Bleu Olive

somewhere in the 7th, between the ministries and the musée d'orsay, the coffee conversation gets quieter and more serious. bleu olive, at 184 rue de grenelle, sits in a part of paris that tourists pass through but rarely slow down in, which means the people who find it tend to mean it. the regulars here aren't casual about the place. that kind of loyalty, in a neighborhood this unhurried, doesn't accumulate by accident for a café that isn't doing something right. if you're coming from the champ de mars or cutting through toward saint-germain, rue de grenelle is worth the detour. pull up on a weekday morning, when the street is still figuring itself out, and order whatever's on the espresso menu.