Tips for Drinking Paris

Notre Dame at night.  Picture by Gloria. 

Summer 2012

Of the Ten Tips for Drinking Belgium, many of them apply to France.  We spent the vast majority of our time in Paris on this trip, plus a couple of day trips to Versailles, Chateau du Vicomte and Giverny.  On a future trip, I'd organize drinking a bit differently.

1. Hotel refrigerator. Evidently, there's no ice in France. Hotels don't have ice machines and asking for it only yields quizzical looks.  Nor can it be found in a grocery store. One desk clerk suggested I buy a beer at the bar across the street and ask nicely. All of us have been the road warrior drinking in the hotel room with an ice bath in the sink for the evening's brews—doesn't work here. Didn't try in Belgium, but assume it would be similar.  On this trip, finding an apartment to rent with a kitchen or a hotel with a fridge will be important.

2. Pick a home near a bottle shop or beer bar. Between research and experience, there's not a lot of beer bars with an extensive selection of local or EU brews. More often, it's like Express de Lyon with a small but quality range of taps and bottles. Unlike Belgium, good beer doesn't just appear easily. A hotel or apartment within walking distance of Brewberry or La Cave a Bulles would be real treat to stop for a beer and take one home for the above mentioned fridge. I wasn't able to visit La Cave a Bulles, but Brewberry is in the Latin Quarter, a lively neighborhood that seemed like a good place to end the evening after being a tourist. For this two week stay in Paris, we rented an apartment on the Isle de St. Louis and had croissants for breakfast and quiche for dinner, all from the local bakeries.  Or, we picked up beer and ingredients from the family market on our street to make a homemade dinner with the nieces.  We relished pretending to live in real neighborhood rather than our first ring vanilla suburb of home. Next time, I would like to include an easier beer stop in that fantasy lifestyle.

Eiffel tower and Parisian skyline from Arc de Triomphe.  Picture by Gloria.  

3. Plan ahead in late summer. Most tourism books warn of businesses being closed in late summer because many French go on holiday this time of year. In Paris, Brewberry was closed for most of August (and maybe part of July if I read the sign correctly). The bakery below our apartment closed the day after we arrived and Brewberry only opened on our last night in town. Cecile of Brewberry mentioned that La Cave a Bulles was closed as well, so there goes two of the best options in town for those of us with professions that limit us to summer travel.

Paris Metro.  Picture by Gloria. 

4. Ride the rails. Paris probably has the fastest, most efficient public transportation system that we've ever used.  If there is ever an argument against urban sprawl, Paris is it.  Except for taking the train to Versailles or the airport, we rarely waited more than four minutes for a subway train take us to our next location, even late at night or farther away from the city center.  When I took our nieces to the airport, the train was re-routed, but there were numerous bilingual attendants that helped us navigate the direction signs.  If the first two recommendations aren't possible, the subway can help facilitate a beer hunter looking for a draft.

5. Ask for a flask of tap water. It works better here than in Belgium for some reason, so it's easier to stay hydrated.

If these work (or don't!), let me know. If I missed a trick, please comment for my next trip.

Falstaff Bar a Bieres (Montparnasse, France)

8/18/12

When we checked into the Hotel Renoir of Montparnasse, we were mostly concerned that our room had air conditioning after suffering through the hottest weekend since 1994 (according to the hotel clerk in Antwerp the day before). So, even though I noted a beer bar across the street, it took us a day to get to it.

On BeerAdvocate, two Falstaff's are listed in other areas of town, plus I've seen more in our travels. This Falstaff isn't on BA.  The one we visited is on Rue du Montparnasse in Montparnasse, and was a very pleasant stop in spite of being a chain.

Gloria started with Carolus D'or on draft and I had Leffe Royale, a 7.5% blonde that I've seen advertised around town but have never tasted or heard of until our France trip. Both were well served and fresh. We asked the waiter for a recommendation for a French beer on their bottle list and ended up ordering Gavroche, an amber ale from St. Sylvestre. A solid beer with some strong characteristics but not one I'd buy again.

Dinner, however, was a hit. We ordered the Penne aux Fromage and it was spectacular. Really loved the meal, and, surpringingly, it went well with the Carolus D'or.

Thirteen beers on tap from Guinness to La Trappe Tripel to Lindeman's Framboise make it a fine beer stop in a fairly barren Parisian beerscape. 120 bottles listed by country, though I didn't peruse the list thoroughly. We have plans to eat near Brewberry in the Latin Quater for our last night in Paris, but, if needed, I wouldn't hesitate to go to Falstaff again.

Bier Academie (Paris, France)

8/4/12

From our apartment on the Ile de St. Louis, Biere Academy is the closest and I had high hopes of a good bar with an easy walk for a daily night cap. Recently added on BeerAdvocate, it had no reviews yet and should note be confused with the Academie de la Biere.

