Cooling blast
Best new-wave ice cream, Vivant, Dauphin, Battignolles apartments, Pont Neuf, Le Chambard, MORE
REAL ESTATE • On the Market
Three properties for sale around Battignolles in the 17th arr:
→ Batignolles (metro Brochant) • 3BR/2.1BA, 89 m2 • Ask: 1.05M € apartment • fixer-upper on 4th floor with good southern light • Annual maintenance/condo fees: 2640 € • Agent: Hugo Clavié, Barnes.
→ Heart of Batignolles (metro Rome, above) • 3BR/2BA, 124 m2 • Ask: 3.4M € penthouse • top-floor flat with roofdeck that uniquely blends indoors & outdoors, Eiffel Tower and Sacré Coeur views • Annual maintenance/condo fees: 3700 € • Agent: Lisa Guillaume, Engel & Völkers.
→ Martin Luther King Park (metro Brochant) • 4BR/4BA, 167 m2 • Ask: 3.98M € apartment • 9th floor, perfect condition, with huge terrace featuring direct views to Sacré Coeur • Annual maintenance/condo fees: 10,500 € • Agent: Joy Binoche, Daniel Feau.
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Fertile ground
There are restaurants that stay with you. Not because they make noise, but because they get it right.
Vivide is tucked away in a small street near the Théâtre de l’Atelier in Montmartre. Very quickly, I knew the place would stick with me for a long time. The restaurant’s chefs serve a fully plant-based menu that doesn’t try to convince anyone, let alone lecture them. They just cook. And cook brilliantly. But what I loved started well before the first plate arrived.
The welcome, first. The smiles. The gentleness of the service. The place itself, too: both raw and warm at the same time. And then there’s the counter by the entrance, the theater of it, where a restaurant really breathes. Even seated further back in the dining room, you still feel part of it, as the chefs come out, bring the plates, exchange a glance, a few words, look for your reaction. They’ve muted the hard line between the kitchen and the room, a change diners feel.
But then there’s the menu itself. Vegetables touched by fire and smoke, deep sauces, texture everywhere, and above all: flavor, quite a bit of it. It’s the kind of cooking that quickly makes you forget what’s missing from the plate and focus only on what’s actually there, like chilled mesclun salad with its shallot vinaigrette, an icy jolt, right in the middle of the meal. Or smoked butternut squash, wrapping itself gently around your palate. And then the final little gift: verbena-flavored jelly bears, a throwback of childhood nostalgia, and a totally delightful surprise.
Even the drinks tell a story. Wine has its place, of course, but the homemade non-alcoholic creations often steal the show: fermentations, herbs, and infusions. And then, there’s the incredible bread coming from Union Boulangerie. That bread alone could make you come back.
I left with the very simple feeling that someone created this place not to follow a trend, and not to tick a green box on a menu, but just to give people pleasure. –Rodolphe Pelosse
→ Vivide (Montmartre) • 3 rue Dancourt • Tue-Sat 19h-23h • 7 courses 85 €, wine pairing 50 € • Book.
WORK • Friday Routine
Amuse-bouche
ANGELA KONG • owner & experience creator • Bouche & Rori
Neighborhood you work & live in: 11th arr
It’s Friday afternoon. How are you rolling into the weekend?
When everything’s going well at our restaurants, and there are no replacements to handle, we work from Sunday to Thursday, so the last day is always intense. We give it our all to wrap up as many tasks as possible, and be free on Friday and Saturday. It’s a bit of a race, the start of a busy day ahead.
What’s on the agenda for today?
I start with a coffee at Comets or Chanceux, which are on my route between home and the restaurants. I check the weekend reservations, go through Bouche and Rori’s Instagram accounts, then move on to setting up and serving lunch at Rori.
In the afternoon, I have a few meetings, often with both teams, and run some errands in preparation for the weekend. At 6p, I take 20 minutes to calm down for the staff meal before getting ready for the evening service at Bouche. I usually get home around 2a, just in time to take our dog Hero for a quick walk.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
I love going to Le Dauphin on Fridays. It’s one of my favorite places in the neighborhood, and they have my friend Anthony Salomon’s fish soup on Fridays at noon, which I adore. On Saturdays for lunch, I enjoy Double Dragon, in the 11th, or Mehmet, in the 18th.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
My Lemaire croissant bag.
