Le Baron Rouge wine bar is a jumping part of the Marché d’Aligre scene, especially on weekends when it’s wall-to-wall people inside with lines and crowds outside. Sunday you can barely squeeze through the mass of people to reach the zinc bar and order a glass of wine. The Baron Rouge ‘drill’ involves having one member of your party fight their way to the bar for wine, while another person stands in line outside for plates of raw oysters and French bread and another tries to grab a surface to use as a table for the wine glass and plate. Outside the bar, a man shucks oysters faster than you think possible. Watching him you worry about his poor digits getting sliced.
If you come back with empty bottles you’re able to fill them from their wooden barrels and casks of fine wine. It’s a treat to experience the full Baron Rouge experience. The crowds are affable and people chat amiably with strangers sharing their garbage can table tops while an accordionist plays and mingles amidst happy customers.
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Cynthia Tuttelman (aka "Tut") is a writer, family doctor and quilter who lives in Northern California and part-time each year in Paris, France. Follow along and explore the wonders of Paris.