That photo was taken long after Hugo lived here. He was just 30 years old when he moved to the vast apartment upstairs, a workaholic with a wife and four small children, already a literary luminary of the Romantic age, an established poet, playwright, essayist and novelist.

What could be more exemplary of that Romantic era in France and of Hugo’s brilliance as a storyteller than the bestselling novel that he published a year before the move: Notre-Dame de Paris. The French title immediately signaled that the main character in this page-turner would be the battered cathedral in the historic heart of the capital. But the English publisher didn’t think that Gothic enough for a foreign audience, so it made poor, maligned Quasimodo the titular protagonist: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

Who can forget that high-drama scene-for-the-ages in which the beautiful, seductive Esmeralda finds the heart and the courage to give the thirsty, pilloried hunchbacked bellringer a drink of water, as Notre-Dame Cathedral looms in the background!

Certainly not I as I sit by the fountain in the courtyard café sipping a flat white. Yes, they’ve got flat white on the menu. Café au lait be damned! Flat white—now there’s a bestselling term in the literature of new cafés in Paris. Still, Paris it is. A lovely courtyard in the Marais. Dress the lovely parisiennes at the next table in bangles, scarve and flowing diaphanous skirts and any of them could play Esmeralda. Cue the goat.

Such a beautiful morning to experience Papapa. Seriously. Not the best place to contemplate medieval misery today, but maybe I’ll go upstairs to visit the Hugo’s apartment once I’ve finished my flat white, to imagine him looking down into the courtyard. Maybe to watch a mistress walk by. Or maybe, just maybe, in literary mode, to look down to this very fountain as he undertook a new project: exploring the more contemporary misery and revolt to which he was personally witness. That was toward the end of his stay, though the 5-volume work wouldn’t reach shelves until 1862: Les Misérables, a title that immediately draws attention to the miserable and the wretched of the world. Might as well just call it that in English.

Hugo explored numerous subjects in his work, often with great emotion, drama and sentimentality, yet his reputation soared as a republican activist, sympathetic to the downtrodden, un écrivain engagé, as we say in French, a socially committed writer. Unlike the present one. For how can I—how can anyone—do anything but ♥ Paris in this lovely courtyard café. Papapa is a much mellower name for a café serving a flat white in the Marais than Les Misérables, don’t you think? (There’s already café named Le Quasimodo Notre-Dame by the cathedral.)

Here, on this beautiful September morning, all seems right in the world. Every glance, every exchange, every sip, every bite (it’s the press opening and I’m trying everything on the menu) reminds me that I ♥ Paris, where City Hall’s fights for social justice by promoting the freedom for cyclists and scootists (pedestrians be damned!) and takes seriously its management of heritage sites by thoughtfully doling out concessions for cafés in the courtyards of city-operated museums. Call it a flat white social conscience.

Hence the 6-year concession for this café to Les Editions Délicieuses, a company operated by Damien and Caroline Nobile. Lovely people with good business acumen. I chatted with Damien. He used to work in finance, Caroline in fashion, in New York, before returning to Paris twenty years ago and transitioning into the event-catering and, more recently, courtyard café business.

Damien and Caroline aren’t only good at operating cafés serving pleasing fare and flat whites, they’re also good at naming their establishments. They started out with Fika, the sweet little café at the Swedish Institute in another Marais courtyard. Fika is a Swedish term for a coffee break. Now there’s Papapa. This fall they’ll take over the greenhouse café and tea room at the Musée de la Vie Romantique in the 9th arrondissement, the house-museum that speaks of music, life and literature during the Romantic area. It will be called Cornelia, the name of both the mother and daughter of the house’s first occupant. Then next spring they’ll take over the café concession at Balzac’s House in the 16th arrondissement, rebranding it Honoré. That was Balzac’s first name. Endearing names for endearing places. Altogether, they offer literary travelers pleasing fikas. Or think of it as a wonderful opportunity to learn about 19th-century literature, music and art during your flat white tour of Paris. Café au lait be damned!

Place des Vosges / Place Royale

Sorry, I got distracted by my conversation with Damien. Where was I? Oh yes, the Place des Vosges. Can you think of an adjective to describe it?

Technically, Hugo didn’t live on the Place des Vosges. He lived on the Place Royale. That was the square’s name before the Revolution of 1789. In 1800, after the blood had dried and Napoleon became top dog, it was renamed the Place des Vosges to honor the department or subregion in eastern France for being an early adopter of the Revolution. But once a king returned to the throne after the fall of Emperor Napoleon, the square again became the Place Royale (Hugo lived here in the time of King Louis-Philippe), then eventually Place des Vosges again with the affirmation of France’s Third Republic.

Though royal during Hugo’s residence, the neighborhood’s aristocratic glory days were long gone by the time he arrived. By then, the former noble mansion of the early 17th century where he lived, one of 36 such mansions on the square, had been divided into fourteen rental apartments. The Marais was no longer so fashionable, and its decline would continue for another 130 years. Nevertheless, the square remained a rather decent place to live in the 1830s and 1840s, when Hugo’s celebrity and engagement were on the rise. And always that (add your adjective) view.

Whether Victor Hugo thought of this as the Place Royale or followed his republican conscience in thinking of it as the Place des Vosges, I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know that much about the man. But from what I’ve read—Wikipedia, Notre-Dame de Paris, Les Misérables, and his poem Demain, dès l’aube (Tomorrow, at dawn) about living with the grief of the death by drowning of his 19-year-old daughter Léopoldine—from what I’ve read, he had an extraordinary life, imagination and strength of character, to which you can add love life if you’d care to look further into that.

Maison Victor Hugo, the Museum

His large apartment on the third floor (2e étage) of what become a city-owned building opened as a museum dedicated to him in 1903. I haven’t been there in a while so I might just take a peek after I’ve finished the flat white and this article. As I recall, the apartment is not as he lived in it for 16 years. Instead, the Maison Victor Hugo, as it’s called, presents a mix of artwork by and about the writer and his works, along with wallpaper, curtains and furnishings that evoke or come from other places and other periods in his long life.

One of those places was the Anglo-Norman or Channel Island of Guernsey, where he, a literary warrior for democracy and social justice, lived in exile from France’s Second Empire from 1855 to 1870. Doesn’t quite have the same ring as becoming a Florida resident to escape taxes in New York and New Jersey, but to each his Guernsey. That era is represented here by the drawing room of Chinese inspiration and the dining room of medieval inspiration, both of which he created for his mistress’s house at Guernsey. Naturally, she joined him in exile. Apparently, one can have a social conscience, enjoy one’s comforts and be a talented decorator. Maybe even play pickleball for all I now.

The museum’s final room presents a reconstitution, more or less, of his bedroom in the 16th arrondissement where he died at the age of 83 in 1885. Remember that scene from Les Misérables when Cosette reaches Jean Valjean at his deathbed and he manages to breath “Dying is nothing; it’s terrible not to live,” proof that social and political engagement requires a heavy dose of melodrama? Among Hugo’s own last words were these, written three days before he took his last breath: Aimer, c’est agir, To love is to act. When I try to contemplate what that might mean while sitting alone with a flat white in this lovely setting of the café courtyard, all that comes to mind is that it sounds like the name of a cocktail, to be listed alongside Sex on the Beach, Salty Dog and Penicillin. Perhaps I’m being cynical because I now recall learning somehow that one week after Hugo’s death, a tremendous funeral procession attended by perhaps two million people led his remains to the Pantheon. They weren’t just there to mourn a writer but a man who had become an activist for social justice and the values of a secular republic. That is what we should all contemplate at Papapa.

Just kidding! How can anyone think of social justice while ♥ing Paris with a flat white? Honestly, has anyone ever sat down with a flat white in Paris with a social conscience that goes beyond “I deserve this” or “Wait, let me take a picture first”? Come to think of it, flat white may itself be a form of international social conscience, especially when everyone, irrespective of race, color, creed or other variances, gets a ♥ or a🌿on top. Café au lait be damned!

In addition to his 15 years of exile on the Anglo-Norman island of Guernsey, off the coast of Normandy, Hugo had other visits and residences in the region, not to mention that Léopoldine drowned in the Seine in Normandy. Hugo’s Normandy connections drew Damien and Caroline Nobiles to honor that region in creating their menu for a light lunch, a savory snack and pleasing pastries, cookies and biscuits. On the savory side, baked camembert, a Guernsey bean jar, crab-and-apple on buttered brioche and, on weekends, oysters from the Chausey Islands. On the sweet side, pear douillon, mirliton, a caramel-topped cookie and a seasonal fig tart. Butter is branded Isigny Sainte-Mère. Then there’s the wink-wink of the flat white on the coffee menu, reminding us that none of this actually has anything to do with Victor Hugo. All to be enjoyed within gurgling distance of the charming little fountain or inside by the looming photo of Papapa himself.

You can enjoy the lovely flat whiteness of the café without entering the museum. Just say “Bonjour” to the guard as you pass under the arcade into the courtyard. But maybe your conscience will bother you if you’ve come this far without at least going up for the view. As encouragement, entrance to the Victor Hugo House is normally free. As discouragement, there’s currently an admission fee of 11€ (9€ for students 18-26, free for under 18) until Nov. 22, though that gives access to both the permanent collection on the third floor and the temporary exhibition “Hugo and Architecture” on the second—yes, another interest of the great man.

On its own, a Guernsey bean jar doesn’t help me understand what made Hugo a fabulous storyteller, a multi-talented creator, a social committed writer and a hero in the fight for freedom and democracy. So I’ve decided that the time has now come to leave this loveliest of lovely courtyards to go upstairs to contemplate the fellow and ponder what it means to have a social conscience, even if only out of flat white guilt.

© 2026, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Paris Café Culture: Victor Hugo and My Flat White Social Conscience appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Here, I take in the tremendous view over the Seine Valley, at the border between the Paris region and Normandy, border of France its, from above a castle that embodies major events in French, even European, history over the past 1000 years. Since not all who enter the castle are willing to make the climb, the few visitors entering down below are fewer still to share this view.

Each time I’ve made the climb I’ve thought, “That was certainly worth the detour and the effort. Too bad the castle down below is so empty. And too bad no one bothers to inform visitors about the history of this carcass.”

But that isn’t what I thought when I reached the top this summer.

