La Boulangerie, Paris

This should have a sub-heading - it's not a boulangerie.

The bistrot La Boulangerie is found in a slightly odd part of Paris, Menilmontant, that as far as I can tell has on one side Pere la Chaise cemetery, and on the other the hill that goes up towards Belleville. In between there's the usual hubub of local markets on the main stretch, some ropey looking eateries and a pretty rad cafe / bar I hung out in where the guys were caning the pastis nice and early, lunch-time style.

This place looks the business - intricate mosaic tiling, attention to detail from the quality of the bread to their ace knives. Yeah, the knives. The owner looks like he eats at the restaurant, in a good way, and essentially would fill the role of, say, a Parisian bistrot owner perfectly in a Hollywood film.

Anyway, the lunchtime menu @ 14 euros for two courses, @ 17 euros for three:

Entrees
Rillettes maison de canard des Landes
Carpaccio de maigre*

Plats
Palette de porc 'noir de Bigorre' braisee*
Pave de saumon d'Ecosse a l'estragon

Desserts
Pithiviers
Blanc manger coco

* - what I rolled up for...

I went for the maigre (white fish) which was a really clean, light, yum starter. Then the main course, the sexy palette which is basically like a souped-up pork chop served with dauphinoise and a densely flavourful dark sauce. This was the ultimate winner, and although it was manged fully two weeks ago now, is still very fresh in the memory.

I'm not going to bore you with loads of detail - all I'll say is if you're in Paris, looking for some French food at a reasonable price (lunchtime is best for the menus), you could do a lot worse than to head over here for a great experience.

La Boulangerie
15 rue des Panoyaux 75020 Paris
01 43 58 45 45
Open every day except Saturday lunch and Sunday.

Bonobo Feat. DELS & Andreya Triana 'Eyesdown' (REVOX) by DELS

Plug in to Plug

Photo: Life

The first time I saw Plug was 2 years ago in a basement in Stoke Newington (or maybe it was Dalston, anyway somewhere in Hackney, you get the point) in one of those gigs where you think “wow this is great but I could also die very easily here”. In fact, being 5”1 (like Lady Gaga, thanks Smash Hits Special), I was the only person able to stand in that basement as the ceiling was so low.
I had never heard of Plug and I immediately fell in love with them. Their minimal sound, with repetitive melodies and this sharp voice were absolutely brilliant.
Of course, they signed with Upset The Rhythm, and their first album, despite being the worst artwork of the year, is equally brilliant. If you’re in your January period of “listening to the bands I’ve missed in 2010”, Plug should be your new priority.

Plug - Body Story by be-bop-kids

Rounding that badboy up...

The final instalment of our 2010 top 5s, I'm (Ben) personally going to bore you. ARE YOU READY?

2010 was pretty cool, things I remember off the top of my head are: I got kicked out of my house by my landlord, my girlfriend moved to Berlin, I saw some great gigs and got to know loads of ace new music thanks to work, friends and an appetite for sifting through shit music.

1) Deutschewurstweltmeisterschaft - God knows I must have spelt that wrong, but who cares: you present me with 25 butchers fighting it out in Berlin to become the WORLD SAUSAGE CHAMP + lovely April weather + loads of delicious beer... Need I say more? Well I probably do - my favourite was the Chili Con Carne wurst, I think the Wasabiwurst won...
2) James Nash - illustrator extraodinaire, a bit of a hero.
3) The Wappio - a drink concoted by my flatmate Rob, which has accompanied us to a world of pain on too many an occasion to mention. Let me summarise the ingredients: close your eyes, pick three bottles, pour into a glass. Et voila. Yuuuummmm.
4) Offset Festival, specifically Not Cool, Team Ghost, Kap Bambino and Art Brut, for old times sake.
5) iPhone 4 - I feel like a massive loser for saying that, but hell, what a piece of kit.

Retired to Stud by Not Cool

Come in Cecile - Cecile come in!

Over 4 days we're subjecting you to our top 5's of 2010. Badman. Here's Cecile's entry...

