Unfurling outdoors
Best terraces for outdoor drinking, GIFTSHOP, Piccolo, Lao Siam, Jardin du Luxembourg apartments, Café Brochier, MORE
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop
Shop local
Tucked just off the Palais-Royal across from France’s Ministry of Culture, the new boutique GIFTSHOP is easy to miss. There’s no flashy storefront, just a discreet door marked with the name. Ring the doorbell and climb the beautiful old staircase to the second floor, where the boutique subtly reveals itself.
A highly curated, design-led souvenir concept that’s part boutique, part creative studio, GIFTSHOP produces objects tied to the city’s best addresses, old and new. Inside the apartment-like space, a bistro table is set with linens from La Fontaine de Mars, Café des Ministres wine glasses, and an ashtray from La Closerie des Lilas, objects that carry the memory of crowded tables and slow, sunlit afternoons. In the next room, a wooden cabinet holds bistro plates from Brasserie Lipp, Le Paul Bert, and Au Pied de Cochon, their typography instantly recognizable to anyone who has lingered late into the evening at these iconic Parisian establishments.
A polished brass luggage cart, more hôtel particulier than retail fixture, holds a varsity jacket, scarves, and colorful hats from Folderol. And the pièce de résistance, an orange bike from À la Mère de la Famille (whose craques might be among the most addictive chocolates in Paris), leans against the wall. Each item is part of the setting, yet everything is for sale.
Conceived by Mathieu Lebreton and Julien Pham, GIFTSHOP is both a shop and an editorial project, creating collectibles rooted in craft and storytelling rather than mass production. There are no miniature Eiffel Towers, no clichés here, rather a more meaningful reflection of the Paris that still exists. Many of the locales they collaborate with remain family-run, passed down through generations, and the shop is a quiet reminder that the soul of the city lives in these places, and in the people committed to keeping them alive.
There’s something about the address, too. This very spot once housed Le Boeuf à la Mode, founded in 1792 and considered one of the first restaurants in Paris, a little piece of history that echoes what GIFTSHOP is doing more than two centuries later. –Sam Brenzel
→ GIFTSHOP (1st arr) • 8 rue de Valois • Mon-Sat 11h-19h.
WORK • Friday Routine
Unboxing
ZAC GANNAT • chef & karaoke singer • Déviant
Neighborhood you live in: 18th arr
It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Thursday is one of the busiest days of the week for us, as we need to get everything organized and ready for the weekend. The first thing I see at Déviant is the mountain of fish, vegetables, meat… all our deliveries. It’s like a little ritual for me: taking the time to open all the boxes, see what the fisherman sent us, check the quality of the vegetables, and so on.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Busy day…
9h00: We’re at Déviant, and the day begins!
9h45: I head to Shin Café, a super chill spot just 10 meters from my workplace, for a coffee and to write out the prep for the day’s menu.
10h00-13h00: Cooking and prepping the food. Once a week, I like to have lunch outside. I’ll take a one-hour break to go to Bao on Rue Saint Denis and enjoy their wonton noodle soup! Then, it’s back to Déviant to finish the prep.
16h00: I visit the barber for a quick skincare treatment.
17h00: Team meal. The whole Déviant crew takes a break to eat and share a moment together.
17h30-18h30: Crunch time. Everyone’s running around getting the restaurant ready for service.
18h30: Showtime, baby!
23h00: Done.
Midnight: A quick drink with friends at my new favorite spot, Piccolo.
02h00: Hopefully asleep… but who knows what life has in store?
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
On Sunday, I’ll head to Buttes Snack Bar. There’s a cool event happening with the guy from Donna Paris that I’m sure will be fun and exciting. Monday night is also a ritual for me: I’ll go to Lao Siam in Belleville. I even enjoy going there alone.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I recently visited the first-ever “beer spa.” It’s literally a spa where you have a jacuzzi or a steam room and a prestigious selection of beers. I mean, it’s not something I’d do every month, but it was one of my most enjoyable recent experiences.
Any weekend getaways?
Yes! I love escaping Paris to visit Marseille. I have lots of friends there, and the food scene is amazing. I adore going to Ippon or Figure. If you’re lucky with the weather, you might even get to enjoy a swim.
What was your last great vacation?
Last summer. I was lucky to be invited to a Cook for Two dinner in Turkey. I had the pleasure of discovering so many places in the region, starting with Istanbul and heading south to Bodrum. The people I met, the food, the vibe: everything was incredible.
