Located on lovely Place Camille Julian, this bistro has only been open for five years but is already a local institution. Owner Stéphan Soutre spent seven years as sommelier at La Chamade, a well-known restaurant in Vieux Bordeaux, so he has naturally given a lot of attention to the wine list: "It’s exhaustive," he says, "and not just where Bordeaux are concerned." The chefs, for their part, make ample use of regional products for their down-home cooking—calf’s head, top-quality oysters, steak tartare, pot au feu, seven-hour lamb and a poisson du jour. Traditional as such dishes might sound, they are prepared with no butter, only olive oil. Well-balanced, the menus are also reasonably priced at 10, 16 and 20 euros for lunch and 20 euros for dinner.

Back in the old days, people living in the countryside let nothing go to waste—not even stale bread. Croutons were used for stuffing poultry, thin slices for soup and the rest was cut up for that treat kids go wild for, pains perdus (literally "lost bread" that has been salvaged).

All it takes is some beaten eggs, a little milk, a splash of vanilla and a few drops of orange blossom water. Soak the slices of bread—real French bread—in the egg mixture for a few minutes and then brown them in butter. When they’re ready, sprinkle them generously with sugar. Though eaten for breakfast in America, pains perdus make a tasty and inexpensive dessert.