Levain Le Vin

After an initial location on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin in Paris, Bordeaux’s Rue de la Rousselle now boasts its very own version of this original concept: a cross between a bakery and a wine shop that’s a veritable ode to “living” products. Running it is Margaux Laplane, who kneads dough before your very eyes, transforming stone-ground flours from the Ferme Sain’Biose into delicious sandwiches or the perfect accompaniment for cheese and charcuterie boards. For us, the other day at lunch, that meant: a mixed board (to go with the drinks) prepared with care, featuring Label Rouge emmental, ash-dusted goat cheese, tome d’Aquitaine, cured beef, Iberian ham, baked ham from the Périgord region… Plus homemade pickles, a mixed green side salad and best of all, the stellar homemade bread (made with semi-whole wheat flour, studded with figs and taggiasche olives and sprinkled with sesame seeds). Other untested pleasures included a handful of sandwiches, which are also available as salads, including the Intrépide, made on sesame bread with bleu d’Auvergne cheese, toasted sesame oil and floral honey; and finally, the only sweet option on the menu, a sourdough chocolate chip cookie to go with your coffee. // Marcellin Caillou

FEELING THIRSTY? Mostly organic or biodynamic wines: a Côtes-de-Bordeaux red from the Château des Bertrands (€25 a bottle), a Bordeaux rosé from the Château Clos Séric (€19.50), and a lovely Occitan riesling from Jeff Carrel (€29). As well as artisan hard apple cider from Kupela in the Basque Country (€6 for 330 ml).
PRICE: : Set menus €10.50 to €16, sandwiches €5.50 to €7, salads €9.50 to €11, shared plates €5 to €13.50, platters €16.50 to €19, desserts €2.50 to €17 (per kilo for brioche).