The rewarding view earned after an athletic climb is the same, but La Roche-Guyon, just six miles from Giverny, has now upped its game. An artistic and cultural project that came into fruition this summer marks a turning point for the chateau as several rooms have been graced with historic furnishings and complemented by new works by artists-in-residence. La Roche-Guyon feels less the carcass passageway to the summit and more a place to linger. A site that I used to think as a detour is now en route to becoming a destination.

With 90,000 visitors last year, the Château de La Roche-Guyon is the most visited heritage site in the department (or subregion) Val d’Oise of the Greater Paris region, yet it’s generally off the radar for international travelers. That’s undoubtedly due to the difficulty of access without a car and the absence of organized tours from Paris.

Compare that with the international reputation of Monet’s House and Gardens at Giverny, a wide bend in the river downstream along the Seine and just six miles away by road. Giverny (pronounced shjee-ver-nee) draws over 750,000 visitors per year. Already, in 2014, I suggested to readers planning a visit to Giverny to consider combining it with a stop at La Roche-Guyon. (See that article.) La Roche-Guyon now inspires more than a stop. Indeed, Giverny could now be the “stop” after visiting La Roche-Guyon. More on that toward the end of this article.

From hollowed carcass…

The La Rochefoucauld family has owned the Château de la Roche-Guyon nearly continuously since 1659. Call the current head of the household Duke de La Roche-Guyon if you wish. Though titles that formerly conferred a superior legal status, rights and privileges no longer have judicial significance, they may still used honorifically.

For generations, centuries even, the chateau’s interior maintained the allure of a noble household. Prized paintings, tapestries and furniture decorated the major reception rooms. The vast library held a large, valuable collection of books. Curiosities filed shelves in an adjacent room. The death of a proprietor duke in 1964 then of his duchess in 1984 put an end to that. Rather, the inability of heirs to agree to a less dramatic way to pay the inheritance tax than selling most of the furnishings did. The historic rooms were emptied. Their contents were taken to Sothby’s auction block in 1987, leaving a tremendous void to increasingly decrepit spaces. La Roche-Guyon became a decaying carcass of a castle.

… to public funding and restoration

A branch of the La Rochefoucauld family still owns the chateau. The family has private apartments on the upper floors, which can’t be visited. Much of the rest, however, is open to the public since  the chateau has been managed and enriched by over 30 years by a public entity working under the auspices of Val d’Oise and other local administrations. Throughout France, such multilayered arrangement allows certain privately owned heritage sites to be maintained and open to the public so as to continue to be a part of the cultural landscape for more than a simple drive-by view,

Restoration of the château was the main objective in the 1990s. I made my first visit in the mid-90s, soon after it had opened to the public. The pervasive feel was of a hollow carcass, but at least it was now receiving funding for repair and could be visited. The 2000s saw the replanting and recreation of the chateau’s kitchen garden and orchard in its 18th-century configuration. Situated across the street from the chateau, that 9.4-acre enclosed garden/orchard is the second largest of its kind in the Paris region, after the Potager du Roi, the royal kitchen garden at Versailles. It earned the national label Jardin remarquable (Remarkable Garden) in 2011. By then, attention was slowly turning to refurnishing the succession of 18th-century rooms that had been emptied in 1987.

… to refurnished rooms

Within the site’s thousand-year history of construction, the 18th century marks La Roche-Guyon’s intellectual, artistic and architectural heyday. Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld (1690-1762), Duke of La Roche-Guyon, then his daughter (1716-1797), known through her marriage as the Duchess of Enville, led the way.

The duchess built what is now the main portion of the castle complex. She, especially, gave La Roche-Guyon and the La Rochefoucauld mansion in Paris their status as gathering places for writers, philosophers, political thinkers and scientist. At her home in Paris, she hosted Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, among other Americans seeking to draw France into the fight for independence.

In 2000, funding provided by the department of Val d’Oise and the state secured the purchased at auction of a series of four tapestries from 1769 presenting the Biblical story of Esther that had originally been ordered by the Duchess d’Enville for one of the chateau’s drawing rooms. The four were being auctioned off by the designer Karl Langerfield, who was then parting ways with an 18th-century collection that he’d constituted in part from the La Rochefoucauld sale of 1987. Other objects have returned under similar circumstances. A precious 18th-century inlaid desk that had graced that same room until 1987 was purchase in 2017 by a private citizen who then donated it to the state on the condition that it return to La Roche-Guyon. Others made similar gestures, as gift or loan.

Compare my photo above, taken in June 2026, with the black-and-white photos from the early 20th-century on this page showing the desk and the tapestries, among other furnishings in the grand salon.

Contemporary artists add a breath of fresh air

These small, significant and expensive steps gave a hint of the life and elegance of the chateau as a noble center for enlightened discussion, yet those furnishings were also a reminder of how much more was needed to enliven the place.

This summer marks a turning point for the chateau as the void now further recedes thanks to the addition of additional precious period furnishings and especially of works created by artists-in-residence. Going forward, a contract recently signed with the Mobilier National, the public entity that stores, maintains and lends out historic furnishings, will bear fruit next year with additional furnishings on display, ensuring that additional spaces within the chateau feel less forlorn.

In an artists-in-residence program now reaching fruition, eight artists or teams of artists were selected to help breathe fresh air into La Roche-Guyon. The program is carried out by artistic and cultural director Emmanual Morin. Three of the artists were tasked with updating visuals, maps, brochures and the chateau gift shop/ticket desk. The others were invited to create works that reveal, enrich and dialogue with the décor, the furnishings, the architecture and the prior use of certain rooms and spaces. The result is a series of accessible and often playful works anchored in specific locations. They lead visitors to linger longer both in appreciation of the works themselves and to consider the ways in which they revive and revisit the spirit of their location.

Here are some of the artists who have taken part in this enrichment campaign.

Castle map and descriptive brochure

For years, visitors purchasing their entrance ticket were handed a photocopied information sheet intended guide them through the then empty-castle. It was better than nothing, but not truly helpful in understanding the site.

Now, visitors are given an upbeat map of the castle along with an attractive information booklet providing an important primary understanding of the rooms to be visited. These are the work of graphic artist and illustrator Mathilde Arnaud. The map and the booklet, which appeal to children and adults alike, are as much souvenirs as on-site guides.

Entrance and grand staircase

Designers and plastic artists Baptiste Sévin and Jaïna Ennequin, who form Atelier Baptiste & Jaïna, have enriched the entrance and Classical grand staircase with Mineral Cuttings, as they’ve titled their work here, of ceramic and blown glass. The staircase, though lit by windows featuring the arms of La Rochefoucauld family, felt severe and incomplete prior to the introduction of their work. As with all of the artists participating in the current project, their works are not intended to transform their assigned space but rather to dialogue with the architecture and elements in which they’re integrated. Rather than draw attention to themselves, Baptiste & Jaïna’s “cuttings” soften the severity of the space while resonating with the rounded stone of the stairs, walls and banister, the window that lights the landing, and the fruit from the castle’s orchard. Their work will remain in place until 2030.

The dining room and 18th-century drawing rooms

Camille Chastang’s flamboyant, entertaining and floral creations in ceramics and textile present a trail of pleasures in the dining room and the main 18th-century drawing rooms. She has given the title Menus Plaisirs to the collection of objects that she has fashioned. That term refers to the service and budget of an aristocrat, notably a king, dedicated to small or minor (menus) pleasures (plaisirs) such as festivities, entertainment and courtly events. The artist’s Menus Plaisirs will enliven those rooms only until Nov. 1, 2026. For another room, she has designed a floral, watercolor-like wallpaper called Femmage! in honor of the women who have reigned here, in particular the Duchess of Enville. That will remain in place until 2028.

Echoes, a subtle soundtrack

Physical objects—tapestries, paintings, armchairs, tables, desks, and Camille Chastang’s trail of pleasures—help fill the void that once permeated these rooms. Add to that a subtle soundtrack created by sound designers Simon Cacheux and Julia Griner, who collectively form Atelier Blip Bloop.

Their elusive acoustics allow us to overhear the spirit of the succession of 18th-century reception and drawing rooms. It gives voice and breath to the stone architecture, the wood floors, beams and doors, the metal hinges and locks, and the nearby stables and great kitchen garden and orchard. Their soundtrack will play until 2028.

The library, the cabinet of curiosities and the orangery

From that succession of rooms, we enter the large library. Formerly home to a vast and prestigious collection of knowledge, reflections and stories, it now tells of nothing but absence. White faux book covers don’t so much fill the shelves as turn them into wordless ghosts. I would hope that an artist-in-residence will be invited before long to reconsider these shelves. Meanwhile, looking down on visitors from the upper level of the ghostly library, a mysterious creature hints at the curious menagerie in the next room.

While the library of an aristocratic family reflected a desire for knowledge and understanding as books become increasingly available, a cabinet of curiosities, adjacent here, was a more intimate, more personal space.

Cabinets of curiosities developed in Renaissance Europe as places to store, catalogue, present and examine precious objects of study, from a dinosaur fossil to a taxidermy parrot, and much in between. Numerous aristocrats designated a room for their “curiosities” in the 17th and 18th centuries, and beyond. Here, as in his enlightened library, the curator-aristocrat, whether noble savant or wannabe, could demonstrate to himself and to visitors his curiosity about the widening world as explorers, botanists and archeologist traveled the globe.

Now, sculptor Yoshikazu Goulven Le Maître has revived that spirit of curiosity with a menagerie of his own creations, titled Mirabilis and curated by Jean-Marc Dimanche.

Yoshikazu’s was the longest residency of the artists described here, leading to the most prolific creation. After viewing his works, visiting artists, crafters, scrappers and tinkerers of every age will want to pick up string, metal, fabric, buttons and minutia of any kind to start creating when they get home. Mirabilis will remain in place until 2028.

In addition to that wondrous menagerie, the artist has created larger works that can be seen in the former dog yard, situated shortly beyond the cabinet of curiosities, and a monumental bestiary in the dimly lit former orangery or greenhouse dug into the cliff, seen at the end of a visit. That bestiary, titled Fauna Fabulosa, will remain in place only until Nov. 1, 2026.

The theater

The Duchess of Enville created a precious little theater at La Roche-Guyon that is need of much restoration before being open to the public anytime. Photos of that space can be seen after the cabinet of curiosities.

As a reminder of its existence, Héllène Gaulier and Gwenolé Gasiner, of Agence GG, have designed theatrical games using pre-Industrial mechanics. One is shown by the theater and the other is shown within the medieval keep atop the cliff. Their works will remain here until 2030.

