Opposite the BHV, rue des Archives, Le Carrefour nobly defends a certain very Parisian tradition: that of the “neighborhood harbor”. With its zinc, its croque-monsieur and its local clientele, this unique bistro open until two in the morning has the great merit of preserving a certain idea of popular Paris at the same time as the taste of nostalgia for the years 1970 and 1980, when the group Telephone released its first LP with, at the end of the B side, the song “Flipper”.
The Deadpool, an electronic billiards table, is precisely one of the assets of this establishment taken over in 1982 by the owner of the place, Colette. Nervous, fast and quite easy to handle, the house pinball machine goes "cling cling cling", flashes, "clacks" to several million, a score however difficult to achieve, at least for the Marais Mood.
The Deadpool games are all the funnier as this pinball machine speaks to the player with a voice from beyond the grave, happily making fun of the latter. Above all, the multiball is easy to trigger. And let's face it, playing with three marbles at once is fun.
That's not all. From a historical and heritage point of view, the Carrefour bistro has other interests. We will observe the quality of the “zinc”, made of copper and not, precisely, of zinc. This is because, towards the end of the Occupation, the Germans dismantled all the copper counters in order to make rifle bullets. “But it remained as it was because, it seems, the owners of the place had the best relations with the occupant,” says Colette, the current owner.
This perhaps explains it: the hidden door, next to the toilets, then allowed access to the upper floors transformed into a hotel, she also explains.
Clearly, the Marais is home to a thousand secrets…
The Carrefour Café
8 Street Archives, 75004 Paris
Monday to Friday from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm
Saturday and Sunday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Phone: 01 40 29 90 05
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