Au Petit Salon – Maison Rousseau

Au Petit Salon is the distinctive signature of Maison Rousseau, the historic oyster house of Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, established at the market since 1906 and run today by Alexandra and Jean-Louis Lemmens. For four generations, the house has made the oyster and the shellfish a family affair; with Au Petit Salon, it opens a stall devoted to tasting, a true salon where one takes the time of the sea at the heart of the 3rd arrondissement.

Here, everything begins at the shucker's bench. Oysters opened to the minute, seafood platters, winkles, prawns and seasonal shellfish make up a menu faithful to the craft that built the house's reputation. You take a seat at the counter to watch the shucker at work, or settle into the salon, a glass of champagne in hand, to savour this Lyon idea of simple, well-made pleasure.

Au Petit Salon extends Maison Rousseau's know-how beyond the stall: the same demand for freshness, the same respect for the product, but in a more intimate interlude. A few of the house's warm preparations also find their place here, in the spirit of a generous, unfussy seafood cuisine, conceived to accompany the glass and the moment.

In this temple of Lyon gastronomy that is the market at 102 cours Lafayette, the salon embodies the shucker's art of hospitality: a place where the oyster is savoured at its own pace, between two errands or for a gourmet pause, under the banner of the house that has watched over the shellfish of Les Halles for more than a century.