Speak softly
Jean-Pierre Vigato, Café Les Deux Gares, Passerina, G. Detou, Le Perche, Silo, Hotel Indarra, MORE
REAL ESTATE • On the Market
Three properties currently on offer in the 10th arr:
→ Hauteville/Paradis (metro Poissonnière) • 3BR/3BA, 98 m2 apartment • Ask: 1.495M € • 5th-floor, with parquet floors and sizable terrace • Annual maintenance/condo fees: 4936 € • Agent: Didier Atlan, Engel & Völkers.
→ Lariboisère (metro Gare du Nord, above) • 3BR/2BA, 135 m2 apartment • Ask: 1.59M € • 1st-floor family flat renovated last year ‘with a subtle modernity,’ • Annual maintenance/condo fees: 4000 € • Agent: Marine Cocaign, Archik.
→ Cour des Petites Écuries (metro Gare de l’Est) • 3BR/3BA, 223 m2 triplex • Ask: 2.75M € • in former 19th-century crystal factory, with private driveway • Annual maintenance/condo fees: 6360 € • Agent: Véronique Prévost, Sotheby’s.
WORK • Friday Routine
Flipping the switch
PIERRE-NICOLAS HURSTEL • co-founder & CEO • Arianee
Neighborhood you work in: 10th arr
Neighborhood you live in: 12th arr
It’s Friday morning. How are you rolling into the weekend?
By Friday morning, I’m usually already switching gears. I leave Paris very early, often before sunrise, and head out to our home in Le Perche — a beautiful, bucolic region just 90 minutes from Paris, where rolling hills, ancient forests, and quiet country life reset the mind.
I work remotely from there starting at 9a, often taking my first calls from the car. It’s a slower rhythm. I plan the day around a lunchtime horse riding session and an afternoon padel match with friends. Friday evening is all about reconnecting with family: I’ll cook something hearty (in winter, raclette; the rest of the year, the barbecue gets fired up), pick up my wife and kids from the train station, and welcome friends arriving from Paris.
Running a tech startup means the pressure never really stops, but I deeply believe efficiency comes from being able to step back. Fridays are my day for thinking deeply, catching my breath, and starting the weekend already fully “switched” into another world.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Monday is my heavy-lifting day, when all the big decisions and check-ins happen: executive committee, key 1:1s, strategic sessions. I always make sure to be physically present in the office. It sets the tone for the week.
A key ritual is lunch at Café Les Deux Gares, where chef Jonathan Schweizer crafts one of the best menus in Paris for under 30 €. His style is light yet generous: cooked and raw endives with a punchy lacto-fermented horseradish sauce, followed by silky celeriac slow-cooked with Savagnin wine and a wild mushroom sauce. There’s always a meatier option too, like deviled eggs or pork shoulder. But whatever you order, you’ll leave energized, not weighed down.
In the evening, after a sport session, I might cook something simple and fresh at home — maybe crispy-skinned fish with Bordier seaweed butter and spicy sauces from Roh Lala Ça Pique, a brand I love that uses peppers grown organically from Le Perche. Perfect to ease into a family Monday night.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
When it comes to eating out in Paris, my loyalties are very clear! My favorite spots for lunch are:
Passerini: Giovanni Passerini’s flagship, where his team (Justine, his wife, Clément, and others) deliver deeply satisfying, sharply executed Italian cuisine.
The Butcher of Paris: More casual, more raw. You stand at the counter, sharing stools with chefs, winemakers, and serious carnivores. They specialize in natural wines (a heavy Jura influence) and perfectly aged meats.
Amarante: A secret for locals. Christophe Philippe cooks alone, serving rustic French dishes like veal brains, guinea fowl, and hand-cut panisses. Sylvain ensures the atmosphere is warm, slow, and authentic — the sort of meal that makes you fall back in love with real Paris bistronomy.
For dinner, I like flexibility:
Passerina: the no-reservations aperitivo bar next to Passerini, run by Antoine. An amazing selection of small plates and natural wines.
Clamato: seafood-driven, vibrant, first-come-first-served (get there early).
Café Lai’tcha: one of the best dim sum place in town, run by the genius Adeline Gratard
If organized enough, a table at Le Servan guarantees an extraordinary experience. The new Korean pocket restaurant from Esu Lee, Jip, is also a very cool experience, affordable, delicious, but very small, and three services, so you’ll have your table for 90 minutes, tops.
Any weekend getaways?
For us, it’s Le Perche, always. Our favorite restaurant there is Oiseau Oiseau, opened by our friends Marianne and Sven (who used to run the iconic Saturne in Paris). It’s soulful, hyper-local, and a reminder of what slow hospitality really means. The starters are always mindblowing: the tartare with liveche, perfect egg yolk and anchovies, the scallop dishes, green beans, feta, asparagus. It’s always different, and incredible. You can really feel the genius of the chef Sven. Main dishes will include a whole smoked pigeon that you must try once in your lifetime and the staple chicken on the skin dish that has pretty much always been on the chef’s menu.
Saturday mornings mean a trip to the market at Nogent-le-Rotrou to stock up: pork and charcuterie from Les Champs Romets, poultry from La Belvindière, Then we swing by Nicolas’ at Moulin de Vaujours to stock up vegetables.
But for me, the real highlight of going to Mortagne is stopping by Silo, Valentin and Marie’s coffee shop and wine bar. Valentin has an incredible talent for introducing you to wines you’ve probably never heard of, even if you’re a wine geek like me. Marie’s cookies and small plates are exquisite, and once a month they host a Silobration, inviting a guest chef for a prix-fixe dinner. A must!
What was your last great vacation?
