The Paris cafe
November 5th 2007 16:07
Le cafe. Every Paris arrondissement has hundreds of them, every quartier, dozens, every street four or five and there's one, it seems, on every corner. It's an integral part of French social life and culture. Part dining room, part lounge room, and even part office, for the millions who live in tiny appartments and studios, it's an extension of home.
Every cafe has its little community of customers. There are always the "Jules" and "Mariannes" who prop themselves against the counter every morning for an expres and croissant on the way to work; possibly, too, a white haired veteran, with a beret and a stick, dozing after lunch over his Ricards while under the table his dog sleeps with a paw on his own special bowl; definately a Monsieur, in blouson en cuir, at the bar all afternoon, one eye on the TV match de foot and the other on the door, maybe a distracted writer hunched over his laptop, or a long-haired girl learning lines from a script and perhaps even a mysterious Madame, of throaty voice and faded beauty, tossing one-liners to the wrinkled "garcon" who's probably been there since he really was a boy and who knows everybody's secrets. Then, there are always the workers, in and out on their "pause cafes" , the tourists struggling with the menus, the lovers on rendezvous, the old friends sharing an aperatif, the tables full of students hanging out, the businessmen at "meetings", the colleagues locked in earnest discussion, the people absorbed in books and newspapers, the strangers, crammed elbow to elbow behind tiny tables, who slipping into conversation, become friends and the observers, sitting, sipping, watching and waiting.
Many Paris cafes have been made famous by the people who frequented them, like Cafe de Flore, in St Germain des Pres, on the Rive Gauche, where the writer Simone de Beauvoir and the existentialist philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre ate, socialised and wrote. Others are lnown for events that took place there, like the cafe de L'Hotel de Ville, where, sitting at a table on the terrasse, the photographer Robert Doisneau spotted Jean Paul Sartre in the passing crowd. When he snapped the legendary philosopher, he inadvertently captured the lovers' kiss which was to become his most controversial and famous photograph - "Le Baiser de L'Hotel de Ville".
But every cafe, has its own history, its own stories and the feeling that anyone there could be someone and that anything could happen.
Cafe de Flore Paris
Every cafe has its little community of customers. There are always the "Jules" and "Mariannes" who prop themselves against the counter every morning for an expres and croissant on the way to work; possibly, too, a white haired veteran, with a beret and a stick, dozing after lunch over his Ricards while under the table his dog sleeps with a paw on his own special bowl; definately a Monsieur, in blouson en cuir, at the bar all afternoon, one eye on the TV match de foot and the other on the door, maybe a distracted writer hunched over his laptop, or a long-haired girl learning lines from a script and perhaps even a mysterious Madame, of throaty voice and faded beauty, tossing one-liners to the wrinkled "garcon" who's probably been there since he really was a boy and who knows everybody's secrets. Then, there are always the workers, in and out on their "pause cafes" , the tourists struggling with the menus, the lovers on rendezvous, the old friends sharing an aperatif, the tables full of students hanging out, the businessmen at "meetings", the colleagues locked in earnest discussion, the people absorbed in books and newspapers, the strangers, crammed elbow to elbow behind tiny tables, who slipping into conversation, become friends and the observers, sitting, sipping, watching and waiting.
Outside Cafe de Flore, St Germain des Pres, Paris
Many Paris cafes have been made famous by the people who frequented them, like Cafe de Flore, in St Germain des Pres, on the Rive Gauche, where the writer Simone de Beauvoir and the existentialist philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre ate, socialised and wrote. Others are lnown for events that took place there, like the cafe de L'Hotel de Ville, where, sitting at a table on the terrasse, the photographer Robert Doisneau spotted Jean Paul Sartre in the passing crowd. When he snapped the legendary philosopher, he inadvertently captured the lovers' kiss which was to become his most controversial and famous photograph - "Le Baiser de L'Hotel de Ville".
But every cafe, has its own history, its own stories and the feeling that anyone there could be someone and that anything could happen.
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