On a Saturday night, it was completely dead and we took a seat at a table and ordered a couple of beers. The Lindeman's Faro was good, but the Huyghe Artevelde seemed very off. I tried to order safer for the next one: Delirium Nocturnum, but it seemed to not be 100% either.

And after a week in Belgium, I was disappointed that nothing was served in its proper glass. Overall, a huge waste of time and money, and I will not be returning at all.

La Taverne de Cluny (Paris, France)

8/3/13

Gloria and the girls' flight should be landing now, so I'm having a draft at La Taverne de Cluny near the Cluny Museum before heading to our meeting place behind Notre Dame Cathedral.

The drafts are of standard fare with La Chouffe being the most interesting. The taps include Lindeman's Framboise, Leffe Blonde and Maredsous Bruin before going macro with Stella Artois, Kronenburg 1664 and Carlsberg.

"Kings" of Notre Dame at Musee de Cluny.
Picture by Gloria. 

The draft I had was adequately served by a gruff bartender. If at the Cluny Museum, it's a close and a good bet for a decent beer. Note that there's a different price for the bar versus sitting at a table. Since I prefer the bar, it's no effort to save some money.

After the girls went home, my wife and spent an afternoon at the Cluny Museum without returning to the tavern.  The Cluny was well worth the effort, especially after hearing the story of the "kings" of Notre Dame, statues torn down from the facade of the church during the revolution that were later found in a Parisian backyard.  Seeing how high the statues are on the side of Notre Dame, I understood for the first time the inestimable power of a revolutionary spirit bent on destruction.

O'Neil Maitre Artisan Brasseur aka Brasserie O'Neil (Paris, France)

La chope of L' Ambree

8/3/12

Frog & Princess didn't open until 5:30 pm, so I wandered around to find Brasserie O'Neil. It's happy hour, which means 40 cents off per La Chope (big mug) of beer. Honestly, I'm not sure what sort of beer I'm going to find in France after a week in Brussels, so I'm hopeful in ordering a mug of L'Ambree. Amber ale is the only explanation on the menu.

L'Ambree is an amber ale that looks, not surprisingly, light in the glass, almost watery. Gentlemen beside me ordered the blonde, which looks very watery. However, the taste is more robust and has a decent mouthfeel. Caramel and fresh bread in the nose with a very light hop spice if you dig for it a little. Light caramel pervades the taste that's followed by a minor hop at the end. Not a beer to travel a long ways to drink, but a perfectly adequate amber ale that's cleanly brewed.

I assumed that if Belgians were nervous around hops that French would be terrified. But, part of the hopping in L'Ambree is from the fact that the area around Brasserie O'Neil and the Frog & Princess is an expat British neighborhood with a lot of dress shops and pizzerias. The bartender here is clearly French, but the person that helped me at the Frog & Princess was assuredly an expat working at a British styled pub.

Brew kettle is right in the front window of the bar with copper piping bringing the steam through the bar to the roof I suppose. From the piping, my guess is that the mash is a floor lower. The bar was empty when I showed up, but filling up with a Friday night, after-work crowd. Dark wood and brick bar, not dissimilar to many British or Irish pubs.

Not everyone in the bar seems to be drinking the amber, so I'm going to take the hint and try the La Brune. On a the back of the menu, I found more detailed descriptions. La Brune is listed as as an ebony ale; in the mug, it's more of a dark brown with ruby highlights from the evening light. Tan head drops quickly with no lace over a clean, mild roast and malt nose. Thin mouthfeel but enough substance for a brown ale rather than the description's stout label. A brown ale with stout-like qualities, again, is a perfectly fine ale, though it's not going to impress many beer geeks.

On the menu, flammekueches looked good, but the bartender was going off shift, so decided to eat my first crepe of the trip on the corner stand, a grand marnier soaked piece of heaven.  Brasserie O'Neil is an ok stop if you're desperate for a full pint, happen to be nearby or need a meal with English translations (more or less). In my case, I'm a glutton for punishment sometimes and just have to drink it myself. Today the beer is fine and I got to watch some heavyweight 100+ kg Olympic judo in the process. Oddly, the experience comes with some inner city rap and hip hop.



I returned later in the week with my wife and two nieces to try the Flammekeuches. But first, I ordered the La Blanche to drink this time. Fluffy white head over a hazy orange wheat beer. Head falls away quickly over a strong orange peel and spice nose. Not complex, but it has a pleasant aroma. Fruitiness continues in the taste with a slight carbonic bite. Again, not fabulous but brewed cleanly, a comment with which my wife agreed from a sip while she drank her draft of brune.