The truncated castle tower

Eventually, following an athletic climb, visitors are rewarded by the view that leads off this article, over the Seine Valley from the top of the tower of a castle keep. The tower, dating from about 1190, was at least one third taller before being beheaded, so to speak, in 1793, during the French Revolution. It was truncated to cut the notion of nobility down to size (hereditary nobility was first abolished in 1790) and to prevent such a prominent position from falling into the hand of counter-Revolutionaries. This had been a strategic location for nearly 900 years by then.

In 911, the Treaty of Epte set the border of a territory to be controlled by the Norsemen who’d conquered the territory and their descendants—the territory of Normandy. The Epte River, which flows into the Seine, runs about half a mile from here as the crow flies. On and off for centuries, that was the border between Normandy and France proper. It still represents the border between Normandy and Ile-de-France, as the Paris region is officially called. (Giverny is on the opposite side of the border.)

See this France Revisited video of the view.

Rommel at La Roche-Guyon

The Château de La Roche-Guyon’s strategic location at the border between Normandy and the Paris region explains why it served as German Marshall Edwin Rommel’s headquarters after his appointment by Hitler to oversee a large swath of the Atlantic Wall during the Second World War. The territory that he oversaw included the section of Normandy that would become the D-Day Landing Beaches.

During the Occupation, the Germans built casemates into the limestone cliff so as to protect their artillery as much as possible from Allied aerial bombing. Meanwhile, resistance activities took place in the village itself. An audiovisual installation called The Voice of the Casemates, 1944, by the French-Polish artist Tomasz Namerla will remain within the gloom of cliffside casemates until 2030.

For its WWI history alone, I’ve often suggested that those driving to the Normandy Landing Zone from Paris for several days stop here for a visit, just a 15-minute detour off the highway. Also, it makes for a nice break in the drive. Thanks to the recent cultural and art program, La Roche-Guyon now makes for an even richer break.

Visiting La Roche-Guyon with respect to Giverny

All told, the Chateau de La Roche-Guyon deserves a place on the traveler’s radar, perhaps not (yet) as a significant detour, but at the very least a stop for an hour or two or three for those driving to/from Normandy, or those planning on visiting Giverny, or those interested in also visiting the nearby natural and preserved zone called the Vexin Français.

Château de La Roche-Guyon is open daily 10am to 18am from April 1 to November 1, which more or less coincides with the opening season of Monet’s House and Gardens at Giverny. Additionally, and for the first time, the chateau will open from Dec. 5, 2026 to Jan. 4, 2027, with seasonal decorations and the creation by children’s book author Elisa Martin of a graphic novel whose action takes place at the Château de La Roche-Guyon.

Many touring companies based in Paris propose a Giverny + Versailles day trip from April 1 to Nov. 1. A Giverny + La Roche-Guyon combo, though less blockbuster, is a more natural and unhurried combo.

DIYers without a car can reach Giverny by taking the train to Vernon from Paris’s Saint Lazare Station then a shuttle or taxi or bike from Vernon. With no offense to Giverny, that’s a lot of travel and timing for relatively low touring ROI, unless you’re a hardcore Monet fan. An interesting cycling day could be made by taking the train to Vernon from Paris, renting a manual or e-bike near the Vernon train station, then visiting Giverny and La Roche-Guyon before cycling back to Vernon. That’s about 20 miles in all, mostly on narrow roads rather than designated cycling paths. (I haven’t yet done that and would like to hear from anyone who has.)

There’s a full-men restaurant by the river in the village of La Roche-Guyon, but keep it simpler, I say, by opting for lunch or a snack at the bakery near the foot of the castle or at the friendly café-bistro next to that. If La Roche-Guyon maintains its upward trajectory en route to becoming a destination, other worthy options will undoubtedly open.

© 2026 by Gary Lee Kraut

The post Château de La Roche-Guyon: A Detour en Route to Becoming a Destination appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

The term bistro—or bistrot, as it is more commonly written in French—has evolved over the past 150 years. And it’s meaning in French is not identical to its meaning in English. For that reason, when English-speaking visitors to Paris ask me (or their concierge or their phone) to recommend “a good neighborhood bistro,” what they’re looking for does not necessarily correspond to what Parisians think of as “a good neighborhood bistro.”

That’s because English-speaking travelers are typically looking for a restaurant serving fresh traditional French cuisine—period. Nothing wrong with that. However, the Parisian bistro can also be more than just a restaurant.

For bistro purists with a sense of bistro history, the bistro is better defined as an unpretentious neighborhood gathering place with an active bar counter and serving fresh traditional cuisine that’s relatively inexpensive for the neighborhood, along with inexpensive wines (even if more expensive wines may also be available), a place that remains open beyond meal hours, with an ever-watchful owner or manager on the premises.

To call such a place a “neighborhood bistro” would be redundant since a bistro in that more-than-a-restaurant sense necessarily implies that neighbors and regulars stop by through the day for coffee, a drink, to escape the heat or the cold, or simply to say hello, and to enjoy a nice, inexpensive meal if they like. Such a bistro—a more-than-a-restaurant bistro—is defined not by food alone, however enjoyable its bistro cuisine may be, but by its role as a vector of sociability and an example of art-de-vivre à la française.

Paris Bistro Life, the Lecture

Over the past two years I’ve been giving a lecture on that very subject, in which I examine the history of the Parisian bistro and speak about an array of more-than-a-restaurant bistros. Titled The History of the Parisian Bistro and Paris Bistro Life Today, I recently made this presentation to the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA, via Zoom, a recording of which you can watch below.

In the lecture, after considering the origins of the word bistro/bistrot, I present an exemplary selection of eight more-than-a-restaurant bistros that I recommend for those wishing to take part in Paris bistro life. They’re located in various neighborhoods in Paris—and that I recommend for those wishing to take part in Paris bistro life—include Christophe Hanz’s Le Vaudésir, 41 Rue Dareau, 14th arr.; Jean-Louis Bras’s Au Bon Coin, 49 Rue Des Cloys, 18th arr.; Fanny and Bruno Louvrier’s Au Bougnat – Chantier de Notre-Dame, 26th rue Chanoinesse, 4th arr.; Claude and Henrika Derrien’s Le Verre à Pied, 118 B rue Mouffetard, 5th arr.; Robyn Greiner’s L’Ami Pierre, 5 rue de la Main d’Or, 11th arr.; Chez Walzak – Aux Sportifs Réunis with Chef Boby, 75 rue Brancion, 15th arr.; Nicolas Gounse’s Le Guersant, 30 Bd Gouvion Saint-Cyr and Eric Mauboussin’s Le P’tit Zinc, 2 rue des Plantes, 14th arr.

I also speak in this presentation about various organizations and individuals that defend and promote traditional bistros and cafés as essential vectors of sociability and art-de-vivre à la française, spearheaded by Alain Fontaine, owner-chef of Le Mesturet.

Have a watch, whether for the full presentation or simply to hear about some of the specific bistros and bistro-keepers mentioned above.

Welcome to Paris Bistro Life.

© 2026, Gary Lee Kraut

The post The History of the Parisian Bistro and Paris Bistro Life Today (Video) appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Paris has an extensive and vibrant theater scene. On any given evening, dozens of plays take to the stage, from productions of classics or contemporary works in national public theaters to comedies and one-man/woman shows in small private theaters, with much drama and many laughs in between.

Among them, there will likely be a play directed by, written by and/or starring Jean-Philippe Daguerre, one of the most recognizable names in Paris theater life, whom I’ve interviewed in the video further below.

Yet theater is the one major aspect of cultural life in Paris that foreign visitors rarely experience. Why’s that? Language, of course, but is that necessarily a barrier?

Theater with English surtitles

Some theaters have made efforts to attract foreign visitors, particularly English-speakers. Surtitling glasses are available at the Comédie Française; the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe presents English surtitles (and some plays are performed in English); productions at the Théâtre Edouard VII and the Théâtre Le Ranelagh may also have English surtitles; there are several stand-up acts in English, and then there’s theater, enjoyable whether in English or in French.

Anyway, the emotions of the theater don’t come from words alone. The acting, directing and phrasing can be appreciated, felt, even apprehended without comprehending individual words. Think of Shakespeare in our own language, sort of; we sense Hamlet’s internal drama as he questions to be or not to be when speaking of “The insolence of office, and the spurns/That patient merit of th’unworthy takes/When he himself might his Quietus make/With a bare Bodkin? Who would Fardels bear…” while understanding nary a word. How different can it be with Molière?

But give a try in French

Even without understanding French, spending 60 to 90 minutes in a small theater—and there are many—makes for an inexpensive cultural treat for the sheer pleasure of being seated within spitting distance of the actors on stage. Tickets can be had for under 30 euros. And if you do know some French, attending a comedy in a small theater is a terrific way of challenging yourself to grasp a story line without understanding every word. Servers in restaurants and staff in hotels will switch to English at your first “bonjour,” but actors won’t. Besides, the inevitably joyfully silly set-up will be clear within five minutes. Tickets aren’t too difficult to come by, including half-price same-day tickets.

Interview with Jean-Philippe Daguerre

As further encouragement to consider going to the theater in Paris, watch my interview below with Jean-Philippe Daguerre. Daguerre is a prominent figure in French theater life, winner of multiple Molière Awards for acting, directing and writing. The Molières are Paris’s equivalent of the Tony Awards in New York or the Olivier Awards in London. Daguerre and his work have also appeared on stages in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Two of the plays that he’s penned are currently showing in Paris: Du Charbon dans les Veines (at Théâtre du Palais Royal until June 28 then reopening at Théâtre Saint-Georges on Sept. 15) and La Femme qui n’aimait pas Rabbi Jacob (at Théâtre Montparnasse).

Give a listen as Daguerre discusses the differences between acting in Paris, London and New York, France’s developing musical comedy culture, the interest of Paris theater for English-speaking visitors, and The Woman Who Ddn’t Like Rabbi Jacob, his latest work as a playwright.

This interview took place during the Salon de Spectacle Vivant, a fair for the performing arts of which Jean-Philippe Daguerre was the guest of honor, on February 2, 2026. The biannual fair is organized by Charlotte Calmel (ChaComDif) and Laurence Trinquet (CultureLLes).

(c) 2026, Gary Lee Kraut. All rights reserved.

