March Dispatch from Paris
Early Spring Inspiration, From Easter Treats to Spas & Day Trips
by Rachel Naismith, Guest Contributor
{Note from Courtney: This month I’m giving the floor to Rachel Naismith, a Paris-based writer and food critic who’s contributed some amazing features to Paris Unlocked over the past few years. Since I’m currently devoting most of my time to the French Culture podcast, due to launch in June, Rachel is offering her occasional perspectives on life (and food) in Paris here at the Paris Unlocked Newsletter. Enjoy, and make sure to follow her on Instagram!}
I’m writing this as Paris basks in its first proper sunshine in 2026. It’s still chilly, but the terraces are packed, as if Parisians have collectively decided enough is enough and started willing on warmer days.
I spent the start of the year not ensconced in the cold grey of the capital but in the more alluring cold of Finland, a glorious way to celebrate New Year. A newly converted cold-water swimmer, I was entirely in my element there, plunging into frozen lakes after baking in a sauna (I realize this might not thrill everyone).
So I was delighted to come back to Paris and find that a new wellness space, Sauna et Bains Collectifs had opened at Ground Control (81 rue du Charolais, 75012 Paris), an arts space, bar, and food court in the 12th arrondissement.
Sauna-going and cold-plunging have become increasingly popular in cities, though unfortunately in certain quarters they have become tangled up with productivity, optimization, and status. As Curbed put it last month, when did going to the sauna get so stressful? Happily, Sauna et Bains Collectifs rejects all of those things. It started in London in 2021 as a not-for-profit, offering free and low-cost sessions for grassroots groups and low-income residents, with a commitment to being body-neutral, screen- and-alcohol-free.
The Paris space shares the same communal spirit, and though Ground Control doesn’t quite capture the atmosphere of Finland’s forest saunas (there’s considerably more concrete), once you’re inside the enclosed space on the top floor it’s cosy and inviting with changing rooms, multiple saunas and plunge pools of different temperatures.
What I loved most was watching Parisians do something outside of their comfort zone. There is a leveling quality to a sauna where people loosen up and strangers talk to one another. It reminded me of last summer, when Parisians rather surprisingly embraced the opening of the Seine for swimming (they even extended the swimming season last year due to high turn-out).
Joyeuses Pâques (Happy Easter!)
Sunshine might not be a guarantee at this time of year in Paris, but chocolate certainly is. The city is awash with it: Easter is a significant moment for chocolatiers in France, especially the artisan ones, and the competition to produce the most extravagant, covetable sculptures grows more intense each year.
Already I’ve seen a giant croissant-shaped piece from pastry chef Léandre Viviera, a pink rose bouquet rendered in chocolate from the Mandarin Oriental, and a crocodile from the Maison du Chocolat for nearly 300 euros.
Alongside chocolate eggs, you’ll also find chocolate bells in France — Débauve & Gallais (30 Rue des Saints-Peres 75007), one of the oldest chocolate shops in the city, sells magnificently glossy ones. The tradition goes back to the early medieval Church, which forbade bell-ringing from Maundy Thursday until Easter morning in mourning for Christ’s death.
For those who want to see the finest chocolate eggs gathered in one place, it’s worth paying a visit to Eggxtraordinaire , a biennial exhibition (which runs until May) conceived by Frédéric Bau, creative director at Valrhona (the premium chocolate manufacturer). The event, which is being held this year at the Galerie Joseph (16 rue des Minimes, 75003), brings together 94 artisan creators and artists from around the world, with Pierre Hermé and Patrick Roger as honorary presidents.
For all the excitement of seeing new creations, though, I remain loyal to Jacques Génin, probably my favourite chocolatier (or rather ‘fondeur en chocolat’, chocolate melter, Genin never did any formal training so cannot use the chocolatier title!) in Paris.
Every year I feel the same giddy excitement seeing his collaboration with the painter Corinne Jam, even knowing exactly what to expect. Corinne spends two and a half months preparing for Easter, individually painting egg-moulds with natural flower pigments before the chocolate (71% Madagascar grand cru) is poured inside.
The resulting eggs — and also fish, elephants and turtles — are so gorgeous they look like works of art, not food. I’ve only ever bought the small praline-filled eggs, because the thought of breaking one of the sculptures is too unbearable.
Profiled in an earlier post at this newsletter this year, Plaq (4 Rue du Nil, 75002 Paris) is another fantastic chocolatier, and though their ethos remains ‘grown-up’ (focusing on single-origin chocolate with no additives, preservatives, and minimal use of unrefined organic sugar), they’re offering very cute and playful Easter treats this year. I had a children’s chocolate tour last week and they were completely won over by the lollipop eggs.
