The history of Paris is partly written at the counters and in the back rooms of its cafés and cabarets. From the medieval taverns to the elegant cafés of the Lumières (without forgetting the guinguettes of the old regime or the revolutionary clubs like the Procope), the place of cafés in Parisian society hasn’t stopped evolving over time.
But would Paris be Paris without its cafés? Degas, Manet, Monet and Renoir, all these impressionists met in the popular cafés of Montmartre. Would Saint Germain des Prés and Montparnasse be as gloriously well known and have the ability to reunite so many artists and writers without prestigious addresses such as Lipp, Les Deux Magots, Le Flore and the Coupole (which are all now all historical monuments)?