Watch more France Revisited interviews along with other videos on the France Revisited Youtube channel.

The post Paris Theater Life: Actor, Director, Writer Jean-Philippe Daguerre appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Quaismodo would be impressed were he to return now to the cathedral that he inhabited as Victor Hugo’s beloved and maligned hunchback. He would immediately feel at home within the stone walls and wooden frames of the towers of Notre-Dame. Yet the cathedral has also changed and brightened since he knew it as Hugo’s fictional bellringer in the 15th century. There are new elements and much has been restored over the centuries, including its most recent restoration from the fire of April 15, 2019. But I imagine that Quasimodo would be enthralled as we were as we climbed the southern tower, examined gargoyles and chimeras, took in the extraordinary view, stood before the great bells, and descended through the northern tower.

As you would expect, the 360-degree view of Paris is well worth the effort of climbing 424 steps, despite the chicken-wire enclosure from which we take it all in: the city’s rooftops and monuments, church towers and spires, river and bridges, and the spire of Notre-Dame itself rising right before us.

The view over the city isn’t all that makes this visit worthwhile. There’s more to the new climbing route than the grand view. Quasimodo would be in awe to stand face to face, as we did, with the cathedral’s two great bells or bourdons, though these aren’t the ones that he so loved to ring: the 6-ton bourdon Marie, cast in 2012, which sounds a do, and the 13-ton bourdon Emmanuel, cast in 1686, which sounds a fa. The latter is France’s second largest bourdon after the 18-tonner known as La Savoyarde at Sacré Coeur Basilica, the church that we see on the hill to the north.

In bringing the hunchback to life on the page in 1831, Hugo also called for new life to be breathed into the then-dilapidated cathedral. Over the ensuing decades, appointed architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc honored that call by leading a massive restoration while also reimagining missing or degraded elements, taking liberties here and there. The tower route gives a close-up view of several of the 54 animal and demon chimeras that he and an assistant designed. Those that were heavily damaged during the fire of 2019 have recently been replaced with copies, as has Viollet-le-Duc’s spire of 1859. Even if none of these were known to Quasimodo, we are tempted to do as he did and “spend whole hours crouched before one of the statues in solitary conversation with it.” But visitors today don’t have such luxury of such time when visiting the towers.

My own climbing group, comprised of journalists specialized in cultural heritage, had the enlightening pleasure of touring the towers in the company of Viollet-le-Duc’s current successor, Philippe Villeneuve, chief architect in charge of the restoration and reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris since the fire.

As we rose, he steered our eyes to various eras and elements of construction and major restoration. The current restoration work in response to the fire will likely continue through 2028, he said.

Even without Villeneuve’s insightful company, you’ll see along the way two major markers of his conceptual work. First, the massive oak spiral staircase, partially in double revolution, that Villeneuve designed for the passage from the second landing to the medieval stone staircase in the tower. Villeneuve’s staircase was shaped and puzzled together by an exceptional band of carpenters in Normandy. Throughout our visit, he sang praises to the dedicated, high-level artisans he’s worked with over the course of the restoration. As he points up to his work, a glimpse of the peak of the spire tatooed on his arm peeks out from beneath his sleeve.

Second, from the top of the south tower, you’ll look out to the real spire rising from the roof. It’s crowned by the flaming golden rooster—symbol of France and of the resurrected monument—that Villeneuve himself designed to replace the fallen, damaged rooster that has now been placed in one of the chapels inside the cathedral. On this national monument belong to the State, not the Church, the rooster crows above the Cross. View the full spire, accompanied by bells, on the 15-second video below.

On the way down, we glimpsed through windows “the forest” of oak beams, cut from throughout France, that form the roof beams. They replaced the medieval forest where the fire originated before consuming it into the night before the eyes of the world.

No more than 26 visitors are allowed to start the climb per 15-minute time slot. Contrast that with the lengthy queue down below leading to a shoulder-to-shoulder shuffle along the cathedral floor. Comparatively, a visit to the towers, culminating with the grand view (even if limited to 5 minutes), feels semi-private, nearly exclusive.

All that’s required is a timed ticket, to be reserved in advance, at a cost 16€ or free for under 18s and adults with the Paris Museum Paris or the Passion Monument pass. While you needn’t be a high-level athlete to climb the 424 steps to the top, do be aware of your own limitations before undertaking the endeavor. The winding staircases include some narrow passages less than 18-inches wide as well as low sections where someone over 5’10” or so is well advised to watch their head.

Along the way, there are levels to pause on, where one can learn a few historical tidbits on information panels about the towers and the bells. There is no elevator. There is no WC. Families are discouraged from bringing children under 6.

Timed ticket to the towers of Notre-Dame should be reserved only through the official site managed by France’s Center for Historical Monuments. Even free tickets require reservations.

From great heights in architectural history to great heights in culinary history

Epilogue: From great heights in architectural history we crossed over the Seine to great heights in culinary history as we pursued our conversation with Philippe Villeneuve at one of Paris’s other celebrated tours, La Tour d’Argent (The Silver Tower). That’s the famous gastronomic institution with the stunning view of the Notre-Dame’s chevet, the portion of the cathedral that radiates in an eastern flourish. Even with the crane and scaffolding that remain on that side of the cathedral, the view from the upper-floor restaurant is a sight for well-heeled, well-fed eyes. We, however, settled into the bar on the ground floor, where we were entertained and informed by Villeneuve’s insightful, cutting, wit-laden accounts of these past seven years of restoration—the wonder, the toil and the beauty of the work on the one hand and the egos, the politics and the back-stabbing on the other. Listening to his vision of architectural and decorative triumphs and failures and to his expression of emotional zeniths and nadirs, the current guardian of the temple seemed to embody both Viollet-le-Duc and Quasimodo. His thirst was quenched with water brought not by Esmeralda, however, but by a polished server from the Tour d’Argent.

As a further treat, André Terrail, owner of the Tour d’Argent made a gracious appearance. While the restaurant is heir to a history that begins with the creation of an elegant inn on this site in 1582, Terrail is heir to the celebrated restaurant that his grandfather, also named André Terrail, purchased in 1911. It was then a ground-floor restaurant, raised to the top in 1936. The Tour d’Argent has now developed into something of a “village,” to use the current Terrail’s term, with its restaurant, its rooftop and ground-floor bars, its grocer next door, its bakery across the street, and beside that its rotisserie. There’s even an apartment with the fab view that can be rented for the night (1800€).

Despite the Tour d’Argent’s visual affinity for Notre-Dame, I’m not promoting it here as the natural extension of a visit to the towers, however many Michelin stars its restaurant may or may not receive in a given year (in 2026 it has 1). Nevertheless, one’s got to go somewhere after the extraordinary experience of climbing to the top of the cathedral, and it might as well be somewhere that’s also earned its place in Paris history and lore, someplace accessible, if not to Quasimode, then perhaps to the likes of Victor Hugo, Viollet-le-Duc, Philippe Villeneuve, and yourself.

© 2026 by Gary Lee Kraut

Also read Notre-Dame: An Interview with Witnesses to a Dazzling Restoration

The post The Quasimodo Climb: Visiting the Towers of Notre-Dame de Paris appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Not that “obvious” had stopped her from buying a dozen Eiffel Tower keyrings from a Senegalese tchotchke seller at Trocadero. At least she then had something for everyone on the field hockey team. But she still needed gifts for her three best friends. Larger Eiffel Towers? That was my immediate suggestion. Her response was beyond “obvious.” She lifted her eyes, heavy as bowling balls, and rolled them my way to convey the message “How could you possibly understand my life?”

I understood her life well enough to know that well-timed pastry stops would keep the souvenir conundrum at bay for a time. It had been easy enough on day one to say that she’d surely find something in the next neighborhood we’d visit but first she just had to try a spectacular chocolate éclair. But the Latin Quarter, the Saint Germain Quarter, Montmartre, the gift shop at the Louvre, Rue Saint-Honoré, and the Champs-Elysées had all come and gone, and the sweet distraction of pastries, crepes, chocolates and macaroons now barely lasted beyond the final bite.

Here we were on day three, their last day in Paris, and the need to find the perfect Paris memento for her friends had reached fever pitch. She would never go anywhere with her mother again. If her mother had any friends of her own, she’d understand. Her mother, Paris, the entire world had all conspired to make her miserable. She spared me in her diatribe other than to sigh loudly every time I spoke.

The woman was doing everything in her power to stay calm, mixing reprimand with sighs of her own with ignoring the girl, and confiding in me that her daughter had had a “monthly visitor” the other day. A few times that morning we’d stepped into boutiques so that the mother could soothe herself by caressing the sleeves of high fashion, only to be pulled from her fantasy by the sound of her daughter declaring, “That’s ugly.”

Finally, I said aloud what I’d been thinking all along. Actually, I’d already said it on day one, when neither mother nor daughter was ready to hear me then. When I’d said it again on day two, during our visit to Galeries Lafayette, the mother had paid attention and said, “Listen to Gary, he knows.” To that, the girl spat back, “He doesn’t know my friends.”

I was now about to give it one final try. I’d been biding my time for the past 30 minutes of misery until we were just several steps from the shop I had in mind. I consider good timing one of my best qualities as a guide and I was prepared put that to a test. We turned onto Rue Vieille du Temple. I stopped in front of the Labonal shop, positioning myself so that she would see the shop window. I steeled myself against an eventual rebuff. And I said it again, in a gentle, inquiring tone: “How about socks? French socks.”

“Everyone has socks,” she said. There were tears in her eyes.

“But not everyone has French socks,” I said. “I bet your friends don’t, and they’d love them. See all those chic women and girls walking around?” Good timing again, three cheerful young women were strolling past us on the sidewalk. “They’re all wearing French socks and tights.”

I pointed at a colorful pair in the window. “Look at those. They have a little French logo on them. You and your friends will be the only girls at school with French socks. It’ll be like your own private club.”

She actually looked. She wiped her tears. She raised her chin to a sock on display and said, “That one’s cute.”

We went in. We came out, bearing gifts, happy. I knew the perfect place nearby for ice cream.

10 French Sock Brands

Nothing says “I strolled through Paris” like tri-color socks (blue, white, red) or a discreet French logo above the ankle or on the toe, or much more that you’ll find in the ten Made-in-France brands that I’ve selected here.

