cafe next to the Pompidou museum
The secret to existence, and making it through your visit to Paris, is to happily fall into the cafes of Paris. When you think you can’t possibly go through another huge gallery of paintings, or walk another step to the famed old church—-you happen upon a cafe!
When you are in St-Germain-des-Prés area of Paris—every turn of the corner seems to blossom into another street of cafes:
street scene St-Germain-des-Prés
There is a famous threesome of cafes here–just about under the shadow of the old church—“St Germain of the fields”—fields are gone now! Those three are Les Deux Magots:
Les Deux Magots street scene
and an inside shot:
see the two Chinese figurines inside? click to enlarge–
Those two Chinese figurines are the ‘two magots’—not easy to see I know, but-
here’s another view of outside–other side–
Les Deux Magots—note sculpture in foreground . . .
The neighboring cafe —also a hangout from the early days of poets, philosophers and writers —is the Café Flore:
Café Flore street scene
many famous people have enjoyed a glass of wine here.
Café Flore on St Germain Boulevard
Café Flore
So that you have this straight, this photo shows the Café Flore on the left, then that dark green kiosk with newspapers, etc—and then to the right of THAT is Les Deux Magots. To the left, and BACK of Les Deux Magots is the old church:
St Germain of the fields, St Germain des Pres
Lest we forget, there is a third contender for favorite among the expats and literary crowd. It is the Brasserie Lipp—and I only have a fleeting glimpse of it–sorry. It’s across the wide boulevard (St Germain) from the other two cafes.
Brasserie Lipp street scene
That will have to hold you over til you get there for your own photo shoot.
We also had a bite to eat up in the hilly streets of Montmartre:
café in Montmartre
where there was a jazzy car parked out front:
And finally, one of my favorite cafes–because it was SO welcome RIGHT across the street from the Musée d’Orsay!!—Les Deux Musées:
Les Deux Musées café near Musée d’Orsay
Someone said there are over 7000 cafés in Paris. Next time we’ll try the other 6ooo.
