Read an Excerpt
A Space for Living
While the sound of scooters buzzing through Paris traffic echoes along narrow rue Saint-Maur, a small neon sign glows in a window lined with wine bottles. Inside, people pull up mismatched chairs around a few small tables while Camille Fourmont stands behind the bar, opening wine, slicing bread, and finishing plates of giant beans with olive oil and citrus zest. Some people stop by for a bottle to take home, some step in for a quick apéro before dinner, and others settle in for the night, drinking Camille’s favorite cuvées and eating small bites of food until the shop closes.
This is La Buvette, Camille’s cave à manger, a wine shop in which customers can stay and drink as long as they order something to eat. Most of the time, it’s just Camille behind the counter, so she acts as a host, cook, bartender, confidant, dishwasher, and any other position that needs to be covered. Before opening, she walks around the corner to buy flowers or hops on her Vespa to pick up rice vinegar from Belleville. Once back, she ties back her long wavy hair and prepares the mise en place: pulling out cheeses from the refrigerator to bring to room temperature, placing a cutting board next to a stack of fresh bread, and lining up the ingredients for her simple menu. A wine delivery arrives, so she unloads boxes and restocks the walls with the kind of bottles you’d feel lucky to drink every day.
La Buvette is a shop built around wine, but it is also a space for Parisian living. People come to celebrate birthdays, or to get over a long day of work, or just because they need to take a moment for themselves. In this way, it’s a public place that acts like an intimate one. Usually, the night starts out quietly, with a few couples sitting with glasses of something easy to drink before they leave for dinner, but it often becomes much more animated as the evening progresses. A group of Parisian friends has come into the shop for so many Wednesdays in a row that they earned a nickname the Wednesday Club. Nearly without fail, members of this unofficial club can get Camille laughing to the point of tears at their crazy adventures.
In Paris, as in all big cities, time is precious, but getting together for a glass of wine or a meal in an unpretentious style can happen without much planning. Serving food and wine thoughtfully and with care doesn’t require a big kitchen (no one in Paris has one), or an impressive cellar, or even the most perfect-looking plates and glasses. Just be charming and gracious, Camille says, and the rest follows. In this book, she shares this casual Parisian style of eating and drinking with friends. Whether at La Buvette or cooking at home, she starts by looking for ingredients everywhere from the Chinese grocery stores of Belleville to the wholesale market of Rungis outside of town. Over the years, she has made friends with artisans and chefs who supply her with charcuterie, cheeses, and olive oil. Everything is presented in a relaxed style on plates and silverware found in flea markets around Paris and its suburbs.
In the traditional sense of the word, a buvette is not much more than a refreshment stand, a place to drink something to quench the thirst. Still, the idea behind a cave à manger, a wine shop for eating, isn’t so different. A simple idea can go far in helping us come together and connect in a meaningful way. In sharing Camille’s stories in this book of how she cooks, eats, drinks, and lives in Paris, we hope that it may inspire you to create memorable moments no matter where you live or how big or small the occasion.
—KATE LEAHY
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