Copenhagen, hands down. We had a mind-blowing meal at Noma. We visited Copenhagen Contemporary to see James Turrell’s breathtaking Aftershock installation, an unforgettable light experience which is one in a line of his Ganzfelds installations, which have become iconic for his work with light, space and colour.
We also made culinary pilgrimages to:
Hija de Sanchez for micheladas and tacos
Hart Bageri for pastries so good it hurts
And ended with an incredible seafood feast at Fiskebar in the Meatpacking District
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
My Bastard BBQ. It’s similar to the Big Green Egg — a ceramic grill perfect for slow-cooking.
PARIS WORK & PLAY LINKS: How upstart French fashion brands like Sézane and Polène are luring customers from Big Luxury • Designing a tiny Montmartre attic • Restaurants in Paris where I actually eat the cheese • In climate change era, what’s the future for Paris’s zinc rooftops? • How to style it on the slopes this season.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop
Rich stock
A good food store is a place of discovery, where a single ingredient can spark an idea, inspire a dish, or even ignite a small culinary revolution. G. Detou is that kind of place.
Founded in 1951, the shop hasn’t changed much since the days when shopping meant visiting a different boutique for each ingredient: cheese from one, butter from another, chocolate from a third. Benoît Bourloton, the current owner, keeps the store’s unpretentious spirit alive and is often restocking shelves or chatting with customers.
G. Detou was first introduced to me by a pastry-chef friend who knew I’d be in awe. I’d gone in search of a big bag of good-quality chocolate chips — without paying Grande Épicerie prices — but what I found was so much more. The vanilla options, for one, are exceptional (the Prova Gourmet Bourbon Madagascar extract is particularly potent). Then there’s the pâtisserie dough, fruit compotes in every possible flavor, generous bags of nuts, dried fruit, spices, condiments, and jams, hard-to-find Maldon salt flakes, Le Sirop de Monin in an array of flavors, and even several varieties of pistachio paste, perfect for anyone experimenting with homemade chocolate.
Next door, a small delicatessen carries Maison Bordier butter — possibly the best there is — along with sausages, smoked salmon, pâtés, olives, and oils. Picking up a few of these pantry items can make a last-minute meal feel like something else entirely.
G. Detou remains a place filled with hard-to-find essentials at refreshingly fair prices, where both the working chef and the home cook can find exactly what they need, and maybe something they didn’t know they were looking for. Most importantly, it’s the kind of store that reminds you how easily a single discovery can start your very own food revolution. –Sam Brenzel
→ Shop: G. Detou Paris (2nd arr) • 58 Rue Tiquetonne • Mon-Sat 8h30-19h.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Shipping up to Boston
Mumford & Sons • Adidas Arena (La Chapelle) • Fri @ 20h • carre or, 80 € per
Dropkick Murphys • Adidas Arena (La Chapelle) • Sat @ 19h • cat 1, 62 € per
Calum Scott • Salle Pleyel (18th arr) • Sat @ 20h • cat3, 40 € per
GETAWAYS • Basque Country
To simply be
In the green folds of the Basque countryside, a stone’s throw from the surf and sunsets of Guéthary and Biarritz, Indarra stands like a vast, serene holiday home.
The house feels lived in and loved. Communal rooms hum softly with the sound of quiet work or shared laughter. In the living room, a homemade cake waits for the afternoon goûter. Art books are stacked high, board games ready for long evenings by the fire. Every surface speaks of calm: beige linens, pale woods, touches of coco-fiber that are soft on the eyes, soft on the skin.
The bedding is a small miracle. Sinking into it feels like diving into a cappuccino, all warmth and foam.
Mornings begin simply but perfectly: fresh fruit, local cheese and charcuterie, good bread, and homemade juices and infusions. Throughout the day, tea and coffee are always available, as if the house itself wants you to linger.
The service is impeccable, light-handed. The young team is dynamic, kind, and thoughtful, always there when needed, never overstepping. It’s hospitality with intuition. The buanderie, a laundry and steaming space open to guests, adds to the feeling of freedom, of being at home but better.
Step outside and the landscape unfolds in all directions: the ocean to the west, the Pyrenean foothills to the east, La Rhune watching from above. You’re 10 minutes from the airport and barely 15 from anywhere worth being: Biarritz, Bidart, Guéthary.
The pool stretches wide and dark beneath tall trees, flanked by a yoga room where stillness is the main treatment. The spa completes the experience: massages, sauna, hammam, and ice bath that invite both vigor and surrender.
Indarra isn’t about excess or spectacle. It’s about intention, in design, in rhythm, in the way it invites you to simply be. A place suspended between land and sea, work and rest, community and solitude — the Basque art of balance, lived beautifully, and in the present moment. –Candice Chemel
→ Hotel Indarra (Arbonne) • 1 route de Saint-Pée • rooms from 166 €/wknd night.
GETAWAYS LINKS: In Deauville, Maison Douce Époque is the hip new place to stay • European Sleeper taking over Paris-Berlin overnight train service starting in March • Aeromexico launching CDG-MTY (Monterrey, Mexico) service next spring • The Hoxton coming to Madrid next year • The villa at the gateway to Brittany that communes with the sea.
ASK FOUND
Three fresh PROMPTS for which we seek your immediate attention
What’s your favorite Paris spa?
Who do you trust to do your eyebrows?
What’s the best bar to dine alone at in Paris?
Got answers or more questions? Hit reply or email found@foundparis.com.
RESTAURANTS • FOUND Table
Silent mastery
The Backstory: In a quiet corner of the 16th arrondissement, chef Jean-Pierre Vigato’s restaurant isn’t a comeback, but a continuation. With nothing left to prove, the former Apicius chef has chosen to work on his own terms here, focusing on the essentials of French cooking, done beautifully and without compromise.