If you’re moving to Paris in the hope of participating in the sort of luncheon experience alluded to by ABN AMRO chief executive Marguerite Bérard in her recent interview with the Financial Times, then we have something to share.
These lunches are no longer standard, unless you are a senior executive at BNP Paribas.
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Bérard was a member of the executive committee at BNP Paribas from 2019 to 2025, when she left to become CEO of ABN AMRO. At BNP Paribas, she seems to have enjoyed some culinary experiences. “French meals can be long,” Bérard told the FT. It’s different at ABN AMRO, where Bérard now eats lunch ‘early and at her desk.’ – “This has been one of my adjustments,” she reflected. Sandwiches are Bérard’s new norm in weekly meetings with Dutch colleagues.
We asked several senior bankers and traders in Paris whether they were familiar with the Bérard’s previous long lunches. Most of them had no idea what we were talking about.
“We grab lunch on a takeaway basis and eat on the desk,” said one senior trader at BNP. “We usually just grab a takeaway like in London,” said a managing director at a European bank. BNP Paribas didn’t respond on whether its executive directors are an exception to the prevailing Anglo Saxon protocol.
One Paris hedge fund manager did claim a difference in French eating habits, however. “In London I don’t think I really ever have lunch outside the office unless meeting with clients,” he reflected. “But in Paris, people have lunch around a table either at the canteen or at restaurant outside the office. This is a massive difference.”
If you’re in Paris and you don’t have access to the BNP Paribas executive dining room, where should you go instead? One managing director suggests Jaïs, a bistro offering sweetbreads in the 7th arrondissement. If you’re at JPMorgan, Hôtel Costes is worth checking out. Relais de l’Entrecôte is also a favourite (and is to be found in London). Failing that, French hedge fund professionals can be found eating in the Rue Marbeuf or at the likes of Loulou, Gigi, or Coco, which are not dog names.
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Dining and Cooking