Flipping the switch
PIERRE-NICOLAS HURSTEL • Arianee
WORK • Friday Routine
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.