Parisians take ‘time-outs’ seriously and often. Everyone in France gets the unwritten right to leisure time in a café. They are natural speed-bumps in the city’s daily rhythm. The rest of us join the locals when our feet hurt from walking. It slowly dawns on us that the American coffee break is a hallowed institution here. It’s called a pause-café.
With the arrival of warm weather, outdoor cafes in Paris are blossoming with pauseurs. In addition to refreshments, a café, like an oasis in the desert, is a place to rest. Even when packed at lunchtime, the crowd at Café de la Madeleine, was surprisingly quiet as traffic from rue Tronchet streamed past on a recent sunny day. They were enjoying the equally popular pause-déjeuner. (Look in Petit Robert if you don’t believe me.)
‘Call Me Bubbles’’ is, not surprisingly, a champagne bar. Its storefront space on rue Custine is narrower than the average American single car garage and looks even smaller because the interior is painted black throughout. A sleek bar with seating lines one wall. The opposite wall is decorated with prestige champagne bottles set in their own niche, lit up like the windows at Tiffany’s. There’s just enough space for the owner to slip behind a customer sitting at the bar and grab a bottle from the cooler.
It’s a warm spring evening, and all the action at CMB (pardon the shortcuts) at tables set up outside in front. The conversation level steadily rises to rival that of the evening street traffic. All of us are sipping a glass of extra-brut, brut or rosé from tonight’s featured champagne house. A plate of strawberries, mango pieces and sliced chorizo arrives with the wine. (You can help yourself to more from bowls inside the door.)
Then there’s ‘La Cave Lamarck’ two blocks north on the corner of rue du Mont Cenis, looking more like a wine shop than a bar. Plastic wrapped cases of wine sit on pallets in a room that has no ‘bar’ per se. Wine prices by the glass are written on a chalkboard; the current selection is not but, the staff is willing to let you choose from among the bottles lining the walls. Indoor seating consists of two simple trestle tables and chairs.
One warm spring evening we chose to sit out in front at a noticeably inclined table, typical of seating on the butte Montmartre. We sipped a Corbière and shared a small plate of excellent cheeses and charcuterie with bread as we watched the suns glow dim slowly behind century-old buildings on rue Caulincourt. Vive La Pause Parisienne!