2010 was a pretty sweet year: lots of very good gigs and festivals and nice holidays, which is always a bonus. It was also my "officially becoming an adult year" I think because I spent £500 on a sofa, but that was okay too. Whatever, I still enjoy listening to Nirvana, Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins like the angry teenager that I was. My #1 is going back to New York because I got to see my friends there, go to lovely museums, find records in Soundfix, hang out in Brooklyn but mainly eating LOTS of amazing brunches and go back to Benny's Burritos, which is my favourite restaurant ever.

1/ Going back to NYC on holidays
2/ The opening of Chipotle in London
3/ Seeing Lady Gaga at the O2
4/ My first Glastonbury
5/ Watching the foxes running in the snow in the Victoria Park at night

Territorial Pissings by Nirvana

It's Lucy's turn...

For four days we're going over our top 5s for 2010 - today, number two in the series Lucy takes the helm:

2010 was a pretty awesome 365 days, especially for gigs and festivals. I wasn't into so many albums this year, unlike last year which had some real corkers, but there have been loads of top tracks (I heart Rihanna 'Only Girl') and other non-music excitement to keep me going. Here are my tops:

Glastonbury! A super hot weekend seemed to put everyone in a good mood, the resulting merry atmosphere was the perfect backdrop for some top acts. My fave Pyramid stage performance was Shakira who entertained us with hits such as She Wolf and an unexpected XX cover - awoo! The XX at night was incredibly atmospheric and kept us mesmerised throughout. On Saturday night Sexy Sushi were equally captivating but for totally opposite reasons with their racuous electro performance on the Hub stage in Shangri-la: Rebekka Warrior whipped us up with her playful, provocative performance. Catch them if you can!

Photography exhibition in Arles - Les Rencontres d'Arles. Highlights included Christian Marclay's 'Crossfire', Taryn Simon's 'The Innocents' and 'I am a cliché' - echoes of the punk aesthetic

Visiting New York for the first time - best moment was a Todd P gig featuring The Babies in an abandoned flat in an old Williamsburg warehouse

Reading Roberto Bolano's 'The Savage Detectives'

Live episode of Eastenders

Shakira - Islands by Shakira / The XX

So we're a bit slow...

... but you need a bit of time to reflect on a whole year right? Over the next 4 days, our individual top 5, er, things of 2010 will be put up on the blog. We're enabling the comments so you can totally spam / flame the shit out of us on this.

Here's Dan to kick things off:

Oh god 2010 – that was aaaages ago right? Lets think *strains, tries to get brain in to action and not get instantly distracted by obsessive twitter / facebook / email cycle* Ummmmm, how about....

1) John and Jehn at the Great Escape. The Great Escape was absolutely wickey-wild-west-willsmith-wah-wicked. Having never gone before I loved being in a city as amazing as Brighton surrounded for three days by brilliant live music from the moment you half-drunkenly force yourself out of bed in the morning to really jolly late indeeeeeed. Highlights included Coming Soon, The Cheek, The Bewitched Hands, Team Ghost, Beardyman (I was veryverydrunk) but most best John and Jehn pulling out a super sweaty corker at a bar, upstairs, somewhere in Brighton…

2) Berlin. I went twice in 2010. It was brilliant (history, würst, nightlife, würst, cultcha, würst, the all night U-Bahn, würst etc.) but also it was chest-crushingly cold. New years resolution No.523 = go to Berlin in the summer.

3) Cycling. Really did quite a lot of this for the first time this year, probably unconsciously egged on by Boris and his bwilliant bikes. I went to France and I went to Holland and I went to Beligium and I went to Greenwich (once or twice). It is much better than the shtinky tube etc. but really does bring an oily tear of frustration to the eye when my bike breaks. Which it tends to do quite often.

4) Sunny festivals. Hooooray no muddy misery tent slog-fests this year! Woooop! I got toasted at Eurockéenes watching Foals play a beach and Omar Souleyman N-Trance the laydeez in a glade. I got cidered-up and over excited in the sun at Lovebox watching Empire of the Sun and a totally unexpected display of toplessness all round at Hot Chip. And finally I got bitter and twisted watching Glasto on t’telly looking like the best, sunniest thing evah. Grrrrrrrr.

5) Niki and the Dove at the Lexington. They sound amazing. Niki is sultry, Kate Bushey, shekshy with ribbons pritt-sticked to her face and the Doves are reeeeeaaalllly coooool musos.

'And we Run - Live' by 'John and Jehn'

FIN.