Following the success of their Paris café-cum-bistro Le Cornichon, Bertrand Chauveau and Paul Henri introduce Le Poisson Volant, a restaurant and nightclub in the former L’International in the 11th arrondissement. The pair have reunited with Claves Architecture for interiors that draw on Chinese Art Deco and the nocturnal world of Wong Kar-wai.
Le Cornichon’s sequel takes Paris into the early hours
‘We wanted to open a late-night haunt where people could eat late, talk and dance around a table, in an environment that felt out of the ordinary,’ the founders say. They found a home for that vision in L’International, an established rock and punk venue between Oberkampf, Belleville and Ménilmontant. ‘Our aim is for the space to evolve in response to what the guests want and to remain a place of freedom, with flexible codes.’
The childhood friends took inspiration from London’s Brilliant Corners, a Japanese restaurant and listening bar in Dalston known for its vinyl DJ sets, and New York’s former China Chalet, where a Chinese dining room doubled as a late-night party venue. Closer to home, they looked to the restaurants of Belleville and the 13th arrondissement as places where different communities came together. Among their favourites was La Bénédiction, a Chinese restaurant with consistently good cooking and loyal regulars.
Chauveau, who trained at Ferrandi and worked with Jean-François Piège and David Toutain, developed the menu with chef Yanxin Yin. Originally from Tsingtao, Yin studied in Xi’an and Lanzhou, specialising in noodles, dumplings and Peking duck, before working with Bao Family in France. The menu spans pork and chive potstickers, steamed aubergine with chilli and herbs, and braised chicken with vin jaune and black mushrooms. Their backgrounds meet most clearly in wontons served with pig’s trotter and langoustine tartare.
Claves founders Laure Gravier and Soizic Fougeront have taken an equally expansive approach to the interiors, completely reworking the building behind a frontage that recalls a traditional Chinese restaurant. Inside, a new grid of columns and beams defines the spaces, drawing on Brutalism and the neighbourhood’s industrial architecture, while large mirrors echo these lines and extend views across the rooms.
Chinese Art Deco patterns painted in silver animate the walls and structural elements, while high-backed chairs inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh add slender verticals to the sturdy geometry. An oval bar in patinated steel anchors the room, surrounded by purple-brown walls, patterned carpet and hand-painted mirrors. Saturated colour, low lighting and fractured perspectives evoke the films of Wong Kar-wai – what the studio calls ‘an imaginary Shanghai by night’, unbound by any particular era.
In addition, a commissioned work by Chinese artist Shuo Hao traces the staircase down to the basement club, where an aquarium filled with mineral compositions conceals a private room, recalling Pierre Huyghe’s installations. Reflections and artificial light carry through from upstairs, while the lack of street views makes it easy to lose track of the hour.
With no natural light, the ceiling becomes a canvas for Matière Noire’s luminous panels, set within the architectural grid and supported by concealed lighting. As dinner gives way to DJ sets, the lighting shifts from a diffuse glow to strobes. Sound received the same attention: the founders worked with FLEiK to ensure consistent acoustic quality throughout the venue.
At Le Poisson Volant, Chauveau and Paul Henri programme the music themselves, inviting figures from the Paris scene to establish residencies and bring in guest artists and DJs. Both floors are designed to work together. ‘It is not inherently a club, but it becomes one through the way it is used,’ they say. Dinner is served daily from 7 pm to midnight, with the entire venue becoming a nightclub until 5 am from Thursday to Saturday.
Le Poisson Volant is located at 5 Rue Marguerite Moret, 75011 Paris, France