While so much textile manufacturing has moved overseas in the past 40 years, France continues to produce a surprising amount fun, funky, chic, sports and workaday socks and hosiery.

I’ve selected a mix of well-known, lesser-known and little-known sock and hosiery brands that will add a hop to your step, or a loved one’s, when you get back home. Some of these brands also extend to underwear and other knitwear. Several have their own shops in Paris and elsewhere. Those and the more widely distributed brands can also be found in department stores and sock shops. Still others are largely only available through the brand’s website. Orders from overseas are likely to be cost-prohibitive, so order them to be delivered to you in Paris. In all cases, be sure to look for Made in France or Fabriqué en France on the label.

You’ll find your French socks and underpants vocabulary at the end of this list.

Labonal

The brand of the shop of my happy tale above makes good quality socks for men, women and children with a mix of lively designs and solid colors and a variety of fabrics. Labonal Pulse is their brand of sports socks while La Frenchie by Labonal is a lower quality range.

They have a number of branded boutiques and reseller displays throughout France. In Paris, the Labonal shop in the Marais is located at 11 rue Vieille du Temple. That shop also sells Garçon Francais briefs, described below, along with other French-made knitwear. Labonal is one of a handful of shops selling made-in-France products in the area. On the nearby street Rue du Bourg-Tibourg, L’Appartement Français sells sock brands Broussaud, Bonpied (1 pair purchase = 1 pair given to the homeless) and Royalties, along with other French textiles and footwear. Labonal, based in Alsace, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2024. Their factory, which can be visited, is just off the picturesque Alsace Wine Route in Dambach-la-Ville, midway between Strasbourg and Colmar.

Bleuforêt

Bleuforêt is a major brand of French-made socks and tights made by Tricotage des Vosges on the opposite side of the Vosges Mountains from Labonal.

Though not luxury products, the Bleuforêt range includes some excellent quality socks using pure and blended fabrics, including cashmere, silk and alpaca, known for comfort rather than fantasy, with many solid colors. The Vosges area of northeast France is historic home for the knitwear industry that began to dry up in the 1970s before this and other companies rekindled the knitwear flame in the 1990s. The company also produces some underwear. The brand is sold in many stores including their own. Among their Paris locations, there’s a tiny shop at 20 rue des Francs Bourgeois in the Marais, and another at 101 rue de Rennes in the Saint Germain Quarter.

La Chaussette de France (LCF)

Troyes, the former hosiery capital of France, 95 miles southeast of Paris, once employed up to 25,000 people in the knitwear industry. The town’s Musée de la Maille, Mode et Industrie tells its rich hosiery history. Despite the decline of textile production throughout France, Troyes has managed to hold out with about 3,500 employed in the industry. (Troyes is also known for its factory outlets.) LCF is especially noteworthy for its sporting socks—running, hiking, skating, cycling and mountaineering, and most particularly skiing, with a variety of graphics and colors. LCF is the sock brand of the Manufacture Tismail group, which has been knitting in Troyes since 1961. Among other places, some LCF products can be found in Paris at Au Vieux Campeur, a mountain and hiking specialist with shops concentrated in the Latin Quarter.

KlaK 

KlaK used to be call Sorry or Not Sorry, which derived that playful name from its message socks with half of the text above the heel to the left and the other half to the right. The messaging, mostly in English, continues under the catchier brand name KlaK. For example, Just + Married (perfect for the Paris honeymooner), Girl + Power, I ♥ + Apéro (for those who celebrate wine o’clock), Best + Friend, Need + Love, Sexy + Runner, Champagne + Please and Need + Coffee, among others. Founder Alice de Guyenro says that she launched her products in 2019 in her own image, as a shy gal daring to draw attention to herself, or at least her feet. Her products are most in black and white. The full range of KlaK socks can be read and purchased on her online shop, which also indicates the locations of physical shops that carry KlaK.

Label Chaussettes

Xavier Sauzay and Guillaume Deniau date their interest in entering into the sock trade to a semester abroad in Asia, where they discovered the popularity of socks as fashion in Shanghai, Seoul and Taipei. Returning to France, they also noticed that the Made in France textile trend was then underway. At the age of 26, they launched Label Chaussettes in 2019. Their brand has two major elements: on the one foot, cheery and colorful socks designed by artists, and on the other, logo socks for which they partner with such brands as La Vache Qui Rit (Laughing Cow processed cheese), France Rugby, Asterisk, Monsieur Madame (Mr. Men), and the French Navy. Their socks are made in the Limousin region of France, specifically in the factories of Broussard Textiles, a major player in Made-in-France socks. Broussard also produces for Slip Français and Klak, among others, including their own namesake brand.

Garçon Français

Garçon Français means French boy, so this is a brand for the boy or man in your life, or, guys, for yourself.

Socks represent a small portion of the brand, but here you can match your briefs for those special occasions when showing a bit of ankle is just the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Impress and attract Francophile friends in the locker room with Garçon Français written above your ankle, at the base of your foot and on your waist band. Founded by (Mr.) Vicky Caffet, the brand is headquartered in Troyes and knitted 20 miles northwest in Romilly-sur-Seine, a town whose sock manufacturing stretches back to the 19th century. As many on this list, a visitor will primarily find the socks through their direct internet shops, though French resellers, indicated on their website, can also be found throughout France. In Paris, Garçon Français briefs and socks are both available in the Marais at Les Dessous d’Apollon (Apollo’s Underwear), 8 rue de Moussy. The brand’s briefs (not socks) are currently sold in the Labonal shop noted above.

Berthe aux Grands Pieds

If you’ve ever strolled in the Luxembourg Garden in Paris and admired the statues of Queens of France and Illustrious Women on the terrace above the central basin, you may have noticed among them a certain 8th-century Frankish Queen Berthe (Bertha or Bertada in English). She was the wife of Pepin the Short and mother of Charlemagne. More importantly for this brand, she is said to have had one foot larger than the other (or perhaps a clubfoot), earning her the nickname Berthe au Grand Pied (Bertha with the Big Foot or Bertha Broadfoot).

Someone was bound to use that for a brand of socks, and that someone is Régis Gautreau. His company makes playfully sexy and chic socks, tights and tabis. While primarily a women’s brand, Berthe aux Grands Pieds also has attractive collections for men and children. Here’s an idea for a single souvenir from a London-Paris trip: BAGP’s men’s or women’s “God Save Berthe” Union Jack/The French Queen socks. BAGP has its own shop in Nantes, a tiny boutique in Passage Pommeraye. Additionally, the BAGP website indicates the addresses of resellers in Paris and throughout France, including at shops operated by Manufacture Perrin. Manufacture Perrin, located in southern Burgundy, is the producer of BAGP socks. Founded in 1924, Perrin also knits for La Chaussette Française and Le Slip Français, among others. The factory can be visited.

Missegle

Rather than coming from the world of finance or fashion, as some of those noted above, Myriam Joly, this company’s founder, comes from a rural farming background. She raised a troop of angora goats for their mohair for a decade before turning to producing high-comfort textiles with natural fabrics—mohair, merino, yak hair, camel hair, organic cotton, silk, mercerized cotton—for socks (nearly half of sales), as well as sweaters, scarves, gloves and bonnets.

Durability, sustainability and comfort are Missegle’s watchwords rather than high design. Myriam created the company in 1983, at the age of 26, and is still at it, though her son Gaëtan now oversees the operation. In 2007 she bought a knitwear workshop in Burlats, 50 miles east of Toulouse, deep in the rural department of Tarn. Missegle is one of only several workshops in France to loop-stitch by hand to create seamless socks for happy feet. Though not all of the natural fabrics come from the region (e.g. yak hair from Mongolia), Missegle production is firmly planted in the region, with the dyer and spinner workshops within 12 miles of the knitwear workshop. Other than a shop at the workshop site, Missegle products are only available online.

Le Slip Français

“Slip” means briefs and “français” means French, so underpants in French flag colors are naturally the flagship products of Le Slip Français, a Paris-based brand founded in 2011 by Guillaume Guibault. While primarily an underwear brand, the company also produces sock. Le Slip Français products are widely distributed, with over 150 resellers throughout France. It has branded boutiques in Paris, Nantes and Toulouse. The Paris boutique is located in the Marais at 137 rue Vieille du Temple.

Kindy

Kindy is an old brand for rather basic cotton socks that has been in and out of bankruptcy over the past decade but continue to sell French-made socks with little French flags above the ankle. The company is headquartered in the village of Moliens, between Amiens and Rouen in northern France. While the French-flag socks are made in France, not all Kindy products are. Be sure to check the label.

Your French socks and underpants vocabulary

Socks = chaussettes
Ankle socks = socquettes
Tabi socks = chaussettes tabi
Knee socks = chaussettes hautes
Stockings = bas, collant
Tights = collant
Underwear = Sous-vêtements (for all); lingerie (for women)
Briefs = slip (typically designating underwear for males)
Panties = culotte (typically designating underwear for females)
Boxer shorts = caleçon
Long johns = caleçon long

© 2025, Gary Lee Kraut

As mother told daughter, “Listen to Gary, he knows.” Planning to travel with your beloved teen? See here.

The post Made in France: Socks, the Gift That Saved Paris appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

When asked to create a Paris itinerary and touring plans for individual travelers, I respond with questions:

What are your interests, hobbies and ages? Have you been to Paris before? Where are you staying? Are you in decent walking shape or have any mobility issues? Do you speak much French? Do you have any dietary restrictions? Do you drink wine? Will you want for shopping (for anything in particular?) or simply stop into boutiques if anything strikes your fancy along the way? Do you have a sense of how much guided time you’d like? What are you looking to get out of your stay in Paris?

Altogether, the answers provide me with information that ensures not only that that my clients won’t be over-walked or over-museumed, under-shopped and under-wined. They also allow me to imagine creative ways to enable them to visit sights, explore neighborhoods, understand history, experience culture, and satisfy their hunger and thirst in ways that are meaningful, rewarding and enjoyable to them.

Many clients will give cursory responses to my questions then cut to the chase, saying:
– We’re not museum people but want to see highlights (definitely Notre-Dame and the Eiffel Tower), or
– We like learning history and seeing different monuments and architecture (and we want good pastries, of course) but want to keep it relaxed, or
– Here’s the list of what my 18-year-old daughter/granddaughter wants to do.

