was a delightful star-shaped pastry filled with raspberry jam and it was absolutely delicious. The Pain au Chocolat or Chocolatine, as it's called in the southwest of France, was wonderful as well. Perfectly flaky and rich with chocolate. And so was the croissant, a pure delight. And the crumb of this little bread, its texture, its flavor, was simply outstanding. But the next plus ultra of this breakfast was the hot chocolate. Hence down the best among all six I tried for this video. A true nectar of the gods. Le Crayon earns an impressive 17.6 out of 20. With its dream location, stunning decor, divine pastries and the best hot chocolate in town, this is a breakfast that borders on perfection. Add the generous selection of jams, an excellent value for money, and you've got a true Parisian luxury experience with no downsides at all. For our final Parisian breakfast, I'm standing on Place Vendôme, arguably the city's most opulent square. I'm about to step into its grandest palace, the Ritz. Here, breakfast is open to non-residents of the hotel from 10 to 11 am, served in the elegant Bar Vendôme and its lovely terrace. The continental breakfast, priced at 50 euros, is exactly what I was hoping for. The hot chocolate is good, but it doesn't quite match the excellence of the one at Le Crayon. Plenty of pastries to keep you going all day long. What a fantastic selection of jams. As at Le Crayon, they create a unique pastry each day. This one, filled with hazelnut cream, was quite decent, though not unforgettable. The croissant, on the other hand, was absolutely perfect. And the brioche was divine, light, airy and full of flavors. The Ritz earns a solid 15.6 out of 20. With its refined setting, exquisite croissant brioche and a generous selection of jams, it delivers a luxurious experience. But at 50 euros, it doesn't quite reach the level of Le Crayon's breakfast, which was both better and 15 euros cheaper. A very good breakfast, yes, but not the best value for money. So what did I learn from testing six French breakfasts across Paris, from a humble 10 euros bistro to the 50 euros splendor of the Ritz? First, you don't need to spend a fortune to enjoy a real Parisian breakfast. Good bread, a decent croissant and a warm cafe atmosphere can go a long way. But when you do spurge, places like Le Crayon show you what a truly refined experience can be, combining elegance, flavor and value. Whether you're sitting at a history cafe in Saint-Germain or indulging in luxury near Place Vendôme, there's a French breakfast for every taste and every budget. So, skip the hotel buffet and start your day the Parisian way.