The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysees, and now The Paris Liquor Store, another great and exclusively untouristy place to visit in the French capital, especially if you like a tipple that is a three finger measure above the standard supermarket booze cruise offerings.
Traditional aesthetics have been treated to a modern upgrade, the store’s partner and creative director Christophe Pilate teaming up with Didier Chan-Kin, under the Ninjaz Collective moniker. The duo have daubed the windows and walls with retro-tinged typography, but there’s an air of moodiness yet distinct lack of pretentiousness (which is all too common in these types of places) that we can’t get enough of.
You might want to go easy on the pours with these spirits though, as this is the premium liquid, the top of the top shelf, more precious than angel’s tears, expensive and unashamedly so – not the sort of stuff you mix with fizzy pop. Let us put the poshness into context for you: Crystal Head Vodka is triple filtered through diamonds. Yowzer. This stuff would need keeping under lock and key if friends were coming around, unless you really wanted to show off, and no one likes a show-off. It also comes in one of the more interesting bottles – the skull you can see being examined by everyone’s second favourite Ghostbuster (and co-founder of the vodka brand), Dan Ackroyd, at the wee snifter of a shop near Place de l’Opera.
