Champagne at the Chope - Gypsy Jazz in Paris at the Puces

Django Rules in Paris! - Our beloved gypsy Chope has reopened to join all the other great jazz clubs in Paris after 4 long months of renovation...yesterday, all the regular faces were there, toasting the spirit of Django with champagne. even the sometimes-taciturn bartender was all smiles, as Ninine Garcia stepped back into his usual corner and served up his trademark manouche guitar.


as for the renovation, well...the tiny tattered bar area is larger, but the shiny new flatscreen televisions, so that everyone can watch the music from every corner of the room, seem like a good idea taken too far. and the walls are now decorated with some beautiful guitars behind kitsch glass vitrines, which takes some getting used to. everything's a bit too new right now...but that'll wear off soon enough, when the crowds hit, this summer. on the upside, the red wine is a thousand times better than it used to be, there's now more space for cutting the rug, and the toilets, ah, they really did need some renovating.

any weekend, head up to the Puces de St-Ouen, and have a drink at the Chope des Puces,122 rue des Rosiers, music every Sat & Sun, 2pm - 7pm (free--contribute to the hat)