This gastronomic tour of Paris is not one of those bucket lists that demands you frantically check off boxes of “famous places” just to say you did. Instead, these are my suggestions (after nearly 40 years of living in the city) for how to spend a perfect day and night eating and drinking. The places in this guide paint a delicious portrait of the city and reveal its exalted culinary reputation. Think of it less as an endurance test and more as a culinary carousel to hop on and off according to your stamina and appetite.

Originally opened in 1947 to feed market workers at Les Halles (Paris’s main food market) back when it was located down the street, this almost 24/7 brasserie has a festive atmosphere. The intriguingly diverse and louche clientele make for some of the best people watching in the city, so it’s just the spot for a middle-of-the-night, only-in-Paris feast to banish jet lag. Some onion soup, freshly shucked oysters, and steak tartare are enough of an intro, but you could also make a pig of yourself by ordering the Tentation de Saint-Antoine (the Temptation of Saint Anthony): An ode to the patron saint of charcutiers, the plate includes a muzzle, ears, breaded pig’s foot, and a tail with lashings of bearnaise sauce. Open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 a.m.
6 Rue Coquillière, 1st arrondissement

Pick up a croissant that will flake to golden crumbs when you pull it open, or maybe an escargot aux pralines roses (a curled brioche pastry ornamented with cracked melted almonds in a hard pink-sugar shell), to eat while you walk along the moody Canal Saint-Martin. Buy a baguette too, because they’re so good — and because you might impulse-buy some pate, charcuterie, or cheese later. (Always travel with a knife and a corkscrew in Paris. You never know.)
34 Rue Yves Toudic, 10th arrondissement

Nico Alary/Holybelly

9 a.m. Breakfast or cooking class

Holybelly

French couple Nico Alary and Sarah Mouchot spent some time living in Melbourne before returning to Paris and opening this hopelessly popular all-day breakfast spot near the Canal Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement. The menu is a Gallic take on Australian, English, and American breakfast favorites: pancake and egg dishes with a la carte sides including mushrooms, sausage, hash browns, bacon, and baked beans. The excellent coffee is from Belleville Brûlerie, a roaster that has helped a wave of specialty cafes overthrow the bitter brews that used to prevail in Paris.
5 Rue Lucien Sampaix, 10th arrondissement

La Cuisine

If you’re still feeling fortified by your snack from Du Pain et des Idées, as an alternative to eating breakfast out you can sign up to learn how to make croissants and other French breakfast pastries at the acclaimed La Cuisine cooking school overlooking the Seine in the Marais. Learning to make your own croissants might be the best souvenir from Paris.
80 Quai de l’Hôtel de Ville, 4th arrondissement

For the French, the baguette jambon-beurre is the misty-eyed equivalent of the cheeseburger in the United States. The one at this cafe, made with Prince de Paris ham and butter from excellent cheese shop Beillevaire, is the best in town.
31–33 Rue Juliette Dodu, 10th arrondissement

Meghan McCarron/Eater

11:30 a.m. An obligatory crepe at Breizh Café

Feeling a little peckish? Head to this famous Breton creperie in the Marais and tuck into a buckwheat galette decked with smoked salmon, salmon roe, and creme fraiche.
109 Rue Vieille du Temple, 3rd arrondissement

Early afternoon is an ideal time for a splurge meal at one of the haute-cuisine restaurants that’s still worth the wound to the wallet. Chef Christophe Pelé earned two Michelin stars for this elegant 19th century townhouse just off the Champs-Élysées, which belongs to Prince Robert of Luxembourg, owner of the Château Haut-Brion in the Bordelaise region. The tasting menus showcase Pelé’s witty, iconoclastic, and deeply satisfying 21st-century French haute cuisine cooking, including dishes like langoustine ceviche with elderflowers and black sesame in a radish bouillon with rhubarb juice, elvers with lamb brains, grilled red mullet with beef marrow and ginger, and rice pudding with sorrel and apple.
31 Avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 8th arrondissement

