Cheap Wine on the Seine

The best tables in Paris these daysParis in July (not a weekend but a thursday !)
This is the high season again for picnics along the Seine in Paris. Temperatures have been in the low 30s' (°C) since the end of june (it's been cooling a bit recently though) and this brought even more people on the river banks for what has become a typical summer outing in Paris.
After a hot day at work (air conditionning is still rare here) and commutes in the moist and somehow stinky Paris Metro, the evening brings a welcome respite, especially near the water. Parks are fine, but the Seine is even better. With the long days and clear skies, who needs to be indoors anyway ? If going out to the restaurants is an option, the prospect of sitting and waiting orders in a poorly ventilated dining room puts off many. The terraces are already better but even there it's hot late as the pavement and buildings stored the heat of the sun and give it back long after the sun has lowered on the horizon.
And frankly, once you have experienced a picnic along the Seine with your dear one or with friends, there's hardly a terrace (even a prestigious one) to beat it. Along the Seine and its banks, the cobblestones and cement also reverberate the heat of the sun, but there's a gentle breeze that makes a difference, the water acting as a natural cooler.

The north end of Ile Saint Louis (Ile de la Cité in the far)It seems that over the years, picnicking along the Seine has turned from the usual couple thing to whole parties involving a dozen or more, friends or often co-workers. Some even bring a barbecue (see the smoke on the left?), it's like if the spirit of the guinguettes came back to Paris. The guinguettes were these outdoor cafés along the Marne river near Paris where 18th-century parisians went to let their steam off, drinking more than usual and dancing. Here only the dancing floor is missing, and, well, yes, the parisians became way too reasonnable since and drink much less. One of the very reason that made the success of the guinguettes may explain the popularity of the Seine picnics : prices. The guinguettes offered much cheaper wine because the taxes were levied only at the door of Paris and the suburbian guinguettes were thus exempt. Here, there's also a price factor, many of these diners being students, young office employees and interns for whom this dinner option is more affordable than a restaurant. Going out must be particularly difficult for interns, on whom the French companies rely more and more in the place of regular employees. These young adults fresh from the university earn routinely 300 Euro per month (they'd be happy with Wal Mart wages -;) which makes an evening in a restaurant quite a luxury. Many interns get stuck in internship positions for years and survive only because their parents take care of them. Note : the minimum wage in France is not 1280 Euro as stated in the linked forum but about 1050 Euro (that's the amount of the check).
But interns and other mininmum-wage employees are not the only ones to be careful when they go out. Speaking of dining in town, you know that restaurant bills maybe high in Paris, especially if you let yourself order a bottle of wine, and another one when you feel well. What looks like a cool neighborhood restaurant often ends costing you much more than envisionned. Here, no more worry, no self-limiting discipline, no cork fee and no bad surprise at the end of the dinner...Near the northern tip of Ile Saint LouisWe ended up sitting at the right of the guy in blue (center), I took this pic several minutes before going down on the embankment, and the 3 persons on the right were just leaving when we passed by on the lower level. Spots along the river are scarce at times and you end up waiting like in restaurants...
With Paris sights as you know it, there's a wide choice of nice spots to set up the picnic sheet and lay down with your bottle of wine and saucisson, but you must dismiss the freeway stretches that spoil the quietness here and there along the river. that still lets many top locations to enjoy your unique improvised table with view on Paris.
The most sought-after sites are maybe along the banks of the Ile de la Cité and Ile Saint Louis, the two islands on the Seine near the Latin Quarter. People step down from the Metro or the RER at Chatelet or Saint Michel, or they just walk down from the nearby Sorbonne and other universities after a stop at a grocery store. You get to make a few preparations to succeed your Seine picnic, like buying the needed food and drinks and ideally preparing a big refreshing salad with everything in it. The important thing here is to have enough liquids and solids, there's nothing worse than a party without fuel. The food and the wine aren't usually chosen too meticulously, you're here primarily to be together, enjoy the cool air and have fun. The food store chain where you bought your stuff is not a gourmet store, but, well, you still spot all sort of wines on the picnic sheets, rosés of course, sparklings like Crémants or Méthodes Traditionelles and many regions for the reds. I didn't pay attention this time but remember spotting a Chinon and a Corbières.Our table with viewOur picnic was improvised , we had both gotten back home first at about 8pm, B. prepared some taboulé and I had bought on the way home a saucisson, sliced bread, avocados and tomatoes, and I also brought a big fresh goat-cheese from the old woman in the Loire (the wrapped thing near B.'s feet). For the wine, I grabbed one of the bottles that I bought at Globus, the shop selling wines and foods from Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. The wine was a white from Serbia that I didn't expect to be very good (I paid 3 Euro for it), but I just asked it to be cold and a bit refreshing. Oh, and we thought it was important to bring real glasses, so we brought along some that we got at tasting events. To be sure that the wine would stay cold at least a couple of hours, I put the bottle into one of these special bottle sleeves that I keep in the freezer. These bottle coolers aren't very efficient, so I had the whole thing wrapped with a newspaper, it usually keeps the wine cold longer, especially on a hot evening like that. The good side of this Banatski Rizling 2006 (Vrasacki Vinigradi A.D. - Republika Srbija) was that it was only 11,3° in alcohol and still cold. The wine comes from the region of Vrsac in Serbia, near the Romanian border and Transylvania. The region seems to be well-known for its wine and there is a Vrsac wine route.
I had parked the motorcycle on the Ile Saint Louis near the Pont Saint Louis, a pedestrian bridge which connects to Notre Dame on the Ile de la Cité and where musicians or street artists often entertain strollers. There's also the Berthillon terrace selling icecreams and sorbets near this bridge with the usual long queue of amateurs (the plan on the website shows the mai shop in the middle of Ile Saint Louis but the surroundings are nicer at their other shop near the bridge). I'm not personally too much into icecreams or sorbets but we followed this tradition after our dinner as the night had come and waited in line for a cornet.
We walked around near the river, first on the high-perched street overlooking the Seine and what amounted to a crowd of picnickers. People are sitting and laying on the most relaxed way with sometimes a large cloth as table sheet and a semi-improvised menu with quite a diverse and generous wine list, each in the group having sometimes brought his/her bottle. OK, most of the time they're not the wines we dream of, but hey, remember these journalists and experts who said the young French didn't drink wine ? Most people here were in their twenties or early thirties and it seemed to me that no wine type was forgotten, from the light Muscadets to the powerful Rhônes...the best rosé that dayThis picture sums up what these picnics are about : a guy next to us had left his glass for a second near the edge of the bank, long enough for a picture. At first glance, an unidentified rosé in a plastic glass, but the company and the background with the fading light and passing cruise boats made it much better than it probably was, just like in the guinguettes of the past along the Marne.

Comments

[brooklynguy]

I want in. what a lovely way to spend a summer evening. Here in new york it is illegal to drink wine in public parks.

[Bertrand]

Hi Neil,
You mean even wrapped in one of these brown paper bags ?

[gottfried]

hello
very interesting article. in vienna along the river danube it is nearly the same
but the government stopped several crowded river picknick places. too sad

there is no need of brown paper bags....

[brooklynguy]

wrapped or unwrapped, it is illegal to drink alcoholic beverages in city parks. very puritanical.

[Mart van Weert]

Hi Bertrand,

Nice story.
They do this in Amsterdam as well. I leave you guessing about the quality of the wine ;-)
It surprises me that you say the bottle coolers aren't very efficient. Mine work great but mind you. There are two types. One to cool it down. And the other ones wich will keep the wine cool. Btw. Bought the FT for Lady RObinson ;-??