CANAL SAINT-MARTIN, Paris

Two years had gone by since my last visit to Early June, a friendly buvette, or little restaurant, a few steps away from the Canal Saint-Martin, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.

I had legged it across town, driven by the fear that Early June’s no-booking policy would mean there’d be no room at the buvette. I walked through the door, a bit out of breath. The small, paired-down space was heaving ro the sounds of upbeat music, chatter and good vibes.

“You’re back!” exclaimed Camille Machet, hostesse par excellence, once of Chanel and more recently co-founder of Early June, together with her partner-in-life Victor Vautier.

And I was in luck. There was a free stool at the bar.

For Canal Saint-Martin is more than a stretch of mirky water: it’s a neighbourhood, with a neighbourhood vibe.

Jane Jacobs, activist and author of The Death & Life of Great American Cities (1961), would have called it a ’street’ neighbourhood: one that overlaps and interweaves with adjoining neighbourhoods, and which will save us from the “great blight of dullness”.

Saving us from “dullness”

The food at Early June is about small plates to share (or not, in my case), prepared by an ever-changing carousel of chefs from around the world. The wine is natural – or, in other words, minimum intervention.

On my first visit, in 2021, the pop-up chef had been Angelo Koyfalas of Brosetti Trattoria in Bergamo, in the Italian region of Lombardy.

This time round, in November 2023, Adam Purcell, an Irish chef with a Mexican influence, was the man in front of the stove.

His menu did not disappoint. As recommended (personally) by the chef – the advantage of a bar seat, and of being Irish myself – I chose:

Baked St Jacques in their shells & yuzu butter ‘maître d’hotel’
Banka (from the Basque country) trout tartare, kaffir lime & pickled blue meat radish
Irish ‘boxty’ pancake, wild mushrooms & melted mimolette (a red cheese from the northern Lille region of France)

The local ‘street’ neighbourhood

The Canal Saint-Martin was built by Napoleon I (as depicted in the 2023 Ridley Scott film) and opened in 1822. It connects the Canal de l’Ourcq with the river Seine. Much of the canal is underground, but in the 10th and 11th arrondissement it opens to the Parisian sky.

For me, the neighbourhood of Canal Sant-Martin stretches east from the Place de la République, the meeting point for Parisian demonstrators, up the left bank of the canal to the Villemin–Mahsa Jina Amini Garden. Then, crossing the canal, down and along the right bank, and east to reach half way up the hill to the neighbourhood of Belleville.

Early June is only open in the evenings, but there are plenty of other places to eat, drink, and other things to do during the day. Not least to let yourself be free, and to climb up the steps of one of the arched iron bridges that cross the canal, and pause at the top to look out across the water.

Here are some of my other favourite places, and my experiences in the neighbourhood of Canal Saint-Martin. For travel is about taking the ups with the downs, the moments of awe with the moments of ‘we need to do a check in as to what we don’t like here’:

For pastries & coffee

Du Pain et Des Idées in the rue Yves Toudic makes the best croissant and pastries in the world. Their bread is also excellent. The secret, says founder Christophe Vasseur, is a two-day fermentation (to reduce sugar levels), a dark crust and a dense consistency (less yeast).

For coffee, I go a few doors down the rue Yves Toudic to Bonjour Jacob. Here the vibe is chilled, with people hanging out, chatting or on their laptops. It’s a concept store, with coffee, books, magazines, and vinyls. They’ve also opened in the 6th, but the vibe is always better in the 10th.

An informal Lebanese lunch

Tawlet means ‘table’ in Arabic. Kamal Mouzawak is the person behind Souk el-Tayeb, a social enterprise in Lebanon, of which Tawlet is a part, set up to preserve the food culture of Lebanon and to advocate for a sustainable agricultural system.

For each day of the week, the cuisine comes from a different region in Lebanon. The first time I was there, it was the day of the Bekaa Valley, home to Lebanon’s vineyards, and of fattet batenjan, a traditional aubergine dish accompanied with a salad. The atmosphere was fun, buzzing and colourful.