The most common response, however, goes something like this:

We want to visit the main sights without having to wait in line. We don’t mind touring on our own but would like some guidance. We like walking but also want to take breaks. We want local food experiences but don’t need anything fancy. We want to try great pastries, and we are wine drinkers, in moderation. Can you help us?

I certainly can!

If you identify with that request, here’s my nearly personalized itinerary for you, including a selection of major sights, varied neighborhoods, easy-going bistros and brasseries and bars, and GPS-guided audio tours to steer you as you go.

Day 1: Feel the Pulse of the Historical Heart of the City then Stroll Along the Champs-Elysées

Morning
Arrive at Notre-Dame Cathedral by 9:30am (or in any case no later than 10am) to enter with little wait (entrance is free, and stop panicking about a timed reservation!) then walk the length of the City Island on which it stands, past the former royal palace, through charming Place Dauphine, and to the sublime river views as you cross the Pont Neuf (the New Bridge). Next bridge upstream, set out on an essential visit of the central Right Bank with my VoiceMap audio tour Exploring Paris of Dreams and Nightmares: The Dark Side of the City of Light.

Lunch
As you follow that audio tour, sample Paris from any of the many cafés, bakeries and other tempting and tasty eateries along the route. (You can pause the tour at any time.) Or wait until the end of the tour for lunch. Here are three welcoming options within a several blocks of the tour’s endpoint: the uber-traditional, easy-going Bistrot des Halles, the cozy and historic brasserie Le Zimmer, and the upbeat wine restaurant Le Robe et Le Palais.

Afternoon
Stroll the full-length of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées—including visits to the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais and perhaps several shops along the avenue—accompanied by my audio tour The Champs-Elysées: from Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe. At tour’s end, climb the Arc de Triomphe for a sweeping view over Paris (ideally with a pre-purchased, timed ticket or Paris Museum Pass). Then metro over to Trocadero for a fabulous view of the Eiffel Tower.

Evening
Head to a lively neighborhood to raise a glass or two at the joyfully old-fashion and inexpensive wine bar Le Baron Rouge. Prefer a beer? Fishtail around the corner to the character-filled Troll Café. Then stay in the neighborhood spirit for dinner at one of the numerous eateries in the area. Consider L’Ami Pierre, if you dare, for a plunge into Paris bistro life by night or Jouvence for a neo-bistro experience. There are also plenty of pizzerias, cafés and other inexpensive eateries in the neighborhood.

Day 2: Linger on the Left Bank then Meander in Montmartre

Morning
Begin your explorations of the central Left Bank in the Latin Quarter, where student life meets the Parisian bourgeoisie on alluring streets. Peek in at the food shops and stands at Maubert-Mutualité to get a sense of neighborhood market life. Visit the tomb of Saint Genevieive in the beautiful Saint Etienne du Mont Church. Take in the imposing and important Pantheon (avoid the line with an advance ticket or a Paris Museum Pass). Then leave the city streets to take an enchanting stroll with my audio tour of The Left Bank’s Most Elegant Park: Exploring the Luxembourg Garden so as to take part in the lifestyle of the Left Bank that is the Luxembourg Garden.

Lunch
Sample excellent French produce, cheese and more at the Saint Germain Market and nearby bakeries (Maison Mulot, Secco) and pastry shops (Arnaud Larher, Pierre Hermes). Or saddle up for wine and light snacks (call them tapas if you like) at Avant Comptoir du Marché.

Afternoon
Complete your visit of the central Left Bank with a walk through the Saint Germain Quarter, the chic, charming and boutiquey neighborhood that thrives at the heart of Parisian café society. Then head to Montmartre, starting at the metro station Abbesses or Anvers, to climb the hiil to Sacré Coeur before taking a well-earned seat for a drink at the hill’s historic eatery-drinker La Bonne Franquette. Then wind your way down along Rue Lepic all the way to the Moulin Rouge.

Evening
Stay within the atmosphere of Montmartre with dinner at La Mascotte Montmartre for fresh fish and seafood and other fine brasserie fare.

Day 3: Meet Mona at the Louvre, The Thinker at the Rodin, Napoleon at the Invalides, and peek in at luxury boutiques in between

Morning
View Mona and more at the Louvre Museum (get a timed reservation for 10am at the latest and brace for the crowds), then air your mind from your heady art history experience with a noble garden walk with my audio tour The Tuileries Garden: The Royal Walk from the Louvre to the Champs-Elysées.

Lunch
Keep it simple and full of character for lunch at Le Petit Vendôme, a busy bistro where where Parisian joie-de-vivre meets tourist joy-of-travel.

Afternoon
Before and after lunch, go window-shopping in the lap of luxury on Rue Saint Honoré and Place Vendôme. Then head over to the Rodin Museum for an easy-going, sculpture-spotted stroll in the park, along with a coffee stop in its garden café. Enter the museum itself, if in the mood, for a thorough view of Rodin’s work. Then visit Napoleon’s Tomb nearby and, if so inclined, the medieval armor portion and more of the adjacent Army Museum.

Evening
Discover casual, modern, moderately-priced Parisian gastronomy in a neighborhood not yet visited above. Here are some suggestions: L’Oyat, L’Escuella, Aux 2K, Caillebotte, Petit Boutary. Then augment the evening at a jazz club such New Morning, Sunset/Sunside, Duc des Lombards, Caveau de la Huchette.

Be sure to check opening times for all of the suggestions above.

Looking for an even more customized itinerary and personalized touring? Contact me directly for travel therapy by phone and more.

© 2025, Gary Lee Kraut

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But I’d like you to remove your rose-colored glasses for now as I lead you into the shadows that are the subject of my new VoiceMap audio tour Paris of Dreams and Nightmares: The Dark Side of the City of Light. Along with the charm of its route through the central Right Bank of Paris, this is an unflinching journey through France’s dark past, where torture, assassination and terror are among the building blocks of the beauty that surrounds you.

The route passes major landmarks, vibrant streets, inviting cafés, alluring pastry shops and boutiques, soaring churches, and the playful Stravinsky Fountain, as it reveals both the enchantment of the present and the cruel events of the past.

Watch this video introduction before reading on.

These aren’t ghost stories or legends that I tell; these are historical events that shaped Paris as you see it today. In understanding the terrible building blocks of the City of Light, you’ll gain an important appreciation for how its beauty and brutality have coexisted throughout history.

Here’s one location covered on a tour, a memorial garden inaugurated in the summer of 2025:

The Dark Side of the City of Light now joins my VoiceMap audio tours to the Luxembourg Garden, the Tuileries Garden, and the Champs-Elysées as another of my essential self-guided walking tours to major aspects of Paris and its culture, splendor, history, and life today.

Though VoiceMap is primarily designed to provided GPS-guided audio tour for use on site, I’ve uploaded photos for each of the tour’s locations to allow armchair travelers to fully follow along. So you can listen from your home computer or your iPhone or Android anywhere even if you don’t have Paris plans. Then use the downloaded tour again whenever you do make it Paris.

The VoiceMap Touring App is available from the Google Play Store and the App Store. On your home computer just go to VoiceMap.me. Once you’ve signed up with VoiceMap and purchased the full tour, you can listen to it on your phone, tablet or computer, or all three, on site, on the road or at home.

Even without signing up, you can listen to the first three locations before deciding whether you want to download the full tour.

If, after downloading the app, you don’t land directly on one of my tours, you’ll find them easily by searching “Gary Kraut” in the VoiceMap search block, or by clicking or tapping directly on the author’s page of these Paris audio guides.

© 2025, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Paris of Dreams and Nightmares: Exploring the Dark Side of the City of Light appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

On the one hand, I have a natural aversion to recommending virtual reality tours for travelers. After all, we travel to be someplace, not virtually but actually. On the other hand, virtual reality tours, in addition to being entertaining, can be informative and insightful when there’s a historical or otherwise important unseen component to complement and enhance a visit to the real deal.

Virtual historical reality tours will become increasingly immersive, seamless and sensorial in the years ahead. As they stand, aside from their entertainment value, do they help travelers on site understand and further appreciate what they’ve come to see?

Curious about the added value of the virtual historical reality tours now available within actual sight of three major monuments in Paris, Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, and the Louvre I took a test run of their respective magic goggles on site. For Notre-Dame that meant in a subterranean zone one hundred yards in front of the cathedral. For the Eiffel Tower that meant during a stroll along the Champs de Mars, the park that leads to the tower on Paris’s Right Bank. For the Louvre that meant a walk from one end of its courtyard to the other.

All three proved to be both informative, entertaining and recommendable as complements to actual visits inside of these important monuments.

Eternal Notre-Dame: Amaclio Productions’ virtual reality tour of Notre-Dame Cathedral

Notre-Dame is currently inaccessible to the general public, as it has been since the fire of 2019 destroyed its roof and steeple. The cathedral is scheduled to reopen in December 2024, though under what conditions is not yet known. The virtual reality tour, reached from an underground entrance at the far end of the square in front of the cathedral, is currently programmed to end on September 30, 2025.

Following along with a handsome, well-spoken electronic guide (choose your language), the virtual reality tour of Notre-Dame leads visitors to the doors of the cathedral then inside, through various steps of the building’s medieval construction, 19th-century restoration, and current rehabilitation. It’s an extensive tour. In 45 minutes, while walking and turning in all directions, visitors get a close-up view of the structure inside and out, from various heights, while encountering works and learning about its elements in stone, glass and wood. Visitors “ride” a platform to the upper reaches of the cathedral to stand near a rose window and then higher to visit “the forest” of oak rafters and beams that form the wooden framework, those elements that burned during the fire of 2019. Details are also given about medieval Christianity and the structure’s theological underpinnings. All is made understandable to a wide public.

Altogether, this is an excellent tour that’s as visually compelling as it is informative. And complementing the virtual tour, visitors then visit at their own pace an exhibition about the current renovation and reconstruction. Objects and models along with explanatory panels and interviews in French and in English provide visitors with a clearer understanding of elements touched on during the virtual tour: recreating the wooden framework of the forest, restoring stained glass, the grand organ and the bells, replacing stone vaulting and sculptural elements, and conducting research.

The combination of the virtual reality tour and the exhibition afterwards make for an exceptional and entertaining introduction to the cathedral for those with little prior understanding of the construction and current restoration of the cathedral and is equally fascinating for those already acquainted with Our Lady of Paris. The virtual tour last 45-minutes, to which you need to add departure time and time to visit the post-tour exhibition, so count 70-90 minutes altogether.

