It is necessary to note a rather specific atmosphere which almost all Parisian cafes possess. If, for example, in Italy you will simply not be paid attention to if you are the new visitor; in Spain one positive gesture can make you a friend for almost all visitors-natives; in Paris it’s all different. Here you will always feel intense stare from both regular customers, and attendants. And it not the only specificity of cafes in Paris, it’s a feature of the country. In France the concept of hospitality has own distinctive features which differ from ours strongly, and to become “native” here is extremely difficult.

There’s, of course, a great number of tourist cafes where attitude to visitors is more than positive, however those are Parisian cafes to the same extent as we are native Parisians. You won’t feel the original spirit of French cafe in such institution.

And now we will tell some words about the direct history of cafe in Paris. According to some historical data, the first Parisian cafe has been opened in 1675 by the Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli and was called Le Procope. In ten years the institution has moved to Rue de l’Ancienne-Comedie (that is in Latin quarter of Paris) where it settles down till today.

Such legendary persons, as Voltaire, Robespierre, Danton, Marat, D’Alembert; Diderot and others were regular customers of this Parisian cafe. Being in Paris presidents of the United States of America Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson visited the cafe. In the late eighties of the last century the new owners have carried out global “semi-antique” reconstruction for attraction of foreign tourists and the institution has lost the cultural value forever. Crowds of tourists are more likely to come here rather than the Parisian fans to sit in cafe.

The idea of the Italian immigrant was welcomed by the Parisians, and after a century the Parisian cafes were estimated not in hundreds, but already in thousands. In the beginning of the twentieth century cafes on Montmartre were especially popular; thousand of Parisians and visitors of the French capital daily came there. However, the reason of such popularity has not been caused by remarkable cuisine and magnificent coffee but by certain features which characterized heating system of Paris of that time. In winter the house in the city were not heated. Even those visitors who came from not the warmest countries felt big discomfort that forced them to go to the Parisian cafes.

Though dishes and drinks offered in the majority of cafes were not of great quality, but in the café hall centre there were ovens which heated the air. In those days such cafes were a place of pilgrimage of huge number of inhabitants and city visitors with short income, who could stay behind one cup of cheap coffee for many hours not to leave for cold streets of Paris.

As for more prosperous people the culture of visiting cafes has got the distinctive features. For example, visitors from America and Great Britain used to begin the day with visiting one of cafes with a big company and ordering a standard cup of coffee along with the well-known for the whole world French croissant. Having spent there some hours, tourists moved to a following institution to try the midday aperitif, and closer to the end of the day one might have visited five (and even more) cafes in which it was possible not only to spend time pleasantly, but to listen to numerous Parisian gossips on which this city was always rich. Many great books have been written in the Parisian cafes as quite often cafes were some kind of studies for many great writers. Then the Parisian cafes were also a place where it was always possible to get a picture of local (and not only) artists who were always a great number in Paris.

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Located on Saint-Germain-des-Près in the centre of quarter of boutiques, Cafe de Flore is breathing the Bohemianism and history. The interior in style of the twentieth years, huge mirrors, leather armchairs, smell of coffee and croissant. However, Cafe de Flore is not famous for its interior and style but for those people who visited and continues to visit it.

From the end of 60-ies and up to now Cafe de Flore is a place of attraction for film bohemia, musicians and fashionable designers. Here just some names: Jane Fonda, Roman Polanski, Alain Delon, Yves Montand, Brigitte Bardot, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola, Jim Morrison, Cher, Tim Burton, Harvey Keitel, Givenchy, Sonia Rykiel, Yves Saint-Laurent.

A little earlier, before film industry development, Cafe de Flore was popular with artists, writers, poets and philosophers. Those days, starting with 20th years, the history of world art was created in cafe. Every day, as if to work, poet Jacques Prévert came. He used to collect menus from tables, pieces of paper (happened, toilet too), wrote on them, sometimes forgot. After his leaving the owner of cafe Bubal accurately collected them and handed over to Prévert next day. Guillaume Apollinaire the great poet and the expert on painting, thanks to his articles written here after long conversations with artists, has for ever changed a sight of the world on cubism and surrealism.

Milan Kundera, Paco Rabanne, Karl Lagerfeld, Roland Barthes, Françoise Sagan, Pablo Picasso, André Breton, Louis Aragon, Jean-Paul Sartre – all these glorified names relate to Cafe de Flore. At will of destiny in the early thirties the cafe was a favorite place of fascists, but during German occupation – a place of meetings of the French communists. After war it was often visited by Lev Trotsky, Ernest Hemingway and Albert Camus.

Today the cafe is on peak of its popularity and simple mention that Johnny Depp and Sharon Stone happen to be here is enough for attraction of a considerable quantity of tourists. They write novels about cafe, it is mentioned at cinema, they compose verses about it and it can be recognized on pictures painted in Paris. “Lovers of Cafe de Flore” – is the name of a world-known novel about mutual relations of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.

This place associates with French and a Bohemianism so strongly that this impression finds the reflection even in music. Modern music of Cafe de Flore is original musical sub-style or mini-style of music either old, or stylized so to absorb the spirit and to pass charm of the French song of bygone days. Such a mix of Cool Jazz and French chanson.

To make out the prices in Cafe de Flore, check up an official web site www.cafedeflore.fr. Visiting Cafe de Flore remember that Parisian cafe is not a place in which it is possible to eat tasty during the lunchtime, for these purposes try to choose a restaurant. In Cafe de Flore it is necessary to enjoy the atmosphere behind a coffee or French wine cup slowly. By the way, Cafe de Flore is one of rare places in Paris where Dom Pérignon is possible to get in a glass.

Choose an evening if you love noisy parties and music. Well and if noise and crowd is not your cup of tee – the best time, free from tourists, is a morning week-day. The cafe is open at 7:30 am and if you rent apartment near Cafe de Flore for the period of visiting of Paris you can enjoy morning coffee, absorbing the bohemian romanticism, though every day.

172, boulevard Saint-Germain
75006 Paris
Tel. 01 45 48 55 26