Do you know Pierrick BOURGAULT's latest book (Agriculture, 1985, Beauvais)?

La Mère Lapipe dans son bistrot, such is the title of Pierrick BOURGAULT's latest book (Agriculture, 1985, Beauvais) which is scheduled for publication on February 6. Be there to devour this life story, that of a boss of character, great-grandmother and Johnny fan, in his regulars' café in Le Mans (72). Pierrick pays homage to the bistros and to those who run these precious little places, especially in the rural world.

Pierrick spent his childhood in his grandfather's rural café, listening to the stories told by the customers, anglers, craftsmen and hairy people from 14-18. He inherited an inexhaustible tenderness for these small places of speech with wide open doors, these broths of cultures that reveal their world, their time. Journalist and photographer, he has published about fifteen books on bars, refreshment bars, estaminets and brasseries, including the Guides Paris 200 bars-concerts.

Also noteworthy is the publication of Le Bistroscope, the history of France as told from café to café. In the city as in the countryside, these small places offer a privileged point of view to observe the world and history: the thermopolia of ancient Rome, the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment at the Procope, the assassination of Jean Jaurès at the Café du croissant on the eve of the 14-18 war...

Pierrick also invites you to the new Lundis chanson programme, "concerts of French songs that I organise at the Jazz Café Montparnasse (formerly known as Petit Journal), a beautiful 200-seat stage with different songwriters and composers every Monday," Pierrick explains.

The updated programme can be found on www.monbar.net with the artists' youtube links and on www.jazzcafe-montparnasse.com. Admission is free. Why not plan an Apéritif Citadin to meet up with the alumni?