I'm Not Bobby

The best bar in France

It’s a long story. My first trip overseas was when i was 25. I’d come into a little bit of money and decided on thrusday to leave for Amsterdam on Sunday and return form Paris three weeks later. The last town I stayed in before I got to Paris was this town on the coast in Northern Brittany near Normandy. It had city walls and battlements in the water and had streets renamed after JFK and it was kind of kitchy and touristy but also historic and kind of wonderful in its own right. So after about a two and half weeks of speaking to almost no one and having a million adventures, I found myself at this bar on some side street I’d wandered down. It was called L’Alchimiste, and it had walls of books and it was dark and red and woody and smoky and just perfect. I sat at the bar reading and drinking and smoking and at around 11 a whole group of kids from Cambridge came in and started drinking and I finally had people to talk to and tell all the stories I’d built up in my head over the past few weeks. It was basically one of the best feelings I’ve ever had.

I never had any photos of the place but came across this 360deg. panorama thing today that shows the whole bar. It takes a while to load but it’s pretty neat.

I’m going to start posting photos from that trip (partially inspired by One Mint Julep’s photos) because it was such a specific place and time.