Hits & Misses August & September 2025

I knew that finding Loburg is a challenging task, but some of the results from readers and one family member show just how challenging it can be.

So, first: I recommended to my brother-in-law to check out the Bar O’Belu in Amiens, where I had it in October 2022. What do you reckon he found? Three guesses and the first two don’t count. No longer sell it. So scratch that bar.

But later on in his trip he stumbled upon a bar in Honfleur (Cafe de Paris - what an imaginative name for a bar) that does sell it. So, one off and one on. (I have to add that he disgraced himself and gained automatic removal from my Christmas card list by declaring it, wait for it, “mundane”! Speechless.

Unexpected “find” of Loburg in Honfleur.

And where to find it - Cafe de Paris.

Second, and another miss: I wrote on here a few months ago about the wonderful and unexpected discovery of Loburg in Rennes, at a restaurant called Le Petit Hanoi. Just recently my wife & I were thinking of revisiting Rennes for a better look around & naturally I was excited at the prospect of a return visit to the restaurant. Having become a bit gun-shy on this score, I decided to check their website, just to make sure they still sell Loburg. Of course, now they don’t and, just to add insult to injury, they have replaced it with Leffe. Leffe, of all beers. Like replacing your Lamborghini with a Trabant.

Needless to say we went to Orleans instead….where at least the hotel restaurant had Jupiler on tap. Not quite Loburg, but an acceptable alternative…..unlike Leffe……

So, you can scratch Le Petit Hanoi. Sigh….

Now to the good news: a friend holidaying with his family at a town called Saint-Denis d’Oleron happened upon a bar that sells it - this was in August 2025.

Unlike the excommunicated brother-in-law, this mate found it very much to his liking; a man of refined taste.

There is some confusion about the name of the bar; he said it was called Harbor Shack, but I had trouble finding a bar by that name on the internet. But I’m sure it’s not hard to find in a town that size.

There might be some confusion about the name of the bar in Saint-Denis d’Oleron, but there’s no mistaking the product.

Another sighting, this from a blog reader in August 2025. A bar called La Gitane in Bayeux. The bar doesn’t get great reviews on the internet, but if they sell Loburg, who cares?

Loburg at La Gitane in Bayeux. Unfortunately it came in a Guinness glass, which is pretty close to beer blasphemy in my opinion.

Fortunately, the normal order of things was restored later in his trip, when he found it at Bar Brasserie La Cremaillere in a town called Saint-Lauren-sur-Mer on the Normandy coast. This time served in the correct glass.

The most recent sighting by a blog reader, just a couple of days ago. Bar with the odd name of Briv’Yolo in the town of Brive-la-Gaillarde.

Oddly named bar but the right beer.