Returning in March 2024, on a Friday lunchtime, the restaurant was near empty – the buzz had popped, but the food was still good… hence why I would suggest a takeaway, and to then sit by the canal.

TIP: Seek out the versatile Lebanese 7 spice mix in the restaurant store, created by Kamal together with Olivier Roellinger of Epices Roellinger. The seven spices are: Jamaican pepper, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, cardamon, cinnamon & ginger.

Tawlet

Kamal talking at the Monocle Quality of Life Conference in 2022

Lunchtime tasting menu

I splashed out with lunch at Géosmine when I was in Paris in December 2023. I’d been tipped off that the restaurant was heading for a Michelin star, and I wanted to catch it before the crowds arrived and the prices went up.

For the five-course tasting menu, I had:

Pumpkin gnocci with mussels & cedron
Leek & watercress coulis
Coquille Saint-Jacques
Sorrel ice cream & tarragon crumble, topped with grilled oakleaf salad leaves
Pure chocolate fondant delight

The atmosphere was one of hushed reverence, apart from the two tables of Americans talking across the room about their travels. Will I go back? I don’t think so, and not just because of the price. And, yes, it did get a Michelin star one year later.

I was awed, though, by the setting in a converted textile factory and the geosmin theme – the compound in the soil that gives it that earthy smell, especially after it has rained.

Vantre for dinner

In the rue de la Fontaine au Roi, translated as the ‘street of the king’s fountain’ (oh, how I love the street names in Paris, is Vantre, where the atmosphere is détendu and jovial.

The crowd is older crowd than at Early June, and with no music. These kinds of places don’t do music. They believe in creating atmosphere from good food, good wine and, above all, good company.

Canadian-born co-founder Marco Pelletier has a star track record in the French wine industry, having been head sommelier at the 2-Michelin starred Taillevent and at the 3-starred Epicure at the Hotel Bristol, one of the top hotels in Paris.

Taking up my position at the bar, this put me in prime position to have a quick banter with Marco about whether parallels could be drawn between the food cultures of France and of Japan. I said yes. He said no. We disagreed agreeably, and with much laughter.

For my entrée, I went for hand-dived sea urchins from Brittany with a cacao and chestnut mousse, followed by … Wood pigeon & foie gras pie, with chanterelle mushrooms, watercress ‘chlorophyl’, confit wood pigeon thigh, and a salmis sauce … accompanied by a glass of red Saumur by Jonathan Maunoury.

Vantre

Sea urchins with cacao & chestnuts

More addresses near the canal

Boulangerie Utopie for a lunchtime baguette sandwich.
Le Verre Volé – I haven’t been here for years, but this restaurant helped launch the natural wine movement back in the early 2000s.
My neighbours have a flat near the Canal Saint-Martin, and they tell me that AVE Pizza Romana is good, but then I’m not a pizza fan.
Yves Delorme Outlet – for some of the best bedlinen, nightwear and towels in the world at excellent prices. In the same road as Du Pain et Des Idées.

Championing producers

Finally, not too far from the Villemin–Mahsa Jina Amini Garden, on the other side of the Boulevard de Magenta, in the down-at-heel neighbourhood stretching up to the Gare de l’Est, is Les Résistants – La Table, just opposite the Hotel Amour.

This is the tasting-menu restaurant of Les Résistants, where everything is about provenance and a belief in supporting the small French producer.

I went for the Euros49 menu rather than the Euros69 one. I wouldn’t go midweek as that’s the time when you can make the most of special-priced midday menus at top-notch restaurants.

The four-course menu – not counting the bookends of an amuse-bouche and a mignardise – included a beetroot & sardine starter, then red porgy fish (a member of the sea bream family) followed by pork with seasonal mushrooms (from a breed called the Western white pig, native to Brittany and Normandy,) and for dessert a pavlova of Conference and William pear with pepper and verbena ice cream.