Flammekueches are a pastry dish from Alsace that means "baked in flames."  I had the Gratinee, which is the Classic (creme fraiche, onions and bacon) plus Gruyere cheese. Minus the bacon, of course, as I'm almost a vegetarian. Comes to the table looking like a thin omelet with burnt edges. Digging in, it is a light pastry crust with the sweet onions counterpointing the slightly sour taste, which I assume is the creme fraiche. Excellent and wish I had time to try this local cuisine again.

While completely eclipsed by Brewberry on our last day in Paris, Brasserie O'Neil served the purpose of a beer geek in need while touristing in Paris.  While no where near world class, some local flavor and an easy visit to a unique Parisian neighborhood makes it worth the effort.

The Frog & Princess (Paris, France)

8/3/12

I made The Frog & Princess for happy hour: pints only 5 euro, off from 7.  Pricey for mediocre beer but they will also do a free rack of samples, though each was the size of a shot glass. Free is free.

Of the lot, the Dark de Triomphe seemed to be the strongest with some Guinness-like flavor but watery with more chocolate, as described by the bartender. Weak and thin, I now feel that I've tasted what one would stereotype craft beer as in wine-crazy France. As it warms, a clear diacytl buttery note. Brasserie O'Neill nearby felt much more local and and the beer was brewed cleaner.

Appetizer with my new collection of event themed coasters. 

Both bartenders admitted to the young American couple nearby that neither were particularly fans of the beer in the pub and worked to crush mint for mojitos, a specialty of the bar evidently.  Evidently, each "Frog & something" pub does have it's own brewer and separate beers: five in Paris, one in Toulouse, and one somewhere else that I missed. But, in this case, I think I'm going end my pursuit here.

Dark de Triomphe with a coaster of the
queen in track gear

Unfortunately, I left the other pub hungry, so decided to give a starter a try that sounded adventuresome: onion bhajis, described as an Indian dish with onions and spices that's deep fried. Greasy as hell with some tang and rawish hunks of fried onion inside.  A sauce similar to tartar saucer at first, but was clearly lighter and something else, tempered the heat a bit.

Next, I tried  a pint of the next favorite sample: Ginger Twist. Actually, not a bad beer. The lemon, lime and coriander spices blend well with a full bodied gold to amber lager. It's pretty in the glass bubbling up to clean off white head. Much better brewed beer than the previous pint and it is almost cutting through the grease of the bhajis. Glad I ended with the better beer of the lot, though still just adequate.

The bartender I met before opening had an accent clearly of the British Isle, was personable and, I sense, made the local expats feel at home. Commenting that I liked the queen in track gear beer mat, he went downstairs to get me the Euro 2012 soccer mats from earlier in the summer. A very fun stop, but I wish the beer had been a bit better. I could see coming here if I was a Brit expat who was very lonely for home, but can't recommend it otherwise.

Brewberry (Paris, FR)

8/21/12

We stopped by a couple of days before we were to leave Paris and, unfortunately, Brewberry was closed.  They were also on vacation, like many of the businesses in Paris in August.  Luckily, its first day open was our last full day in town.

After a mind blowing day of water lilies at Monet's Giverny, meeting new Australian friends on the train and a less than spectacular visit to the Marmottan Museum, we headed to the Latin Quarter in hopes of finally finding some good beer to add to our Paris memories.  So far, it had been a bit slim but I wasn't trying that hard with a full itinerary of cool touristy sites with Gloria and our nieces.

Brewberry is in the middle of an eat street with a variety of restaurants all around it.  The bar itself sells a few snacks; we each had a bread and cheese plate: goude and roquefort.  Both excellent, but we thought we should have eaten before getting so excited about the beer selection.

Lily ponds of Giverny

From the outside, the few wooden tables in front of a plain store front doesn't seem to promise much, but the inside is unique and fun.  With bottles lining the wall like good beer store, the center is filled with a half dozen or so tables.  The rock ceiling is low for this 6 foot 4 inch Dutchman, but gives the place a cozy feel for drinking beer.  Besides, I was either at my table beer in hand or bent over with the iPad hunting through each label for a next great find--standing upright never really happened.  Even when the tables filled later in the evening, it was a comfortable and inviting bar with lively but not loud conversation.

For most Americans, the set up will be a bit unusual.  It's basically a liquor store with some cold bottles and tables.  For Minnesotans, imagine being able to hang out and drink all night at the Four Firkins.  We ordered a Mikkeller Magnum IPA and a Brugse Zot Tripel from De Halve Maan in Bruges from the chilled beer chalkboard list to get started.  Distracted by the stacks of bottles around us, we simply picked from the shelf and asked to have the bottle chilled while we drank the ones in front of us.  And, if a bottle is needed for the hotel, it can be put in the cooler for take away at the end of the night.  A great system of drinking without the puritanical barriers of US liquor laws.

