Les Papilles

As cafés continue to close and old-fashioned bistrots become scarcer, wine bars are filling the gap as new neighborhood bastions of good eating and easygoing conviviality. There’s a “good-time-was-had-by-all” spirit at Les Papilles, which has become a much-loved institution in the Latin Quarter. Affable patron Bertrand Bluy displays his terrific selection of wines on open shelving, where customers can browse and choose, and the kitchen prepares a single menu daily—on a recent visit it was pumpkin soup garnished with tiny croutons, lardoons, chives and shavings of raw chestnut, followed by roast pork with white beans, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, thyme and pistou sauce, with panna cotta and Reine Claude plums for dessert. At lunch, you can also just stop by for a lighter bite and a glass of wine after a nice stroll in the nearby Jardin du Luxembourg.

30 rue Gay-Lussac, 5th, 01.43.25.20.79

Originally published in the November 2011 issue of France Today