Le Vauban

I always wanted to try this place, but I don't think I've ever been. The brasserie Le Vauban is on the place of the same name, on the corner between the avenues of Ségur and Breteuil, just across from the Dôme des Invalides. To me it looks typically Parisian, especially the waiter setting up tables in his black vest and white apron.

The small two-toned umbrellas have since been replaced with two expansive beige models. And the awning no longer says "Brasserie."

The neighborhood is very residential and, I think, well-to-do. This photo is another from the nineties. I wonder if the place looks the same? Well, a quick look at Google Earth (street view) shows that it's been renovated and updated, but still with the same gold color scheme. It looks less upscale now than it does in my twenty-year old photo, and seems to be catering more to tourists visiting Napoleon's tomb than to local residents. Maybe it always did.

Sébastian Le Prestre, Marquis de Vauban (for whom this place was named), was a military strategist, engineer, and architect under King Louis XIV. He is probably best known for his design of military forts and citadels. Vauban modernized the defensive strategies of his time and his distinctive designs would be recognizable to most Americans familiar with New World colonial fortifications.