I recommend getting a good look at the façade of Notre-Dame and a side view as well before taking the virtual reality tour. Then, after the virtual tour and exhibition, now armed with a deeper appreciation and understanding of the architectural and artistic glory of the cathedral, reconsider the actual façade, take a walk around the full perimeter of the building, and, of course, enter to admire the Notre-Dame’s dazzling restoration and luminous interior.

Practical considerations

There’s a cost to virtual reality tours that may be prohibitive to some. The experience at Eternal Notre-Dame costs 30€99 for adults and 20€99 for children under 17, though on certain days and times adults pay the children price, particularly off season.

Groups of up to six people set off together at the same time, with individual headsets speaking in your chosen language. Each person wears a headset and carries a backpack containing what is essentially a laptop computer while walking along the underground maze. Precise instructions and indications keep you moving and prevent you from bumping into other visitors. The glasses/headset adjust well and the tour is captivating enough that it’s easy to forget the equipment and enjoy the walk. However, the backpack is bit cumbersome, and for anyone with a bad back, carrying it for 45 minutes may be uncomfortable.

Brief pauses between scenes within the virtual universe can be momentarily confusing, but the lit path and your virtual guide will return soon enough to point you in the right direction as you walk.

The minimum recommended age is 11, though children as young as 8 may be admitted. However, given the weight of the backpack and the need to precisely follow lit directional indications so as to avoid bumping into walls and, especially, other visitors, this virtual reality tour may not be appropriate for a small and fidgety preteen. Or you can hold your child’s hand as guidance.

For further information and reservations see Eternal Notre-Dame.

Eternal Notre-Dame was produced by Amaclio Productions, a company that has developed other virtual reality and sound and light shows in France, including at the Invalides in Paris, the Cité de l’Histore at La Défense (Eternal Notre-Dame is also available at that site), Mont Saint Michel, and the Carrousel of Saumur.

Viality Tour’s virtual reality and actual walking tour near the Eiffel Tower and in the courtyard of the Louvre

While Viality Tour’s virtual reality tours of the Eiffel Tower and the courtyards of the Louvre don’t have the same high production value as Amaclio’s well-financed Notre-Dame tour, what makes it worthwhile is that these tour has its iconic monuments in plain view and is given by actual human guides, and delightful ones at that. The tour was developed by the young start-up team of Vladina Flaquière and Michel Dang. One or the other may be your guide.

The Eiffel Tower: The goggle-wearing virtual portion of the tour takes users through the construction of the Eiffel Tower from 1887 to 1889 and into the Universal Exposition of 1889 for which it was built. Much of the exposition sprawled along the Champs de Mars, the very park where you’ll be walking. The Champs de Mars formerly served as the parade grounds for the nearby Military Academy (Ecole Militaire).

Vladina or Michel or an assistant rather than an avatar is your actual guide. Speaking French or English depending on the scheduled or private group, your guide explains what you see in the goggles as you stand and turn in 360 degrees. You do not walk while wearing the goggles. Instead, between virtual scenes, you then remove the goggles and approach closer and closer to the actual tower. During that time, the tour continues with the actual Eiffel Tower in view as your guide provides further details about what you see today and answers any questions you may have. So this is both a virtual and an actual tour, lasting about 75 minutes, accompanied by your affable guide and with numerous photo ops along the way.

Vladina has worked as a licensed guide at various chateaux in Brittany, the Loire Valley and Versailles, before teaming with Michel to develop Viality Tour. She continues to guide at Versailles. Michel, the equally affable tech half of the team, holds a masters in marketing and worked as a junior product marketing manager with Netgear before he and Vladina partnered to create Viality Tour. Michel does the computer modeling with the assistance of a graphic designer as well as the team’s communications work.

With or without actually going up in the tower, this is an excellent introduction to it. If unwilling to deal with the tickets, lines and crowded elevators, the Viality Tour—both its virtual and actual realities—can serve as your informative visit in and of itself.

If interested in the Viality Tour and also planning to go up the tower, try to sync the two by scheduling the Viality Tour so that it ends 15-30 minutes before the timed ticket you’ve purchased (well) in advance to go up. That will allow for a nice segue from one to the other while allowing you time to go through the security line at the tower. (Viality Tour will not purchase your Eiffel Tower ticket.)

The courtyards of the Louvre: As much as I appreciated Viality’s Eiffel Tower tour, I found their Louvre tour even more interesting and informative. Visitors to the museum are typically unaware of the Louvre’s evolution over the past 800 years from fortress to castle to palace to museum, and even less aware that it was once connected to another palace, the Tuileries Palace. On an outdoor walk with several virtual reality stops from the far eastern end of the Louvre to nearly its far western end, this tour guides visitors through various eras of the construction of the Louvre and the Tuileries, up until 1871, when the latter was set ablaze by the Paris Commune. You’ll near forget the hundreds of people queuing up for the museum and milling about… until the end when you join them.

You don’t have to join them just yet, however, since the Viality Louvre tour make for a nice complement to the audio-guide that I’ve created to the Tuileries Garden for the VoiceMap app, The Tuileries Garden: The Royal Walk from the Louvre to the Champs-Elysées. The Viality Tour ends about where mine starts, with minimal overlap.

The Eiffel Tower tour lasts about 75 minutes. The Louvre tour last 10-15 minutes longer. Each costs 29€ for adults and 19€ for children 8 to 17. Children under 8 are not accepted. Groups can consist of up to 10 people.

For further information and for the tour schedule see the Viality Tour website. Though the indicated language of the tour may be French, it may also be conducted in English, so inquire about that possibility when reserving. With sufficient advance planning, privatization for your own group may be possible upon request.

Vladina and Michel plan to extend the Viality Tour concept to other major monuments of the city over the coming years.

© 2024, 2025 Gary Lee Kraut

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There’s an association in Paris called the Académie Rabelais whose mission, as stated in their by-laws, is to “Encourage among its members and their friends joie de vivre, optimism, good humor, indulgence, gaiety, the spirit of friendship and of remembrance, and respect for the principles of Master François Rabelais: laughing, irony, wisecracking, joyful singing, le gai savoir, eating well and drinking well.”

Reading that mission statement, I thought, “Now there’s a party I’d like to attend!” And so I did, though we didn’t call it a party. We called it lunch with Bruno Carlhian, author of an excellent guide to owner-operated Paris wine bistros, and several members of the Académie Rabelais, under whose auspices the book was published.

La Tournée des Patrons is the clever title of Bruno’s guide. La tournée—the round or round-up—refers to both a round-up of bistro-keepers—des patrons—and the round on the house that owners might offer their clients. In selecting the 100 eatery-drinkeries included in the book, Bruno sought out “authentic” bistros (quotation marks in the original), which he defines as individually owned establishments open throughout the day (i.e. not just at mealtime) and that have a café/bar counter. Fresh, homecooked food is de rigueur, but most important is the presence and personality of the bistro-keeper, one who knows his wine.

A criminal defense attorney, a gallery owner and a contractor walk into a bistro

That’s not the opening of a joke but the start of a cheerful afternoon since they were the three fellow academy members to join Bruno and me at Le Guersant, a bistro on the western edge of Paris, in the 17th arrondissement. Bruno himself is a journalist specialized in food, wine, gastronomy and agribusiness. I’d asked him to choose the bistro for our lunchtime interview.

There’s no mistaking the atmosphere of a neighborhood bistro when you enter shortly before 1pm: several people are standing at the bar counter with a glass of wine or beer or a demitasse; someone behind the bar, who may or may not be the owner, looks up from his or her task to return your ecumenical Bonjour messieurs-dames with a Bonjour, monsieur; beyond the bar there’s a room with few if any empty seats, where a server, who may or may not be the owner, twists through narrow passages between tables or chairs carrying a thick pork chop and potato purée and a square of beef and frites or some such homey dishes; on nearly every table there’s a bottle or at least glasses of wine in various stages of consumption, and you recognize your lunch companions at the far table by the window by their slight nod in your direction, even if you’ve never met them before.

In choosing Le Guersant, Bruno was nearly giving me a scoop. The jury that he presides over within the Académie Rabelais had recently decided that in the spring of 2025 Nicolas Gounse, the bistro’s proprietor, would receive the academy’s trophy La Coupe du Meilleur Pot. The trophy has been awarded annually since 1954 to a bistro-keeper in Paris or the near suburbs whose establishment does justice to the notion that bistro life is best served by the offering of the quality wines of independent growers, personally selected by that bistro-keeper. The trophy takes the form of a wooden box topped with the tin decoration of a cup, a bunch of grapes and a specific kind of bottle called a pot. A pot is a 46 cl vessel with a thick base into which wine from a barrel or from a larger bottle is poured.

It isn’t the wine list itself that’s honored with the trophy. As with the selections in La Tournée des Patrons, the Académie Rabelais pays homage to a bistro-keeper with the wherewithal, the personality and the dedication to operate a welcoming all-day bistro with a bar counter. The wines available have been personally selected by the bistro-keeper as opposed to checked off from a list in a wholesaler’s catalogue. “Quality wines of independent growers” does not mean expensive wines. These are, after all, unpretentious, everyday neighborhood bistros. In short, when it comes to wine, Nicolas Gounse and other winners of La Coupe du Meilleur Pot can talk the talk, without pretention, with the best of them. And from the way the conversation unfolded at Le Guersant over the next 2½ hours, I gathered that my table companions from the Académie Rabelais were among those best of them.

Acceptance into the Académie Rabelais

The Académie Rabelais’s origins date to the Second World War, when a group of writers, journalists and cartoonists who’d left Paris during the German Occupation began gathering in Lyon, which was then in France’s Unoccupied Zone. Guided by local gastro-insiders well acquainted with the keepers of bouchons, as the bistros of Lyon are known, the group began meeting over food and wine. Progressively, as the German Gestapo took anchor in Lyon, those wartime gatherings came to an end. They were revived post-war, in 1948, at Château Thivin in the Beaujolais wine region near Lyon, where the group formalized their association as the Académie Rabelais. Refer to the opening lines of this article for the academy’s humanist mission. Among other events and outings, the academy gathers for dinner three times per year as well for one weekend in a wine region, where they meet winegrowers and restaurant owners.

