Chez Prune

Chez Prune sits on the corner of rue Beaurepaire in the 10th, directly across from Canal Saint-Martin, and it has been the unofficial headquarters of the canal apero for years. It opens early as a café and runs late as a bar, Monday to Saturday from 8am and Sundays from 10am, both to 2am. The draw is not a cocktail list. It is a table on the terrace, a glass of wine, and the slow drift of the canal in front of you.

This is a place for an unhurried evening drink rather than a destination cocktail. Anyone after serious mixing should book one of Paris's cocktail rooms instead. Anyone who reads "wine on a pavement terrace by the water until late" and starts looking for their keys already knows this is their corner.

The interior is a classic Paris café, worn wood, mirrors, and a zinc-feel bar, but the real room is the pavement. On warm evenings the terrace and the canal bank in front of it fill with drinkers, and the line between Chez Prune's tables and the public quai blurs entirely. The corner position on rue Beaurepaire gives it sightlines straight down the water.

It has become enough of a Canal Saint-Martin landmark that it turned up as a Paris filming location, including a scene in Emily in Paris, per location guides like DateParis. Reviewers on Yelp and Tripadvisor return to the same shorthand: great spot, great terrace, classic neighbourhood café energy, expect a crowd once the sun is out.

The crowd skews young and local, the Canal Saint-Martin set who treat the quai as an outdoor living room. Mornings are calm and café-paced. From early evening the terrace fills, and on warm nights the scene spills onto the canal bank and stays busy until late. Reviewers note that service can stretch when the terrace is slammed, which is the trade-off for the best people-watching corner on the canal.

Stay in the canal mood with a natural-wine and seafood stop at Clamato in Paris, settle into the global-bazaar courtyard of Le Comptoir Général in Paris, or move to the natural-wine bar Le Mary Celeste in Paris. The full picture is in our guide to Paris wine bars and the wider Paris bar guide.