- Paris
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France
Found a good website for finding a restaurant in Paris… other websites seem only to have telephone numbers but this one provides maps and a great online booking service which is unusual for Paris but great for us Brits who like to plan ahead.
Friendly, cheap café on the side of the bassin de la villette. Not too 'bobo'. Drinks are cheap, you can help yourself to snacks - chorizo, crisps, marmite (yes, really!).
In summer you can borrow a set of balls to play pétanque. Has been non-smoking for years before the smoking ban.
68 quai de la loire, metro jaurés, 75019
This is a funky little bar in Montmartre. It's got a laid back atmosphere, lots of comfy cushions, quirky décor and possibly the best mosaic decorated toilet in Paris!
Drinks are reasonable for Paris, this place is well worth stopping in at, on your way up the back streets to Sacré Coeur. Open 4pm - 2am.
24 rue Durantin, Montmartre, on the corner of rue Durantin and rue Burq. Nearest metro: Abbesses
The sites during the day, then Lily La Tigresse at night! A respectable seedy bar right in the heart of the tourist red light district. It has become a popular, and quite trendy, night-spot, and they have started charging an entrance fee on busy nights.
Set on two levels, you quite often catch a glimpse of the topless dancers passing from one level to the other via a ladder resembling something seen in a fire station. Meanwhile the beat pumps away, but not too obtrusively.
98 rue Blanche
75009 Paris
Harry's Bar in the opera quarter has to be the most unique bar I've ever been to. It has entertained many famous people over the years, well worth checking into!
When you've finished at the Louvre, shopping for haut couture or antique jewellery, drop into the bar at the Hotel de Vendome and let the charming and knowledgeable staff make arrangements for the rest of your day, whatever your budget - and desires.
They know every nook and cranny of the city and will send you off feeling like you have had the five-star experience without any of the cost - it worked for me.
Failing that, hop on the metro to Pte de Clignancourt for the fabulous street market. Saturday to Monday 7am to 7.30pm.
A nice Left Bank bistro, Le Nemrod is in the Rue du Cherche Midi, just around the corner from the Bon Marche.
Good value for lunch or just a coffee or a pichet of wine - good for Beaujolais. A great place for classic Auvergnate cuisine.
51,rue du Cherche-Midi
75006
tel: 00 33 1 45 48 17 05
Organic bar and restaurant. Excellent vegetarian and non vege food. Good if you are a vege and non vege couple. Very reasonable for centre of Paris too. Also organic grocer next door.
47 bd St Germain, 75005, Paris. M. Maubert-Mutualite.
Tel: 01 44 07 36 99
This bar is on the 33rd floor of the hotel and overlooks the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. Fantastic views. You can watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle while having a glass of your favourite wine.
The hotel is near to the Porte Maillot metro station, you can't miss it
Traditional bar/restaurant. Atmospheric and reliable - immortalised by Juliet Binoche in Kieslowski's Trois Couleurs. Open every day from 8.30 (great coffee and croissants) and all day and evening.
Corner of rue Mouffetard and rue de l'Arbalète; nearest metro: Censier-Daubenton
A beautifully decorated, trendy, yet unpretentious bar just off the well-trodden Rue Oberkampf. Great music, delicious cocktails and arguably the most beautiful man in the world works behind the bar towards the end of the week. Wonderful local atmosphere, but completely welcoming. Paris doesn't get any sweeter than this.
4, Rue Neuve Popincourt; Metro: Parmentier or Oberkampf; Bus: 96
When I was a happy Sorbonne student, me and my "Amphithéâtre" mates used to meet up at this hidden but crowdy pub after class. Drinks are cheap, the landlord's pitbull doesn't bite and the setting is great. Inside, the Pantalon (Trousers) looks like a microscopic Parisian street where all customers can leave their artistic touch or simply stick their chewing gum under the table. Happy hour between 17h30 and 19h30. Open at 10 am till 2 am, everyday.
Le Pantalon, near the Panthéon 7, rue Royer Collard 75006. RER or Métro Luxembourg. Tel:01 40 51 85 85
It is a cafe where they do brilliant cocktails or pints of beer for 4.50 euros from 7pm til 9pm. The waiters are charming and friendly and with each drink you order they bring a dish of delicious olives and another of peanuts. Whisky Dewalis were especially good, with a whole fruit salad balanced on top!
We were particularly grateful after the appallingly rude behaviour of the staff at Brasserie Lipp, down the road, our original intended destination.
164 Boulevard St Germain
In a street shyly hidden from tourists unless you're returning home after a late one on the Grands Boulevards. Part of this small bar is celtic open-plan, for the usual wide-screen-loving rugby shirts. After 10 pm, the dj turns the turntables on for indiebeatpunkdiscomodeighties music (it's the name of one of the nights). A rare delight for French students looking for a pub "comme a Londres". The crowd's a mixture of self-styled fashion throwbacks and relaxed trendsetters, in an alcohol-fuelled (try the vodka-caramel) but relaxed atmosphere.
10-12, rue Feydeau, 75002: 00 33 (0)140265997: Metro Bourse/Grands Boulevards
For those who want to turn boring weekday nights into party intervals between work - generous happy hour policy, creative cocktail arrangements and eclectic dj workouts. Arrive at ground level, you'll encounter a Parisian Anglophile ambiance (great brunch and anglosaxon press), then go into the basement to impress your English to an unpretentious cosmopolitan crowd, eager to mix with the English enemy in very sense.
18 rue du Bourg-Tibourg, 75004: 00 33 (1) 42 72 81 34: Metro Hotel-de-Ville/Saint Paul
Great Anglo-expat hideout smack bang in the middle of Paris. It's where the French meet their Anglo-Saxon neighbours to have a proper knees up. Although situated in the tackiest location, it has (fingers crossed) kept a hedonistic and cosmopolitan crowd. Overcrowding gives it its charm, but it could be its downfall.
18 rue Saint Denis, 75001: 00 (1) 40 39 00 18: Metro Chatelet
Low lights and a crumbling interior give this cramped basement drinking den a nostalgic feel. Sangria is sold by the jug and the juke box plays an eclectic range of old pop records. An authentic left-bank experience.
10 rue de l’Odéon, 75006. Telephone: 01 43 26 66 83. M° Odéon.
Le "Lèche-vin" (=lick wine) is a bizarre and noisy bar, near rue de la Roquette, Bastille. The place is frequented by locals, including La Sorbonne rugby players because of its cheap pints of lager (4.10 euros) and the friendly atmosphere. But what makes it interesting is his "décor". Thousands of crucifixes, yellowed pictures of former popes, religious paintings are stuck absolutely everywhere in the bar... except in their gloomy Turkish toilets where every single space is filled with porn pictures. An hilarious experience!
Tel. 01-43-55-98-91, at 15 rue Daval 75011, near Métro Bastille.
When in Paris there is absolutely no excuse not to get a little lightheaded on a glass or two of wine before lunch. To which end, drop in at Le Baron Rouge around 11am, order some bread and pate and tuck into a little red. Or white. Or both.
Le Baron Rouge is a new-ish but old-fashioned bar, with upturned barrels dotted about the place for you to stand around, and a fine selection of wines. One of life's pleasures - wandering off afterwards for a stroll and a long lunch.
It's also open in the evening, and can become quite busy.
1 rue Th. Rhoussel; Tel: 01 43 43 14 32; Metro: Bastille
Smokey, jazz, blues, photo encrusted stained walls, shoulder to shoulder, great atmosphere, tucked away, definatly not on the tourist map, bohemian, studenty/arty type of a place. Love it!
Rue de Lancry The canal end on the right. 10er Metro - Jacques Bonsergent
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