La Madeleine de Marcel

For Pascale and her niece Nolwenn, cofounders of La Madeleine de Marcel, travel and literature have been in the family for generations. “In the 18th century, one of our ancestors, St John de Crevecoeur, known as Hector St John, was traveling across America with a pen in hand. He was one of the founders of American literature,” they explain. La Madeleine de Marcel combines its cofounders’ passion for travel and literature in a bookish tearoom setting, lined with overflowing bookshelves and decorated with wall-sized world maps and bouquets of dried flowers. “It was through traveling that we became aware of the damage caused by our consumption. When we started this project, we couldn’t imagine creating a space without a strong ecological conscience.” To this end, the two women avoid plastic at all costs, compost their food waste, and work closely with small producers in the Marseille area to feature local, seasonal products on the tearoom menu.