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:
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:
and an inside shot:
Those two Chinese figurines are the ‘two magots’—not easy to see I know, but-
here’s another view of outside–other side–
The neighboring cafe —also a hangout from the early days of poets, philosophers and writers —is the Café Flore:
many famous people have enjoyed a glass of wine here.
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:
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.
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:
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:
Someone said there are over 7000 cafés in Paris. Next time we’ll try the other 6ooo.