Les Recyclables

An antidote to big-name chain cafés and a pocket of calm amid the bustle of Rue de Carouge, Les Recyclables is a delight. Half café, half second-hand bookshop, it lures you in for a drink or lunch and tempts you with a selection of new reading material. The café itself is friendly and cheerful, with purple and orange chairs, fairy lights strewn around the windows and table centrepieces of wild heather. The food is imaginative and well-presented, and there’s a well-priced dish of the day each lunchtime. On selected evenings you’ll be serenaded as you eat by invited musicians – jazz, bossa nova, Brazilian ‘choro’ – while the café also hosts regular lectures, debates and literary evenings.