Nicolas Plescoff, the gallerist at the table, a specialist in 20th-century art and sculpture, has been the academy’s president for the past seven years. In recounting the academy’s history, he said that in the early 2000s membership underwent a significant change as the elder members from the press fell away and more recent arrivals worked in a variety of professional fields.

The group’s by-laws, which allow for a maximum of 50 members (there are current 46), don’t specifically exclude women, but as yet none has been admitted. Potential members are co-opted through personal relationships, not through blind application. Once recommended by a friend, colleague or family member, a candidate must first be accepted as an intern or apprentice. As such, he is expected to attend academy events for a full year in order to become familiar with its spirit, culture and members, and its members with him. After that year, the board gives an initial stamp of approval (or not) to the intern/apprentice whose candidature is then put before the full membership for a final vote.

With the academy no longer dominated by members of the press—in fact, there are now more lawyers among them—Nicolas Plescoff favors a membership represented by a wide variety of professional fields. As with many aging associations, the academy has difficulty recruiting younger members. He’s therefore is pleased that the academy recently co-opted a 27-year-old who works in the wine trade.

As to admitting women, he said that perhaps the next generation will be more accepting of the possibility, but for now there’s general agreement that the Académie Rabelais should remain an all-men’s club. Members don’t spend their time together making misogynistic or crude comments, he explained, but men change their behavior when their wives or other women are around, which would alter the spirit of the academy.

While the academy doesn’t admit women, make no mistake about it: the contemporary Parisian neighborhood bistro as a cultural institution is not a men’s club. At some times of the day and at some meals, men may indeed outnumber women in a neighborhood bistro, but women can and do enjoy a meal there with equal joy or warmth or indulgence. (Stay tuned for an upcoming article about bistro gals. As a teaser, I note that the president of one bistro-going women’s group told me that one reason they don’t admit men is the annoyance of dealing with mansplaining.)

The Académie Rabelais literary prize

While companionability, wine and gregarious service define a restaurant outing with members of the Académie Rabelais, the academy lives up to the literary side of its name. I refrain from calling any of its members “intellectuals.” In other settings, some of them may be. But once, while discussing books at a bistro bar counter, I made the mistake of referring to a stranger with whom I’d recently clinked glasses as an “intellectual” and I nearly got thrown into the gutter for it. In Paris bistro life, I’ve learned, you can refer to a well-read fellow as a philosopher, an artist, a professor, a wisecracker, even a prince or a fool, but call him an intellectual at your own risk and peril. Pas de ça ici, mon vieux! Suffice it to say that a clever, incisive, humanist spirit and a wealth of knowledge on assorted matters including human nature go a long way toward getting you accepted—if not to the academy, then at least to their companionship and to entertaining conversation in a Paris neighborhood bistro.

A jury within the academy awards an annual literary prize, the Prix de l’Académie Rabelais, to the author of a work of fiction or non-fiction displaying Rabelasian spirit, meaning a work that includes a good dose of irreverent humor, and, of course, wine. Appropriate works, according to the lawyer at our table, are hard to come by, what with all the navel gazing and humorlessness of French literature over the past few decades.

The winner of the 2024 literary prize was Laure Gasparotto for “Si tu veux la paix, prepare le vin” (If You Want Peace, Prepare Wine). The 2023 winner was Charles Senard for “Carpe diem – Petite initiation à la sagesse épicurienne” (Carpe Diem – A Little Initiation to Epicurian Wisdom). The winner receives 50 bottles of Beaujolais wine. Descriptions of the prize-winning books over the years can be found here.

Acceptance into Paris bistro life

Anyone, including non-French-speaking visitors, can take a seat in the dining room of a neighborhood bistro or lean into its bar counter to observe bistro life. Participating in it is another matter. That, according to Nicolas Plescoff, entails being accepted by the keeper of the house or his staff. Beyond the courteous tone of your entrance, newcomers, he said, will quickly be judged by what they order. Margins are tights, so “if you order only an appetizer and a glass of tap water during crowded mealtime,” he said, “you shouldn’t be surprised if you aren’t well received. You’re nearly obligated to order an appetizer, a main course, dessert and wine.” Though our table followed that recommendation and then some, that bona fide exchange of good will is certainly not an actual obligation. Three courses may be one too many for some appetites, which is why the lunch menu is often priced for an appetizer + a main course OR a main course + dessert.

Drinking alcohol is, of course, never an obligation. Yet, for those who do enjoy a glass or two, the following wine advice that Nicolas Plescoff provided is well worth considering: “To be accepted in a neighborhood bistro, first order a glass of white wine as an aperitif.”

“Un verre de vin blanc, s’il vous plaît” (A glass of white wine, please) as the easy-to-recall password to taking part in Paris bistro life? I’ve tried it. It does go far to initiating a conversation with the owner or server (what type of white wine would you’d like? dry, fruity, etc.) and lets that person know that you’re willing to spend a few extra euros at the table. “Un verre de beaujolais blanc, s’il vous plaît,” might further indicate that you’ve got some connoisseur’s cred.

It would be ill-mannered of me to note the quantity of wine consumed at our table during our lengthy lunch. I’ll just say that Nicolas Gounse guided us on a lilting viticultural tour de France. We may not have been typical clients—after all, more than familiar faces here, my table companions had recently notified him of the honor they were bestowing with La Coupe du Meilleur Pot—nevertheless, it was clear to me that we weren’t the only ones in the room in trotting conversation, eating and drinking to great satisfaction. Others around the room appeared to be doing the same. It wasn’t a party atmosphere but, more “authentically,” the ambience of an unhurried lunchtime break from whatever appointments or obligations lay to either side of the meal, in other words of a neighborhood bistro at lunchtime.

I was in no rush to leave. Still, at 2:15 on a Thursday afternoon, after 90 minutes of easy-going conviviality, I expected that any minute now one of my tablemates would state that he had to get back to work and the rest of us would then grudgingly agree. Another 30 minutes passed. Then one of the academicians called Nicolas Gounse over to the table. I was sure that it was to ask him to prepare the bill, or at least to bring coffee. Instead, he asked where we should travel next on our seated tour de France.

Drinking vs. excessive drinking

Bistro, in France, implies that alcohol is served. Wine bistro emphasizes the place of the wine selection there but is not to be confused with a wine bar. In theory, a dry bistro is possible, in the same way that admitting female members into the Académie Rabelais is possible.

Excessive drinking—or drinking at all—isn’t directly encouraged by the bistro-keepers that I’ve come to know. At a neighborhood bistro or wine bistro, selling alcohol does help with the bottom line; turning a profit might even depend on the sale of alcohol, as with many restaurants. The theoretical dry bistro would therefor have an economic challenge in France, perhaps overcome by serving lots of bubble tea.

“Wine is a part of our culture,” said Nicolas Plescoff, referring to both France and the academy. “But we aren’t an association of drunks. It’s important to maintain a certain standing. True, our dinners tend to be well served in wine. Perhaps we drink more than the national average, but we drink good wine.”

Nicolas Gounse, our host here, recognizes that wine is a part of daily life for some clients, the way cigarettes may be. Wine is a part of the culture (and one is free to argue that it shouldn’t be) but, wine or no wine, sociability is a primary aspect of the neighborhood bistro (le bistro de quartier). Without sociability (or refuge so for the solitary), there’d be no reason to qualify it as neighborhood (de quartier). Yes, drink does play a role here, though it would be incorrect to peg a neighborhood Paris bistro today, such as Le Guersant, which is open throughout the day, or the selections in La Tournée des Patrons, as primarily drinking establishments or as places for a teetotaler to avoid. Above all, for readers of these lines, they should be seen as important glimpses into local or neighborhood culture.

Frequent consumption or over-consumption of alcohol may be a societal problem, but it isn’t not specific to wine bistros. In what may come off as a form of apology, I note that, fortunate for Parisians, those who have a glass or two or more in a wine bistro or any other type of eatery-drinkery, or at private party for that matter, typically leave on foot or take public transportation rather than get behind the wheel of a car. Getting behind the wheel of a bicycle or scooter is the more likely danger.

I pace myself well as bottles accumulate on the table. I may slow down or, if necessary, put my hand over the glass to announce that I’ve had enough as the circulating bottle tips my way. I nevertheless don’t hesitate to accept, as I did here, a bistro-keeper’s parting shot of grappa, cognac, calvados, or plum or pear brandy when it arrives with the bill or at the bar counter on the way out. I may not finish the small pour, and some of what’s offered may be rotgut, but I won’t refuse what is essentially a gift of acceptance, la tournée du patron. Again, no obligation.

The deeper I’ve gotten into Paris bistro life over the past year, the more I’ve come to appreciate Bruno Carlhian’s selections in La Tournée des Patrons. While Bruno and his fellow academicians more than hold their own in knowing and enjoying good cuisine, and while they do expect fresh and seasonal ingredients, the quality of the food is not primary in selections for the book or for La Coupe du Meilleur Pot, as it might be for a culinary guide or award. Nevertheless, I vouch for the quality (and the quantity) of my three courses (30€) at Le Guersant: poireaux mimosa, côte de cochon + purée, crème caramel.

I can certainly understand the selection of Nicolas Gousne as recipient for the 2025 Coupe du Meilleur Pot, And I can well imagine the pleasure of being a regular or occasional client at Le Guersant. Alas, it’s across the city from me.

Altogether, a terrific neighborhood bistro and a delectable encounter with Rabelaisian bistro buddies, creators of a gargantuan guide to wine bistros.

Le Guersant, 30 bd Gouvrion-Saint-Cyr, 17th arr. Open Monday through Friday from 9am to 11pm. Nicolas Gounse, proprietor. A successful bistro-keeper naturally needs a good right-hand man or woman. Here, Nicolas is primarily assisted by Romain Gastel, with whom he also worked in other bistros for a dozen years before taking over Le Guersant in 2022.

The bistro is a 10-minute walk from the hotels Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile and the Meridien Etoile at Porte Maillot.

La Tournée des Patrons. Text by Bruno Carlhian, photographs by Gabriel Omnès, drawings by Gab. 20€. The current edition (2023) is an update of first edition from 2016. The academy plans to next update the book in 2026.

La Coupe du Meilleur Pot. See here for a map showing the location of the establishments whose owner has received La Coupe du Meilleur Pot over the years, along with other Académie Rabelais recommendations, many of which appear in La Tournée des Patrons.

For other articles in the Paris Bistro Life series, see here.

© 2025, Gary Lee Kraut

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