It is the only wine museum in Paris, if you want to visit others, in France, you should reach Bordeaux.

I hope to visit some there too as soon as possible but it is unlikely I will relive the experience of the visit to a museum in the dark! The managers, in fact, that afternoon, told me it was the first time in which the whole neighborhood remained dark suddenly. But please find more details below to get where I was.

the dining room

The wine museum in Paris is located below the street level and exactly in the caves created between the thirteenth and eighteenth century when it was digging to retrieve the stone necessary for the construction of the city of Paris just above.

Between the sixteenth and seventeenth century these caves were anyway used to store wine which had quite a reputation already. But the Italians have a role in this: the caves were used by the convent founded in Passy in the XIII century by St. Francesco of Paola (Paola is a town in Calabria region, southern Italy); the convent was surrounded by orchards and vineyards. In fact, it was common at that time, to find vineyards in the city. The vineyards within the city were explanted due to zoning requirements but one is still there: “Clos Montmartre”, just behind the Basilica.

The museum is housed in these caves with a trail of suggestion that the French are good to promote. There also is a source of water in its interior.

Well, perhaps now you can get better what I mean: when you start the tour at the wine museum of Paris, you get an audio-guide supplied with the torch… just for emergency. And my case became a sort of emergency! All the lights turned off while I was in the cave. I was with a few visitors, we could not do anything, we stopped, we were silent and we were… waiting for light! We did not wait very long fortunately so no panic, just fun.

some old tools

The museum is a symbol in my opinion, to visit for the location or -maybe- for super-fans who can find old tools, corkscrew and some old piece of history about consumption and so on.

What is also interesting is the wine tasting held in a more modern part of the museum but same style: you can choose a red or a white paired to fine french cheeses. In this fascinating Dining room it is also possible to have lunch, they also organize some monthly events generally.

Furthermore the rooms are available for private or corporate events after 6 PM, when the museum is closed to the public.