Le Bar Dix, Saint-Germain.

The Saint-Germain wine cave that froze in 1955.

Le Bar Dix sits at 10 Rue de l'Odeon in the 6th arrondissement, two blocks from the Sorbonne. The bar opened in 1955 in a 17th century stone building with a vaulted cellar that was originally a wine merchant's storage cave. The founder, Charles Henri Lemaire, decided to keep the upstairs as a small wine bar and convert the cellar vault into a separate jukebox cave. The configuration has not changed in seventy years.

The room is two distinct parts: a small ground floor wine bar with eight stools and four small tables, and a stone-vaulted cellar accessed by a narrow stone staircase. The cellar holds the original 1955 jukebox, loaded continuously since opening with the same approximately 200 records. The records are 7-inch French chanson and Yé-yé classics. The jukebox is the bar's defining feature.

Why this matters. Le Bar Dix is the rare central Paris bar that has held its 1955 wine cave identity through every wave of Saint-Germain's tourism. The jukebox is operational. The records have not been changed.

The 1955 jukebox in the cellar vault.

The 1955 jukebox is a Wurlitzer Model 1900 with original 7-inch records loaded by Charles Henri Lemaire across the bar's first decade. The selection includes Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Léo Ferré, Juliette Gréco, and the rest of the post-war French chanson canon. The jukebox costs one euro per play. Three songs for two euros.

The cellar vault is small, with stone walls, a low arched ceiling, and four small wooden tables where regulars drink carafes of red wine while listening to the jukebox. The acoustics are unique: the stone vault produces a warm reverb that suits the post-war French recording technique. The Brel recordings sound the way they did in 1962, in a way they cannot in any other bar.

Carafe of house red, sangria pitcher, fondue upstairs.

• Carafe of house red: seven euros for 50cl. The Saint-Germain dive standard. The bar's wine has been sourced from a small Languedoc producer since 1962.
• Sangria pitcher: twelve euros for one litre. The bar's house sangria, served in a glass pitcher with a wooden spoon.
• Pastis: four euros. Served with a small jug of water.
• Fondue Savoyarde: eighteen euros per person, served upstairs in winter only (October through March).
• The thing nobody knows: the bar serves complimentary saucisson slices on a small plate when you order a second carafe. The plate appears without prompting.

Tuesday at 9pm. The Sorbonne hour.

Le Bar Dix opens at 6pm and closes at 2am. Tuesday at 9pm is the Sorbonne hour: the bar fills with literature graduate students, the upstairs is at 70% capacity, the cellar jukebox is running Aznavour, and the regulars are sharing a carafe of red.

The peak hour is Friday and Saturday between 10pm and 1am. The Sunday at 7pm hour is the local hour: the bar is half empty, the cellar is open with a small jukebox queue, and the bartender pours pastis slowly to the older regulars.

The fondue is winter only. October through March, the upstairs serves a fondue that requires reservation by phone two days in advance. The fondue is the Sunday and Monday tradition.

Why the records have not been changed.

Charles Henri Lemaire loaded the jukebox personally in 1955 with what he considered the most important French chanson records. He continued to add records through 1965, after which he stopped. The 1955-1965 collection has remained the jukebox's repertoire for sixty years. The current owner has refused to add new records since taking over in 2008. The reason given: the jukebox is the jukebox.

The records are original pressings, played hundreds of thousands of times, with the audio quality you would expect from sixty-year-old vinyl. The wear is part of the experience. Aznavour's "La Bohème" sounds different at Le Bar Dix than on any digital recording you will hear in your life.

For two, thirty-five euros across an evening.

Plan for thirty to forty-five euros per pair for a three-hour visit. Two carafes of house red at seven, two pastis at four, two euros in jukebox plays, plus a small tip. Add forty euros if you order the fondue.

Cards are accepted. Cash is preferred for the jukebox. Two euros per drink in cash on the bar is the local norm.

Saint-Germain regulars, Sorbonne students, the chanson pilgrims.

Le Bar Dix draws three populations. The first: long-tenure Saint-Germain residents in their sixties and seventies, including a contingent of retired Latin Quarter booksellers. The second: Sorbonne literature and music students, who treat the cellar as their café. The third: French chanson pilgrims, often visiting French expatriates who want to hear Brel on original vinyl.

You will find some Paris tech crowd, but rarely. The bar's location and the jukebox filter for a music-and-conversation-first audience.

How not to be the worst person at Le Bar Dix.

• Do not request modern songs in the jukebox. The 1955-1965 collection is closed.
• Do not play "La Bohème" three times in a row. One play per song per visit.
• Do not photograph the jukebox with flash. The original 1955 mechanism is sensitive.
• Do not order food beyond the fondue (winter only) and saucisson. The kitchen is small.
• Do not bring a stag party. The cellar holds 16 people maximum.
• Do not request a craft cocktail. The bar pours wine, pastis, and beer.
• Do not, ever, ask if Aznavour drank here. The bar's relationship with the chansonniers is private.

Le Procope, Le Bar Dix, La Palette.

The classic Saint-Germain literary evening: dinner at Le Procope on Rue de l'Ancienne Comédie at 7pm, the 1686 cafe that hosted Voltaire and Diderot. Walk three blocks east to Le Bar Dix at 9pm for two carafes of house red and a cellar jukebox session. End at La Palette on Rue de Seine at midnight for one final pastis at the artists' bar.

For more bars in the area, see our Paris city guide, the Paris wine bars guide, and the Saint-Germain hidden gems.

Yes. Paris's most preserved 1955 wine cave.