Mariage Frères, Marais

Henri and Édouard Mariage founded the company in 1854 as a wholesale tea importer and opened the Bourg-Tibourg public boutique in 1984 in the same Marais building that held the original offices. Six hundred fifty teas from thirty-six countries, Darjeeling first flushes, gyokuro from Uji, signature blends like Marco Polo and Wedding Impérial, sit in the painted oak casks behind a wooden counter that looks unchanged for a century. The salon de thé upstairs serves a tea-poached salmon and tea-flavoured pastries; the museum room holds 19th-century tea kit. The crowd here uses Bourg-Tibourg for the gift-tin run and the Saturday-after-lunch salon de thé sit-down before walking back across rue de Rivoli.