PARIS WORK & PLAY LINKS: Meet the art schools designing Champions League posters for Paris Saint-Germain • Paris gets taste of Nigeria’s film industry with NollywoodWeek festival • New Musée d’Orsay gallery reckons with French role in Nazi-looted art • Chatting with Eqbal Hossain, chef at Mumbai Café, new in the 9th • Which sunglasses tribe are you?
REAL ESTATE • On the Market
Three properties for sale near the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th arr:
→ Observatoire/Luxembourg (metro Vavin, above) • 4BR/3BA, 182 m2 apartment • Ask: 3.49M € • contemporary renovation with period charm (parquet flooring, moldings, fireplaces), plus 7th floor service studio w/ Luxembourg views • Annual maintenance/condo fees: 8400 € • Agent: Pascale Almela, Barnes.
→ Luxembourg Gardens (metro Notre-Dame-des-Champs) • 3BR/2BA, 321 m2 apartment • Ask: 4.29M € • 2nd-floor flat in Art Deco-style building, flexible layout, large balcony • Annual maintenance/condo fees: 9600 € • Agent: Stéphanie Broche, Engel & Völkers.
→ Rue d’Assas (metro Notre-Dame-des-Champs) • 4BR/3BA, 184 m2 apartment • Ask: 4.3M € • renovated classic style on fourth floor of 19th-century building • Annual maintenance/condo fees: 6800 € • Agent: Robin Almeida, Daniel Feau.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Jazz Hands
Kiefer Sutherland • The Alhambra (10th arr) • Fri @ 20h • cat or, 91 € per
Foire de Paris • Expo Porte de Versailles (15th arr) • thru May 11 • GA, 14 € per
Joshua Redman Quartet• Grande salle Pierre Boulez – Philharmonie (19th arr) • Sun @ 18h • cat 1, 60 € per
GETAWAYS • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Village center
In the heart of the village of Saint-Julien-en-Vercors, Café Brochier has been the local café and grocery since 1880, when the building was first constructed by Raymond Brochier. Almost 150 years later, and recently under new ownership, it still carries that role. From morning coffee and newspapers in the small bar, to lunch, to aperitivo on the terrace, all the way to dinner and a final nightcap back inside, the place moves gently through the day alongside the village itself.
The house is beautiful in its simplicity, with its pale stone walls, wood moldings, a shaded terrace under a pergola, and a small garden tucked behind, where you can slip off your shoes and have a drink with your feet in the thick grass. Upstairs, three bedrooms offer the possibility to stay a little longer, to wake up to the mountains of the Vercors, to the soft morning light, and to a generous, rural breakfast. The decor is simple, pared back, leaving space for what matters most: the landscape framed by the windows.
The menu is hard to beat: a three-course lunch at €38, or the option to order à la carte. The cooking follows the seasons and daily arrivals. Ingredients are sourced with great care, and the producers are always named, a detail that speaks volumes.
The wine list follows the same philosophy: beautiful bottles at friendly prices. We share a 2022 Morgon from Jean Foillard, one of those wines I always return to, often tied to particular moments, though it’s hard to say whether it’s the wine that makes them special, or the other way around.
Everything is made in-house, from miso to fresh pasta. A small amuse-bouche arrives first: a blini topped with fennel, labneh, and cherries — fresh, slightly tangy, gently opening the appetite. Next, a veal tartare with broad beans, scattered with bright dianthus petals—delicate, almost floral. Then either the “Vertacochon,” pork with crushed potatoes, glazed carrots, and leeks, or an ikejime trout, prepared as much care and clarity as anything on the property. Dessert moves around strawberry and elderflower: light, seasonal, quietly fragrant.
Despite outwardly simplistic appearances, there’s real depth in the cooking, and by any reasonable definition, no shortage of precision (in technique) and clarity (in flavor). Like the rest of Café Brochier, nothing is overstated, and nothing tries too hard, and nothing doesn’t overdeliver. –Candice Chemel
→ Café Brochier (Saint-Julien-en-Vercors) • 4 Place de la Fontaine • Mon 8h-15, Thu 8h-10h & 18h-22h, Fri-Sun 8h-15h & 18h-22h • Book.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Express train between Gare de L’Est and CDG to launch next year • British Airways downgrades status for some elites • Checking into The Monteleone, a new boutique hotel on the border of Tuscany and Umbria.
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RESTAURANTS & BARS • The Nines
Terrasses for outdoor drinking
The Nines are FOUND’s distilled lists of the best in Paris and surrounds. Paid subscribers can access the complete Nines archive.
La Place Verte (11th arr), spacious all-day café on Rue Oberkampf, large shaded terrace, all-around good vibes