The Dove and the Smoking Dog

Two of my favourite nightspots in Paris, when I was sent there for two years by the RAF, were called La Colombe (The Dove) and Au Chien Qui Fume (At the Smoking Dog). La Colombe was a restaurant in an ancient alley on the Ile de la Cite, near Notre Dame. Le Chien Qui Fume was just across the Seine on the edge of Les Halles, the great Paris central market which in 1971 moved to the suburb of Rungis.  Both of them, after sixty years, still thrive, even if they now lack the special ambience they possessed in the past. For me they were great places to pause in if I missed my last bus from Etoile back to camp at one o’clock in the morning and had to wait for the next bus  at 6.30am. As a senior aircraftsman (the RAF equivalent of a lance-corporal) I could seldom afford a cab.

The attraction  of La Colombe was not so much the food, which was good but on the dear side, as the fact that its bar allowed you to sit down for a drink from midnight onwards. The attraction of the bar was that Guy Beart, in his early days, sang there, with a guitar on his knee. Though he later became internationally famous, with many fine recordings to his name, there was no charge to listen to him at La Colombe  with a cognac in your hand. The restaurant’s bearded proprietor, whose name I forget, also sang. I listened for hours, unaware of how well known Beart was going to become.

Eventually, with cash running low, I would walk over to Chatelet and from there to Les Halles, for onion soup at the Smoking Dog. By then the market was in full swing, and the soup, very cheap, always seemed to summarise the night’s experience. It was, of course, the real thing, full of onions, with a thick slab of toasted baguette, sprinkled with grated emmenthal, on top. This substantial dish lasted me until it was time for the long walk to Etoile and the bus on which I would slumber my way back to base.

Today, La Colombe still stands on the corner of the Rue de la Colombe. You can visit it for yourself, though Guy Beart won’t be there. Dating back to the year 1297, it claims to be one of the oldest restaurants in Paris. As for the Chien qui Fume, it’s still there, too, at 33 Rue du Pont Neuf, though whether it still stays open all night, or whether it still serves onion soup, I cannot say. Since Les Halles has departed, and the restaurant appears to have gone somewhat up in the world, I would think not.  But since there is now more than one restaurant of this name in Paris, make sure you choose the right one.

If Paris is not on your itinerary, make do with a Waitrose carton of onion soup, which you can improve with a baguette and grated cheese, and is a lot better than you might expect. 

15 June 2014