denisea

Hi all, we will be meeting a friend of ours in Paris next Friday afternoon. He is staying near the Bastille stop in the 4th. I don't know that area well at all. Any recommendations for a rendezvous location in that area? I want to avoid the, "Oh, I don't know, where do you want to meet?" conversation.

He has a meeting and will just call us when he is done, so it should be close to lunch time when we meet up with him.

logandog

Bofingers. Have a glass of champagne at the zinc bar.

Michel_Paris

Cafe des Shares?

Ackislander

Bofinger was my first thought, too.

Christina

Bofinger is a brasserie with good dinners, I like it a lot, but I've never used it as a cafe. I recommend Cafe des Phares which I think may be what Michel_Paris means. It's a wellknown cafe on the west side of the "place." It would be better for the traditional cafe experience, Bofingers if you really want a regular meal.

Leely2

How about Café de l'Industrie? I've not been there in a few years but it's close to Bastille and relaxed/easy/kinda cool.

I don't think they have a website, but here's a blurb from Frommer's:

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/paris/N34247.html

Michel_Paris

Phares..with a P

A reco also in this older article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/200...es-bars-france

I checked a food blog, they liked:

Les Grands Marches 6, Place de la Bastille resto with patio

kerouac

The busiest café at Place de la Bastille is Le Bastille (sic) owned by the Costes people. It's hard to ever find a table there. Across from there, the very nice Café Français (corner of rue Saint Antoine) always has lots of space, so that is generally where I end up.

denisea

Thanks everyone....Phares not Shares, this explains why I couldn't find it anywhere. Thanks Christina and Michel.

Kerouac, maybe I will see you there! We leave tomorrow.

Christina

I like Cafe Francis, also. It is always quite empty compared to Phares, for some reason, even though the facilities are nicer, I think. Phares is one of the original cafes philos, not sure if they still do that and sometimes they have live music there, that's one reason I like it. I guess they have to still do the philosophique thing as they have it in their name/website, sundays at 10. But as far as the tables and food, it's nothing special, just popular.

avalon

We stay near Bastille frequently in fact just gor home on Tuesday. Our go to cafe is Le Bouquet St Paul on the corner of rue St Paul and rue st. Antoine. It is very friendly and has great food and resonable prices. In fact on this last trip we ate ther 3 night when I was too tired to go anywhere else.