La Tire-Bouchon – Jazz & Crepes on the Montmartre (La Tire-Bouchon)

Member Name: vikil

Product:	La Tire-Bouchon
Date:	16/07/00 (229 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Music, Great Atmosphere.

Disadvantages: The owner seems to have some vague ideas about modernising the place, so be quick!

Montmartre by itself doesn’t need a recommendation but a rare, genuinely Parisian spot on it does.

The small area, which is the top of the Montmartre hill and the highest spot in Paris, is always overrun by tourists. Thankfully most of them flock around Place de Tertre there Japanese painters are desperately trying to pass for the late descendants of the Impressionist movement. The small lanes around it, are filled with overpriced restaurants and other tourist traps selling posters and bad paintings.

But… if you are willing to explore the place for a while longer, you just might hear the jazzy piano sounds coming from a small corner bar, with lopsided stairs leading from the street and the owner making fresh crepes in the crooked window. La Tire-Bouchon (ot The Corkscrew) is a little gem fastidiously preserving the kind of atmosphere you would expect to find on the Montmartre from watching all the smoky French movies and Latrec paintings. It’s a tiny, dingy place with low ceilings and heavy beams which are always aimed at your forehead. The walls are covered with posters of plays and movies, some dating back at least a generation (although on my last visit a few layers there unforgivably peeled off) and scratched with inscriptions in dozens of languages from all the past visitors. The place serves good wine, beers and of course the aforementioned crepes, which despite being much more expensive then in an average creperie, are still a much cheaper deal than most of the Parisian restaurants. …And besides you get to listen to some great live music in the same price. The pianist seems to be part of the furniture (he’s there at least since my first visit 14 (!%^&!!) years ago), but he is still great. This is not your hotel lounge jazz but the real thing and it fits perfectly into the atmosphere of the place. Just site back, relax with some nice Grand Mariniere crepe and a glass of wine, and feel like a real Parisian. It&
#8217;s probably as close as you ever get to it on you visit.

And now for a few tips: Unfortunately I don’t know the name of the street the bar is on, because on all my visits there I simply followed the sounds of the jazzy piano. The only tips I can give are a small art gallery across the road and another, bigger jazz bar just next door, which is best to be avoided. The Montmartre area (at least the top of it between all the stairs) is really small, so it shouldn’t take you too long to find the place if you’re persistent. The bar is tiny and gets seriously packed after about 8:30- 9:00, so come early. You might have to endure some Americans painfully recreating their childhood piano lessons for a while, but the rest of the evening will make it worthwhile. Finally, if you are girls on your own try to avoid the Pigalle area on the way down. It can get pretty nasty there late in the evening. But again, it will be worth the trouble.

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