What store or service do you always recommend?
Yvon Lambert bookstore, in the 3rd.
PARIS WORK & PLAY LINKS: French artist JR wraps Pont Neuf as tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude… timelapse footage of his inflatable cave install • Chatting with chef Allan Gillery-Pavard, guiding the kitchen at Terra in the Marais • On the French relationship with air.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Stand-up
Nikki Glaser • Le Trianon (18th arr) • Mon @ 20h • carre or, 49 € per
John Vincent III • La Maroquinerie (20th arr) • Sat @ 20h • GA, 24 € per
Gryffin • Elysee Montmartre (Montmartre) • Sat @ 20h • GA, 31 € per
GETAWAYS • Alsace
Tea time
In the picturesque village of Kaysersberg, among colorful half-timbered houses, the building housing Le Chambard is a velvety red anchor. Inside, in a subdued, intimate atmosphere, a handful of tables are set for afternoon tea. Beige carpet, marble, raw wood. The staff, dressed in pale blue uniforms, bring a subtle Wes Anderson-esque touch to the scene.
Le Chambard is, of course, first known for its gastronomic restaurant, La Table d’Olivier Nasti, its winstub, hotel, and spa. Le Salon, the tea room, is a more recent addition, but it fits seamlessly into the wider experience. Here, choose between a six- or nine-step marche gourmande, a breakfast offering, a savory menu, as well as pastries and viennoiseries displayed at the counter. The pastry selection evolves with the seasons and the foraging of pastry chef Jordan Gasco.
On this visit, we opted for the six-step marche gourmande. It begins with drinks selected by head sommelier Jean-Baptiste Klein, who sources rare, precious teas from around the world: today, a comforting roasted hojicha alongside a rhubarb and fig leaf infusion, bright and slightly vegetal. Then, a pastry chef arrives carrying an immense deer antler, from which small wooden platforms emerge like oyster mushrooms, each holding a different creation:
Savoury fleischnacka, a traditional Alsatian dish of meat rolled into a noodle dough, here filled with venison, served with a reduced wild boar jus — gamey, precise, almost forest-like. All of the game meat is hunted by chef Nasti and his friends.
A confited butternut squash tartlet, lifted by kalamansi and a raw cream infused with lemon balm.
A delicate chestnut torch, paired with foraged rosehip.
A tartelette built around Buddha’s hand, blood orange, kalamansi, Swiss meringue with yuzu and finger lime, finished with a touch of gold leaf — bright, sharp, almost electric.
Swiss-style cake with Piedmont hazelnuts, caramel, and chocolate follows — round, comforting, grounding the sequence.
Everything is executed with remarkable precision, both in presentation and in flavor. The progression, from savory to sweet, unfolds like a gentle walk through the forest. Even the tableware plays its part: delicate Kinto glass cups, thin and almost weightless against the lips.
For the final step, a pastry chef returns to present the last dessert of the journey: coffee baba, with coffee cream, mascarpone ice cream, hazelnut praline, and freshly grated hazelnuts.
The service is quietly flawless. One guest mentions she doesn’t like coffee and her dessert is instantly replaced with a beautiful vanilla entremets, without hesitation or disruption. Like everything that preceded it, it’s a testament to Le Salon’s pursuit of precision and quiet excellence. –Candice Chemel
→ Le Chambard (Kaysersberg, France) • 9-13 rue du Général de Gaulle • Book.
GETAWAYS LINKS: The return of France’s train of marvels, from the Côte d’Azur to Southern French Alps • An ivy-coated water mill hits the market in Vexin, about an hour from Paris • First look at remade St Clement, London’s zestiest new hotel, soft-opening next month • New off-grid stay in Scotland, at a farm where kids can run wild.
ASK FOUND
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GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
Ice cream, new wave
The Nines are FOUND’s distilled lists of the best in Paris and surrounds. Paid subscribers can access the complete Nines archive.
JJ Hings (10th arr, above), canal-side ice cream made w/ seasonal fruit and daily fresh cones, owner Julia trained as a pastry chef at Ten Belles