4 p.m. Ice Cream at Pozzetto

The Sicilian pistachio is a favorite at this ice cream shop with two locations. The nuts from Bronte have a superb depth of flavor that crosses sweetness with umami. The chocolate-hazelnut has been known to induce rapture, too.
39 Rue du Roi de Sicile, 4th arrondissement

It’s time for a glass of wine and a snack, so head for chef Yves Camdeborde’s seafood-themed small-plates place. This popular standing-room-only spot is a great place to meet people, snag some roasted razor-shell clams, and clock the contemporary vibe of Saint-Germain-des-Près, which has evolved beyond its woefully outdated bohemian image.
3 Carrefour de l’Odéon, 6th arrondissement

The best oysters in the world come from France, and many of them have made their way to this hole-in-the-wall bar in Saint-Germain-des-Près. The minimum order is a dozen per person — challenge accepted — and you’ll want to start with the Fines de Claire moyennes (medium sized) from the Marennes-Oléron oyster beds in France’s Charente region.
3 Rue de Montfaucon, 6th arrondissement

Pauline Gouablin/Datil

9:30 p.m. Dinner at a hot restaurant

When Paris restaurants feature in Hollywood movies, they usually serve traditional bistro dishes like boeuf bourguignon or blanquette de veau on red-and-white checkered tablecloths. There’s no doubt that type of food is delicious, especially at places like Josephine Chez Dumonet, Le Quincy, or Le Bistrot des Tournelles. But for dinner, check out one of the modern restaurants making Paris the most interesting food city in Europe all over again:

Vaisseau

If you’re up for a walk on the wild side, book a table at Vaisseau, where the dark, minimalist decor is an anodyne backdrop for young chef Adrien Cachot’s tasting menus, designed to push your limits with wildly inventive dishes. You might find mochi “cachot e pepe” prepared like a risotto with pepper and citrus; sweet potato with lentils cooked with anise and sea crab; or veal three ways. Not recommended for timid or fussy eaters.
35 Rue Faidherbe, 11th arrondissement

Datil

At her luminous, nearly all-white restaurant in the upper Marais, chef Manon Fleury’s cooking stars vegetables, fruits, pulses, and grains. Flavors are subtle and techniques are flawless. The menus evolve regularly to follow seasonal produce and the chef’s fascinating gastronomic imagination. Memorable dishes have included raw shrimp dressed with cream of fermented rice, peaches, and shiso.
13 Rue des Gravilliers, 3rd arrondissement

Géosmine

Géosmine is chef Maxime Bouttier’s first restaurant of his own, and it occupies a loft-like white duplex in a former textile factory in the 11th arrondissement. At Géosmine (“odor of the soil,” as in a freshly plowed field), Bouttier features items like artichokes barigoule (braised in white wine and herbs) wrapped in fine ribbons of lardo di Colonnata (fatback), or green asparagus slathered with pistachio cream and chickweed. Don’t miss the baked-to-order cake of chocolate, vanilla, praline, and fleur de sel.
71 Rue De La Folie Méricourt, 11th arrondissement

12 a.m. Bar snacks at Cravan

Located in a 17th-century building, this multilevel space by Franck Audoux has single-handedly made touristy Saint-Germain-des-Près hip with night owls again. Drinkers flock to Paris’s largest cocktail bar to quaff something from the long cocktail list, including a Royal Immortelle: Champagne mixed with extract of immortelle, a wild plant that tastes like curry. Alongside, there’s mushroom tempura to dip in black-garlic sauce and grilled baby leeks in mousseline. Open until 1 a.m. during the week and 2 a.m. on weekends. Reservations recommended via the website.
165 Boulevard Saint-Germain, 6th arrondissement

Alexander Lobrano is a Paris restaurant expert and author of Hungry for Paris, Hungry for France, and his gastronomic coming-of-age story My Place at the Table. He blogs about restaurants and writes often for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Saveur, and other publications.