Easter also brings a long weekend, something the French adore and take very seriously, with many Parisians heading south or to the countryside. There is a tradition of serving leg of lamb (gigot d’agneau) on Easter Sunday, but what’s most guaranteed is that lunch will last for hours.
To Try for Lunch in the Marais: Le Coyote
Sadly, the Marais district feels like it belongs less and less to the people who actually live there. Many residents feel the neighbourhood has been given over entirely to tourists, and soaring rents have pushed out many artisan bakers, butchers, veg shops and community spaces that once defined it. Finding a great restaurant that isn’t a tourist trap or hasn’t acquired long queues from going TikTok-viral is no easy feat. It felt like a gift, then, to stumble accidentally into Le Coyote while looking for lunch, down a quiet street, away from the main thoroughfares.
An unshowy and welcoming café-restaurant, it’s run by Marine Gora, who previously ran Gramme, a popular brunch spot that still has an outpost in the 11th. It is, according to Gora, a political project: she has built what she describes as a ‘saloon’, a queer space designed for and by its community, in a neighbourhood where such spaces have become increasingly rare.
For lunch there was one single dish available: a congee, the rice perfectly seasoned, cooked in a rich broth full of depth, topped with dill. It was sophisticated, and good value (around 13 euros) for the work that had gone into it.
I followed up with something sweet: a cookie that was the best I’d tasted in a while, and it was fun to watch the staff baking as I dined.
As I left, one of the staff said he hoped I had enjoyed my petite pause avec Madonna. They’d been been playing tracks from the Material Girl throughout my lunch, which felt like a good omen. I’ll be back!
Arty Spring Jaunts: Louvre-Lens and Roger Caillois at L’École des Arts Joailliers
A friend of mine with an interest in Gothic architecture recently persuaded me to take the train to Lens, in northern France, to visit the outpost of the Louvre that opened there in 2012. Around two and a half hours from Paris’ Gare du Nord station, once you’re off the train it’s a verdant 20-minute walk to the museum.
{Related at Paris Unlocked: Best Day Trips From Paris, Most by Train}
The Louvre-Lens (99 rue Paul Bert, 62300 Lens) was built on the site of a former coal mine in a region that was, for nearly three centuries, the mining heartland of France (at its peak in 1930 accounting for 60% of the country’s total coal production and employing around 75,000 workers).
When the last mine closed in 1990, it left behind slag heaps, depleted towns and widespread unemployment. Lens sat at the heart of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, which was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 2012 — the same year the Louvre-Lens opened — in recognition of its industrial history.
The museum, built to bring the collections to a region that the rest of France had largely turned its back on, was designed by the Japanese studio SANAA and looks nothing like the Paris Louvre: the former features sleek, silvery, modern buildings set inside a park.
It does, however, hold works from the original (the Galerie du Temps is the main gallery, a 3,000-square-metre open space displaying over 200 works on loan from Paris). It’s a much airier, less frantic experience than the Paris Louvre, with a lovely café inside looking out onto the surrounding gardens.
Lens was extremely quiet on a Sunday afternoon, and we should have booked the on-site restaurant, L’Atelier du Cerisier, which looked lovely but was fully booked (there was really nowhere else to eat; the town had a very traditional French Sunday feel - i.e. incredibly quiet). The museum is worth the trip, though, particularly if there’s an exhibition that sparks your interest.
Back in Paris, I would enthusiastically recommend a free exhibition: Poésie et Minéraux de Roger Caillois, at L’École des Arts Joailliers (the School of Jewellery Arts, located at the Hôtel de Mercy-Argenteau, 16 bis Bd Montmartre, 75009 Paris).
Caillois was a twentieth-century French writer and intellectual, elected to the Académie française in 1971, who spent more than 25 years collecting stones. The exhibition pairs his writing with nearly 200 of the minerals that make up his collection. I was less compelled by the prose than by the stones themselves, which were stunning, and reason enough to visit.
The show runs until March 29th.
More seasonal stuff at Paris Unlocked:
If you’re in the capital this season, make sure to peruse our complete guide to visiting in the spring, alongside more specific tips and recommendations for this month.
Also check out this feature on lovely parks and gardens in the capital, and on how to stage an authentic Parisian picnic.
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A bientôt, les ami/es!
I agree with you about Jacques Génin—the best!