Le Baron Rouge in Paris: A casual well known wine bar around town.

Le Baron Rouge in Paris: A casual well known wine bar around town.

If you want to mingle with a laid-back crowd—a mixture of blue and white-collar workers, young and old people, fashionable and less fashionable creatures, weirdos and mainstream Parisians—head for Le Baron Rouge. You can’t miss this place, there’s always a huge crowd spilling onto the street in the early evening (apéro time) or on Sunday mornings—there’s nothing like a glass of wine and a plate of charcuterie or a platter of oysters to start the day! The wines are very affordable and the plates of cheeses and charcuterie are generous and delicious. Sometimes the quality of a wine will be directly reflected in its price, but 3€ wasted on piquette (that’s French for cheap wine) is forgivable. It is Paris after all, and it’s hard to find such low prices in popular wine bars. It is also hard to find a table unless you come for a drink outside of drinking hours, so don’t expect to be comfortably seated. And if the only room you find to sip your wine is on the street then be ready to partake in some secondhand cigarette smoke while sharing the sidewalk with interesting looking people… Once I saw an older woman standing out there dressed up in a white leotard exhibiting a very nice body for her age and a pretty indecent camel toe. This alone was worth a stop.

Le Baron Rouge
1 Rue Théophile Roussel
75012 Paris
tel: 01.43.43.14.32
Metro: Ledru-Rollin

Tu-Sat: 10am-2pm / 5pm-10pm
Sun: 10am-4pm
Closed on Monday

Les Crus du Soleil: Wines from the south of France in Paris.

Les Crus du Soleil: Wines from the south of France in Paris.

*UPDATE: SAD NEWS, LES CRUS DU SOLEIL IN THE 12TH ARRONDISSEMENT IS NOW CLOSED.

Les Crus du Soleil, in Paris’ 12th arrondissement, is a little wine shop located on the busy rue d’Aligre. The owner, Benoît, will warmly greet you and help you choose a very nice wine for an unbeatable price (for the same bottle of wine you’ll pay twice its price at Lavinia.) The wines for sale are all from the Languedoc-Roussillon, a region stretching from Nîmes to Colliour, in the south of France. They are produced by a new wave of wine makers who are interested in natural methods such as biodynamics, organic farming and hand-picking grapes. Along with the wines there are a few treats such as the charcuterie from the montagne noire (Cathar region) that will make a person who’s been a vegetarian for over a decade revert to being a meat eater! (I know so, I’ve seen it.) There is also a small selection of great Champagne (Billecart-Salmon, Raoul Collet, Larmandier-Bernier…) as well as some very unusual and high end single malts from France (Michel Couvreur), Japan and Scotland (Auchentoshan).
Les Crus du Soleil is a great place to stop at for a glass and a plate of southern goodies that you may only find here, except for David Pelegris’ foie gras and smoked duck breasts that are also served in some of Paris’ Michelin-star restaurants.
For excellent chocolates a few doors down the street, check out Goût, Thé et Chocolat.

Les Crus du Soleil
21 Rue d’Aligre
75012 Paris
tel: 01.43.43.52.20
Metro: Faidherbe-Chaligny

Tu-Sat: 10.30am-1.30pm / 4pm-8.30pm
Sun: 10.30am-1.30pm
Closed on Monday,