which is located in one of the remaining Napoleonian shopping arcades of Paris. These arcades were some sort of early shopping malls and allowed the Parisians of the Napoleon era to do window shopping and stroll in a clean, well-lit and heated street (in winter) without being bothered by the rain and the horse carts. There are quite a number of these "passages" and "galeries" in Paris and most of them are located around the Palais Royal and the Grands Boulevards on the right bank. See this map (mouse over for names and click) for their location and details The Passage des Panoramas was built in 1799 and it was probably the very first covered arcade in Paris. Emile Zola writes at length about the passage in his novel Nana, which features an intriguing and energetic young Parisian prostitute. Read the chapter 7 of Nana (in English), where you'll have a taste of the sexual freedom of a high-class prostitute under Napoleon III and glimpses of this lively shopping arcade in an era that historians deem as having known "the most rapid economic and social change in French history". 
large part of the area have largely prevented it from becoming a crop-growing region and explain the high number of ponds and lakes which give it this taste of wilderness and virgin forest. Sologne is foremost a hunting region with a very rich diversity of gamey, and this royal hunting groung is dotted with some of the most beautifull chateaus of France, like Chambord, Cheverny and Chenonceau.Hervé Villemade's Domaine du Moulin is located near one of them, Cheverny, on the same-name AOC Appellation.
where father and son Alain and Jérome Lenoir make long-elevage wines from Cabernet Franc. Working from a very small vineyard surface (3 hectares), they have mostly a single wine every year, but this wine leaves their cellar only after an enormous amount of time. By long elevage, I meant it : 3 years at least in old casks and big-capacity foudres in this deep cellar which hasn't changed (except for the now-old electricity wiring) since it was dug into the "tuffeau" limestone rock between 1400 and 1500 A.D. I tasted their wines for the first time at a Caves Augé Loire tasting and was struck by their substance and character. These earthy, unfiltered wines show themselves without subterfuges, as if this long cellar life had imprinted the simple beauty of the place.
Osaka, Japan.
This is another good wine bar located in the Minami district in Osaka. It is close to the other wine bar I posted about, Pinot Noir. This one is in a basement and you just walk down a few steps from the street. Mr Seiji Takamiya opened this wine bar in july 2001 after working several years at Enoteca in Umeda, osaka. Enoteca is btw close to another top place for wine : the Ritz Carlton Osaka which has the best well-stocked restaurant and bar in regard to wine in town, although with Alpine prices which pair well with Umeda's high rises...The Wine Spectator noted as outstanding the 400-bottle wine list of its Splendido restaurant, and its bar has a similarly exceptional whisky and wine list. This is another proof of Osaka's epicurean extravaganza made possible by its age-old opulent merchant class. When Mr Takamiya became a Sommelier in 1991, the profession was very little-known in Japan but still, the Union of Japanese Sommeliers is 30 years old today. The wine-bar boom came later and with it the use of "sommeliers" for all kind of non-wine-related fields...
iceberg. One thing is sure : the Japanese often drink AND eat at the same time, and the well-known format for this eat-and-drink culture is the izakaya. The izakaya is typically a tavern-style format where friends and co-workers spend hours in the evening drinking while eating a variety of small dishes. 
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