The Gentleman’s Guide to Drinking in Paris
In Paris, a late afternoon coffee flows seamlessly into a glass of wine, or two—and maybe a cocktail, or two. This is the spontaneity of l’heure de l’apéro, the aperitif ritual often referred to as “French happy hour,” though it adopts a more easygoing nature than its stress-driven, get-drunk American counterpart. On a recent trip to the City of Light, I found myself at more than one such casual affair, the most memorable of which was spent soaking in the sunset with Champagne and small bites of terrine-smeared baguette on a friend’s terrace overlooking the Louvre.
“We can have our aperitifs anywhere—at home or in cafes,” says our host, Marianne Fabre-Lanvin, a communications executive specializing in French wine and tourism. “L’aperitif is about socializing as much as drinking. It’s a time to talk about law, about philosophy.”