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Café Bonnie by Canal Saint Martin

Text and image: Nick Forrester

Café Bonnie, located just around the corner from Quay de Valmy on the Canal St Martin, is as 60s kitch as anywhere in Paris. Though the bar has more pink and baby blue than Lady Penelope's bedroom, all is not as it seems. The blue awning is growing slightly moldy green and the plush interior has become like  the regulars, slightly scruffy and charmingly gnarled.

The bar staff would look more at home in Hampstead than Paris, and not out of place in Fagins gang.  With a fine taste in music you can expect to hear anything from a fantastic selection of current indie, emo, electro, to Led Zappelin and even some Jazz. To celebrate the weekend they normally have a slightly more raucous DJ night. Though there is scarcely room to swing a cat, the dance area has a pair of phonograph decks which are brought into use on special occasions.

International Bar

Text: Joel Ma

Image: Julien Horon

For those who acquaint themselves with a city by the pulse of its live music, Paris can leave the average punter a little cold. Openied in 2008 and located close to Rue Oberkampf, in the heart of the 11th arrondisment, The International Bar is something of a revelation for the local Parisian live music scene. It hosts two bands a night, every night of the week, completely free of charge with relatively cheap drinks and a laid back atmosphere. The music runs the gamut from rock, electro, folk, pop and world and still manages to maintain a distinctly cool DIY attitude and Indie swagger.

The crowd is as eclectic as the music styles but is becoming increasingly popular with young dressed down hipsters, students and ex-pats. Most come for the 4 euro pints at happy hour (finishing at 9pm) and stay on for the free live music. The bar stays open until 2am during the week and until 4am on the weekends. After the bands finish, DJ’s play an eclectic mix of everything from Prince to Joy Division to Lauren Hill.

Once Upon A Wine

Matthew Rose writing for I V Y paris

It was wildly historic and emphatically French. No, Napoléon didn't return from the grave to ride again. Instead, a select group was invited to American-in-Paris Chase Bailey's home to sample some of the very best French vintages of the 20th century.

Chase, a film producer and tech executive, painter and sometimes ex-pat, is famous in the wine world for his purchase, at a Napa Valley auction, of a six-liter 1992 Screaming Eagle bottle for $500,000. He shared that with about 100 of his friends for his 60th birthday.

This soirée was not as well attended but as excited: About 20 people gathered to taste a 1947 horizontal. On the bar: Petrus, Château Latour, Mouton Rothschild, Château Lafite Rothschild, Bouchard Pères et Fils Volnay, Chambertin Louis Rémé, La Mission Haut Brion and the permanently mind-blowing Cheval Blanc.  It was, in a word, insane.

There was applause, whistles and some dancing on the tables, but we weren't done: A Petrus vertical followed: 1950, 1970, 1975, 1982 (astonishing!), 1990 and 1995.  These gleaming soldiers were some of the best and brightest to come out of France since...well, forever. This was followed up with a group of about a dozen 1994 Napa champions, then to top it all off double magnums of Caymus, a champion Napa from 1982, a double magnum of Masseto, also 1982. 

20 Cavistes

1. Caves Bossetti, rue des Archives 4e
2. Bacchus et Ariane, Marche St Germain  6e
3. Crus et Decouvertes, 7 rue Paul Bert 11e
4. Le Baron Rouge, rue Theophile Gauthier 12e
5. Les Domaines Qui Montent, 9e,11e, 17e
6. Mundovinos, 40 rue de Turenne 3e
7. Chais Rick, rue de vertbois 3e
8. Cave des Cascades, 101 bis rue de Ménilmontant 20e
9. Julien Caviste, 50 rue Charlot 3e
10. Chai 33, Bercy village
11. Caves Estève, 4e 16e
12. Caves Legrand, 1 rue de la Banque 2e
13. Cave des Papilles, 35 rue Daguerre 14e
14. Idea Vino, 88 Avenue Parmentier 11e
15. La Belle Hortense, rue Vieille du Temple Paris 4e
16. Le Verre Volé 67 rue de Lancry 10e
17. Les Caves Petrissans 30 Bis Avenue Niel 17e
18. Le Barav, 6 rue Dupuis 3e
19. L'Enoteca, rue st Paul Paris 4e
20. Paris Terroirs (Bio) 68 rue JP Timbaud 11e

Photo: © 2007 - 2009 FoodAvenue

100% Natural: Notes on Organic Wine from the I V Y paris Boozehound Society

By I V Y paris Wine Guru Matthew Rose

Most wines consumed on the planet are the results of committees of chemists, marketers, designers and growers, with the poor grapes waiting around to become something they're not. So, last Friday, a group of Paris Ivy boozehounds got together to sample three 100 percent natural wines, made from unique cepages – Pinot Noir, Groulleau and Grenache, in a effort to avoid sobriety and morning after hangovers.

Without added sugars or chemical manipulation, these wines, now a vogue in France, leave your bloodstream without constricting your capillaries. The taste in general is quite different from your standard industrially-produced Bordeaux or Côtes du Rhones, and would probably produce and induce reactions ranging from "What is this? This is not wine" and "Why is this so cloudy?" to "I've never had anything like it" and "Hey, where can I get this stuff?"

The Three Wines

8 € Ocre Rouge π-Note 2006 (Pinot Noir) : Produced in Gard, near Nîmes, in a particular parcel of land that is characterized by clay and calcium.

10 € Le Cousin 2006 (100% Grolleau) : Produced in Anjou.

10 € Mazel 2005 (100% Grenache) : Produced in Ardéche.

Drunk in France: Notes from an American Boozehound

Matthew Rose writing for I V Y Paris

L'Ebrescade: For Adults Only
MARCEL RICHAUD (below) is one of those rare French wine producers who have made Cairanne, a Côte de Rhone, into a cult vintage. The cépage for
L'Ebrescade, one of Richaud's top-shelf vintages, is a blend of syrah, grenache and mourvédre. I recently tasted the 2004 L'Ebrescade and suddenly began to sing. If this bottle were a woman, I'd say she's rather like Lindsay Lohan: spicy, smoky and very sexy, oh and a little wild in just the right way.

Priced between 24 to 26 euros, the 2004 production for the L'Ebrescade came to approximately 5,000 bottles and is clearly one of the great wines Richaud has to offer. (Richaud's vineyards are relatively small - just 30 hectares). It's alcohol content is great, too : 15,5%, but there's no killing taste of alcohol here, just pure pleasure.