Cool Paris

5/ Bar 61, 3 Rue de l’Oise, 75019 Paris

A friendly bobo cafe with a permanent photo exhibition depicting bars around the world. The terrace, opposite a specatular graffiti wall, is the perfect suntrap at lunchtimes. It has a discerning wine selection and probably the best tartines grillées (toasted open sandwiches) in Paris.

6/ Ô77, 77 quai de la Seine, 75019 Paris

This former bicyle repair shop is now a restaurant run by a welcoming Lebanese family team of uncle and niece, who mix their own and traditional French food in a trendy lounge atmosphere. Friendly service, big salads, an a good selection of organic French beers, including one that contains a (legal) dose of hemp.

7/ AICV Location vélos, 38 bis quai de la Marne, 75019 Paris

If you can’t be bothered with the red tape involved in Paris’s Vélib’ rentabike scheme, this is a traditional cycle-hire palce. Get a two-wheeler for three hours for 6-8 Euro and either pedal down the canal path to Bastille, or head northwards through vast parc de la Villette, and out into the suburb of Pantin.

8/ Dépôt Flandre, 63 quai de la Seine, 75019 Paris

This quirky bric-à-brac warehouse is open seven days a week and purveys everything from Pernod water jugs to bistro tables.

(out of the Metropolitan Nov 2012, written by Stephen Clarke)

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The bassin used to be just a disused canal basi, frequented by ducks, drug addicts and the occasional daring jogger.

Now its historic raisable bridge is newly renovated, its industrial buildings have been spruced up, and it’s one of Paris’s hippest meeting places :

1/ Antipode , face au 55 quai de la Seine, 785019 Paris

This is one of three big barges moored in a line along the western bank, all offering similar fare – drinks and light meals on deck, a show down below. They’re great places to sit and watch the evening promenaders, an there are concerts and cabaret, including shows for kids, at 5-7 Euro a ticket.

2/ MK2 Cinemas, 14 quai de la Seine & 7 quai de la Loire, 75019 Paris

This twin neon-lit cinemas, one either side of the canal, were pioneers, opening in 1996 when the “quartier” was more like something out of Scorsese than Truffaut. The glass-and-iron buildings programme a healthy mix of arthouse movies and blockbusgters, and if the film you want to see is on the other bvank, just hop on the little shuttle boat.

3/ Bar Ourcq, 68 quai de la Loire, 75019 Paris

This cafe is the cool de la cool on the canalside, its turquoise facade a beacon for bobos young and old. It offers free bar snacks and also lends pétanque sets to anyone willing to risk getting their toes squelched by flying cannonballs.

4/ La Rotonde, 6-8 place de la Bataille de Stalingrad, 75019 Paris

This 18th century former tollhouse for canal traffic was abandoned for years. It has finally been renovated and now houses a hip but affordable restaurant and bar with chic brasserie foor indoors and a huge terrace on the square. In summertime it’s great to have drink there on sunday afternoons.

(out of the Metropolitan Nov 2012, written by Stephen Clarke)

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Published in Condé Nast traveller Insider Europe January 2013 by Natasha Edwards :

Wherever you are in Paris, there’s a food market nearby: the city has more than 90 of them, each with its own character and style. At weekends, even in snooty quartiers such as Auteuil and Trocadéro, Parisians grab their baskets and head to the market. It’s a social occasion and a comfirmation of how important food is to French culture. Most marchés are outdoors, and held two or three mornings a week; on some streets they are open all day, usually with a long lunch break.

Here are four of the best :

In western Paris, Marché Président Wilson (Wednesday and Saturday mornings) occupies much of the central promenade on the av. of the same name, with the Musée d’Art Moderne on one side and the gardens of Musée Galliera on the other.  Like the area, it’s upmarket and its undoubted star is Joël Thiébault, whose vast stall is piled high with giant lettuces, huge bundles of carrots, beetroot and herbs. He supplies many of the city’s leading chefs with produce grown at Carrières-sur-Seine, just 15 km from Paris. As well as cultivating rare French varieties of vegetables, notably carrots, he has now branched out into mibuna, shungiku and all sorts of other mysterious Asian leaves.

The young bobo families of Batignolles district flock to the Marché Biologiques des Batignolles (saturday 9am-3pm), an organic market on Boulevard des Batignolles. It is wholesome, earthy, even educational: there is a pen of geese and farmyard animals that draws a crowd of small children. The stalls are great for vegetables, homemade jams, organic fish and meat, and goat’s cheese that look as though they have come straight from the farm.

Under the trees of Place Monge in the Latin Quarter is a compact and select market, most unlike the touristy one on nearby rue Mouffetard. For locals, the big attraction of the Marché Monge (Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings) is its many food producers’ stalls. There’s a specialist in Alpine cheeses and mountain hams, and a charcutier whose huge selection usually includes a steaming vat of choucroute. This is also a good market for locavores thanks to several organic market gardeners from the Ile de France and a supplier of wonderful apples from Picardy.

Near Bastille on rue d’Aligre, the Marché Beauvau is famous across Paris for its low prices and the banter of its stallholders. Next door, the covered market has good butchers, an Italian deli, and a stall with a couple of tables serving Corsican produce. There’s also a small, outdoor fleamarket on Place d’Alligre, the only one in central Paris.

(Near the Romantic Paris Apartement, Friday evening you can shop at a small organic market at Place Anvers. You can find a nice goat’s cheese stall, some butchers, a fish stall and a lot of vegetable stalls )

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Until 13/05/2013 you can visit this exhibition with kids who are crazy about Dinosaures. In this exhibition they focus on the big dinosaures, so it’s rather impressive.

The museum itself is already a must see with kids, expecially the entrance is mindblowing. All kids small and big ones will love it.

Musée d’histoire naturelle, 57 Rue Cuvier,  75005 Paris, M°Gare d’Austerlitz- Jussieu

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