Noticing this picture was one of two wonderfully disturbing moments of a recent lunch at 11ème bistro institution Bistrot Paul Bert. The other was when my friend / coworker D casually announced that his plans that Friday evening were to stay up all night staking out a purportedly violent ghost in a stranger's apartment near Metro Sentier.
Please pass the mustard.
It was a longer story than is worth going into on a wine blog. But I can theorize, perhaps more relevantly, that one of the reasons Bistrot Paul Bert remains so universally appealing - to everyone from locals to tourists to politicians to restaurateurs to wine geeks like myself - is its discreet capacity to surprise, even while remaining one of the most effortlessly classic establishments in the city.
