Author: paris-bistro

Au Cochon de Lait (the Sucking-Pig) is a vestige from the golden era of Parisian slaughter-houses of la Villette when the neighborhood bistros bore the names of livestock. There was le Mouton Blanc (the White Sheep) , le Bélier d’Argent (the Silver Ram) , le Cochon d’Or (the Gold Pig) , each specializing in a type of meat. «Here, our customers were the slaughterers. They had their lockers in the back room to put away their blood stained aprons. They brought their meat and only paid one franc and fifty cents for the roasting. The service was handled in a…

“En Attendant l’Or” (waiting for gold) a name like slogan of Californian gold digger imagined by the boss, Patrick Laur…A pun that plays on the phonetics of his name. In french, Laur sounds like l’or (the Gold). The boss, Patrick Laur, is native from southern Aveyron (south Auvergne). Like many others of its fellows, he arrived in Paris without a penny. That was in 1986. Since then he hasn’t stop working in bistrots always experimenting news ideas. This café fits the definition of a cheap and cheerful modern Parisian bistro. With its frendly service and its appealing menu, En Attendant…

Since noon, this charming bistro begins to be filled with a great variety of people: craftsmen, employees, artists, amateurs of good gastronomy. We are “Au Bon Coin”, a typical bistro of Paris not far from Montmartre. The pretty geographical map pinned next to the bar indicates the auvergnat origins of the family Bras who runs the place. Arrived in the thirties, they have created Au Bon Coin. Today, Jean-Louis Bras (third generation) is the boss. And his mother, Jeanine, continues to help him the half of the year (in fall and in winter). For the happiness of the neighborhood and the…

The history of Paris is partly written at the counters and in the back rooms of its cafés and cabarets. From the medieval taverns to the elegant cafés of the Lumières (without forgetting the guinguettes of the old regime or the revolutionary clubs like the Procope), the place of cafés in Parisian society hasn’t stopped evolving over time. But would Paris be Paris without its cafés? Degas, Manet, Monet and Renoir, all these impressionists met in the popular cafés of Montmartre. Would Saint Germain des Prés and Montparnasse be as gloriously well known and have the ability to reunite so…

It is said to be the oldest café of Paris. It was in 1684 at 13 rue de l’Ancienne Comédie (formerly rue des Fossés Saint Germain) when Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli opened the Café Procope. This is the oldest café in Paris, and when you enter this grand café and marvel its large chandeliers and mahogany and pine furniture you can feel the atmosphere of three centuries of history. The Café Procope was the birthplace of all of the intellectual upheavals that shook Paris. Great men made, and still make (along with great women), Procope a magical place. Procopio,…