We were among the first to arrive and sat inside because the outside tables were reserved.  Evidently, we weren't the only patrons anticipating Brewberry's opening up again.  Everything about the stop was friendly and helpful.  When we asked if there was Wifi (pronounced wee-fee in France and Belgium), Cecile simply gave us a direct access code since it wasn't set up. Very useful since I was looking up many of the beers I didn't recognize on the wall, like my next beer Monts des Cats.  This is a French Abbey that is producing their beer via Chimay.  Trappiste is in the name, but not an official trappist beer with a logo.  An interesting find nonetheless.

Inside Brewberry with  owner Cecile behind computer

To end, Gloria tried the Reinaert Grand Cru from DeProef, which was a very good beer, but a little lighter than we expected it to be. And, I finished with Rewired, a brown ale from 8 Wired Brewing of Marlborough, New Zealand.  I asked about the brewery and got an explanation of the name as a slang for ??? in New Zealand.  Some googling says it's a term of endearment for a rustic guy from Kerkom.  Cecile didn't have the description for the beer in her head on the first day back from vacation, but retrieved her tasting notes and talked me through the beer. When I tasted it, her description was spot on. Cecile is one of the best beer whisperers I've met.

The staff was friendly, hard working and attentive while still letting us sit and enjoy each beer. It takes a while to get use to the pace of service in Europe.  To many Americans, food and drink service feels slow.  After nearly a month in Belgium and France on this trip, I'd acclimated my expectations and learned how to ask for what I wanted.  At Brewberry, the staff seemed to adjust to the client expectations, treating each to their custom.  No only smart business, but it makes for comfortable drinking for everyone. They even got us an outside table on the street when a reservation cancelled. Admittedly, I was having fun and drinking fast after a short post-Belgium drought and they gladly accommodated my enthusiasm.

Cold beer board to the left of our round

Right before leaving the now packed bar, Cecile chatted with a us for a little while, even suggesting a new beer bar that opened a few weeks ago called La Fine Mousse, another bar with good beer, Express de Lyon, that we had already tried during an earlier stop at Gare de Lyon station, and a bottle shop called La Cave a Bulles. Very much a beer lover, eager to support beer, even in places other than hers.  We had intentions of trying La Fine Mousse, but when we noticed the late hour, we had to head home to pack for the next leg of our trip to Rennes in the morning.

We took home a bottle of Lindeman's Cassis, technically available in the US but this black currant lambic is hard to find and a favorite of mine. Tired when we got to the hotel, we went to bed and ended up having the Cassis the next day just before our noon hotel check out along with a strawberry tart from a local cafe, which went together very nicely.

Last round at an outside table on the street

If I find myself in Paris again, Brewberry will be my first stop for a couple of beers plus a bottle  for each night of my stay.  No ice machines in hotels, or ice for sale anywhere that we could find, so a small refrigerator in the hotel is a must unless you want to be drinking semi-warm tallboys of Hoegaarden, Kronenbourg or Pelforth after a walk from a local grocery store.

Brewberry was easily my best stop in Paris, and one of the very best drinking experiences of the trip.  I did spend a day at Westvleteren and a week in Brussels, so it's high praise among tough competition. While an oasis in the heart of a somewhat barren but growing beer scene, Brewberry would be a great beer bar anywhere in the world.

Express de Lyon (Paris, FR)

8/6/12

Our stop at the Express de Lyon is indicative of my early days of beer hunting.  Rather than heading to a destination for the sake of the destination, as I do more often now, this was a stop of opportunity while in the midst of being touristy.  We spent the morning at the Chateau du Vincennes, a true 12th century medieval castle to start our fairy tale July trip to Paris with our nieces.  En route back to the heart of Paris, we had to pass through the Gare de Lyon and took the opportunity to eat lunch.

French Double IPA Rothen Skull

One of our few sit down meals in Paris, I had a fromage (cheese) and mushroom omelette with frites (fries) on the side.  The clearly fresh made mustard was fantastic on the fries.  Reports all around were enthusiastic about our next to the street dining at a French cafe--living the cliche and having fun doing it.  












Hard to get, I started with a draft of Brew Dog Punk IPA.  While I've had a couple of good beers from Brew Dog, I haven't been as impressed as the fan boy media would make out the iconic brewery.  My present theory is that this brewery is pushing the envelope for England; however, they haven't developed the finesse and sophistication of hop usage that is required for the American market. Next, I tried a French double IPA by Brasserie de la Vallee de Chevreuse, according to my notes. Again, not as elegant as I would normally prefer, but the delight of drinking a French Double IPA was worth the trip.  

Express de Lyon would be just another restaurant with a few good taps in most beer beer locales. Even in a developing market like Minnesota, it would barely show on the radar of geeks. However, in France, the dearth of good beer bars makes it one of the better places to go.  At this point of our vacation, I'd been in Belgium for a week and France for several days and the hop demon had grown restless. Express de Lyon was a welcome respite from tourist attractions, street food and beer low on hops.