The dining room at Fougue, under its copper ceiling.
In the middle of busy Saint-Germain-des-Prés there is a place where everything suddenly goes quiet. You walk through a gateway and find yourself in the Beaupassage, among trees, unusual art and a brasserie that only opened in September.
I was in Paris at the beginning of October for the trade fairs, Première Classe and Tranoï, two long days on my feet. On the evening of 2 October we ended up there, in this courtyard between Rue de Grenelle and Rue du Bac.
A quiet courtyard behind the gateway
From the street you see none of it. Once you are through the gateway, the noise stays behind you. The courtyard has three entrances: 53 to 57 Rue de Grenelle, 83 to 85 Rue du Bac and 14 Boulevard Raspail. Inside there are trees, cobbles and calm. And names you would otherwise have to collect right across the city: Yannick Alléno, Thierry Marx, Pierre Hermé, and the cheese from Barthélémy.
After two days at the fairs, this was exactly the right place to come down.
Where else do you find this in a passage?
That was my first thought when I looked up. Above our heads, branches in green and red spread out under a painted ceiling, and you simply stop walking. The work is called Les Deux Chênes, made in 2018 by Fabrice Hybert for the Beaupassage: casts of an oak more than three hundred years old from his own valley in the Vendée, two trees, one green, one red.
Down at ground level, right beside the door, stands the trunk, painted bright green from top to bottom. Overhead the branches carry on across the dining room. Only both views together make up the piece.
A brasserie that does not look like one
Fougue opened in September 2026. The interior is the work of the Belgian designer Jean-Philippe Demeyer, and it has nothing to do with the old wood-panelled Paris brasserie: strong colours, unusual materials, graphic shapes, and that copper ceiling above the dining room. Very modern, very much its own thing.
What struck me at once was the space. The tables are not as close together as in many classic Paris cafés, so you do not end up sitting inside the conversation at the next table. The other guests were young, fashionable, style-conscious, and not the least bit affected.
We ate outside on the terrace, out in the courtyard, looking into the passage. From there you see both: the lit sign of the house and the quiet courtyard.
Service I am still talking about
The young service team were exceptionally friendly, attentive and completely relaxed with it. They asked more than once how we had liked the individual dishes, and they genuinely wanted to hear the answer.
And then the kitchen
The kitchen is in the hands of Fanny Herpin. She surprises you with a reading of the French classics entirely her own. We began with oysters, with a mignonette of finely diced shallots and red wine vinegar.
The Œufs mayonnaise à la diable really did take me by surprise. In France this is usually a fairly plain starter, the sort you are served in any number of classic brasseries. At Fougue it looked nothing like that. The mayonnaise was not the usual yellow but orange, and pleasantly spiced. The way it was arranged was anything but ordinary either. A plain classic had turned into a small work of art on the plate. I was delighted.
My own highlight of the evening was the sea bream carpaccio with beurre noisette and lemon. An exceptionally finely balanced dish, to my palate at star level. A shame that this, of all things, is the one I did not photograph.
Then Ravioles du Dauphiné, the small ravioli from the south-east of France, in a cream of smoked onions, with a watercress coulis, beurre noisette, hazelnut crumbs, lemon and tarragon.
The dessert held one more surprise. An Île flottante is normally an airy mound of poached meringue floating on vanilla custard; here it looked almost like a small cake. In the middle a hollow filled with caramel, and almonds alongside. With its slightly bitter note, the sauce reminded me of crème catalane. Fougue calls its Île flottante the signature dessert of the house. An unusual and quite beautiful reading of this French classic.
When I asked at our hotel about Fougue, nobody there had heard of the new restaurant yet. And we were only about ten minutes away on foot.
Discoveries like that are what I love about Paris. A place only a few weeks old, not yet on everyone’s list, where so much comes together: the extraordinary artwork in the Beaupassage, the modern interior, the easy service, and a kitchen that gives even familiar French dishes a surprising turn.
Addresses like this are exactly what I keep an eye out for when I travel.
What a day in our part of Paris usually looks like, I wrote down in Our Paris. A day in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. From the same trip come my finds at Première Classe and Tranoï. And when we want the familiar rather than something new, we go to Les Antiquaires.
Good to know
- Fougue, in the Beaupassage, 53 to 57 Rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris. Further entrances at 83 to 85 Rue du Bac and 14 Boulevard Raspail. Métro Rue du Bac, line 12.
- Opened in September 2026. Interior by Jean-Philippe Demeyer.
- Open from 7 in the morning until midnight, as posted at the entrance in October 2026.
- The tree is Les Deux Chênes by Fabrice Hybert, 2018, cast from an oak more than three hundred years old in the Vendée.
- In the same courtyard: Yannick Alléno, Thierry Marx, Pierre Hermé and the cheese from Barthélémy.
- Menus, hours and prices change. My details are from the visit in October 2026.
