THE PARISIAN CAFÉ

At the Table of Parisian Life

"The parisian café is not a coffee shop. It is a culture and a way of life...."

In Paris, meeting at a café needs almost no planning. Breakfast before work, a conversation in the afternoon, a glass of wine with friends, or simply a table on the terrace to watch Paris go by — the café slips naturally into every part of the day.

Perhaps that is why I have always found the Parisian café so fascinating. For me, its character has never been defined simply by what is served at the table, but by the particular way the café belongs to the life of the city. You are sitting at your own little table, yet everything around you remains part of the experience: the architecture, the street, the people passing by, the interiors and the conversations around you.

Behind this seemingly ordinary Parisian habit is a long story of changing social life, architecture and design — one that has shaped the café we still know today.

FROM THE SALON TO THE CAFÉ

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, aristocratic salons played an important role in Parisian social and intellectual life. As the bourgeoisie grew in wealth and influence, cafés offered another setting for sociability beyond the private salon. Reading, conversation and the exchange of ideas could now take place outside the private home, in spaces open to a wider public.

In their more elegant forms, cafés also borrowed from the decorative language of refined private interiors. Furnishings, paintings, woodwork, lighting and mirrors all contributed to their atmosphere, bringing something of the salon into a public setting.

Le Procope illustrates this development. I have visited it since my days at the Sorbonne. Today, it is known primarily as a historic restaurant, but the site’s history as a café dates back to 1686. The original Café Procope closed in 1890, after more than two centuries as a centre of intellectual and political sociability in Paris. During the eighteenth century, it was frequented by leading figures of the Enlightenment, including Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau and d’Alembert.

When I sit in Paris’s historic cafés, I sometimes imagine what café life might have felt like in the city centuries ago. What interests me particularly is this passage from the private world of the salon to a public social space—and the way the café transformed conversation and the exchange of ideas into part of Parisian life.

HAUSSMANN AND THE RISE OF THE TERRACE

The nineteenth century brought profound changes to Parisian urban and social life. During the Second Empire, Napoleon III appointed Georges-Eugène Haussmann Prefect of the Seine in 1853, beginning the enormous programme of works that transformed large parts of Paris through new avenues, streets and public infrastructure.

The transformation did not create Parisian café life — nor did Haussmann invent the Parisian boulevard — but the new urban landscape of broad avenues, pavements and increasingly open perspectives provided an important setting for the public life of the city.

The Boulevards: Cafés formed part of the increasingly animated public life of nineteenth-century Paris, alongside theatres, shops, restaurants and other places of leisure. By the later nineteenth century, cafés were firmly embedded in the social geography of the capital.

The Terrace: One of the most distinctive features of the Parisian café is its terrace, with chairs often arranged towards the street. From your seat, you can simply observe Paris — its architecture, the people passing by, the movement of the streets and, in some places, the gardens and squares. The terrace becomes a place to sit and experience the city as it unfolds around you.

During the nineteenth century, cafés also became closely connected with the artistic life of Paris. La Nouvelle Athènes, on Place Pigalle, was a meeting place for modern artists and intellectual bohemia, frequented by figures including Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas. Degas used the café as the setting for his 1875–76 painting Dans un café, better known as L’Absinthe.

This relationship between café life and culture continued into the twentieth century. Parisian cafés attracted artists and writers from abroad, with figures such as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and Ernest Hemingway becoming part of the cultural life of the capital, particularly in Montmartre and Montparnasse. The cafés where they gathered, worked and exchanged ideas contributed to Paris’s international influence as a centre of modern culture.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés became particularly associated with literary and philosophical life, with cafés such as Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots famously linked to figures including Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

The café could therefore offer more than somewhere to meet. It provided warmth, light, company and a place to read, write, think and socialise—becoming, for some, an extension of everyday life.

THE EVOLUTION OF PARISIAN CAFÉ INTERIORS

There has never been a single Parisian café interior. Its appearance has evolved with the city itself, reflecting changes in French decorative arts, architecture and social life. Certain elements have nevertheless become familiar parts of the café environment over time.

17TH & 18TH CENTURIES — THE EARLY CAFÉ INTERIOR

From the late seventeenth century, cafés became part of Parisian social life. In the eighteenth century, the more elegant establishments could offer carefully furnished and decorated surroundings for drinking, reading and conversation.

Their interiors belonged to the wider decorative culture of their time. Furnishings, paintings, woodwork, lighting and mirrors could all contribute to the atmosphere, although there was no single decorative model followed by every café.

What interests me particularly is how a public place of sociability could also become a carefully considered interior — something we still expect from a beautiful café today.

19TH CENTURY — THE CAFÉ AND THE CHANGING CITY

As Paris changed during the nineteenth century, so did its cafés. Their interiors varied considerably, but mirrors, marble tables, woodwork and upholstered seating became familiar elements of the café environment.

One particularly interesting element is le zinc. The French use of zinc to mean the counter on which customers were served in bars and cafés is recorded from 1873, in Émile Zola's Le Ventre de Paris. By 1880, the word was also being used more broadly for a drinking establishment.

Towards the end of the century, Parisian interiors were also being transformed by new decorative movements. Art Nouveau emerged from the late 1880s and flourished around 1900, bringing organic forms and new approaches to ornament, glass, furniture and interior decoration. It was part of a much broader transformation of the decorative arts rather than a style specific to cafés.

Le Zinc

EARLY 20TH CENTURY — NEW DECORATIVE LANGUAGES

The early twentieth century brought new decorative languages to Paris. Art Nouveau continued into the first decade of the century, while the 1910s saw the beginnings of what would become known as Art Deco. By the 1920s, this new aesthetic had become an important part of Parisian decorative culture.

Cafés did not, however, follow a single stylistic progression. Older interiors continued to exist alongside establishments embracing newer approaches to furniture and decoration, while cafés, bistrots, restaurants and brasseries often shared elements of the same decorative vocabulary.

The woven rattan chair also became one of the most recognisable features of the Parisian terrace. Maison Louis Drucker, founded in 1885, is a historic French manufacturer of rattan seating; the company describes its hand-caned terrace chairs as having become a symbol of Parisian identity. Maison Gatti, founded in Paris in 1920, developed its own expertise in indoor and outdoor furniture for hospitality and restaurants.

TODAY — HISTORIC & CONTEMPORARY

Today, Parisian cafés range from historic interiors to entirely contemporary spaces. Some preserve or restore older architectural and decorative elements, while others combine historic surroundings with contemporary furniture, colours and materials.

For me, this is what makes café interiors particularly interesting. There is no fixed formula for what a Parisian café should look like. Its decoration continues to evolve with Paris itself.

THE POSH EDIT

The details I notice, the places I return to, the art and design that inspire me, and the little rituals that shape my Parisian café life.

ART INSPIRATION

The Parisian café has long provided a setting for artists observing modern life. A few works that particularly capture this world:

• Edgar Degas — Dans un café (L’Absinthe), 1875–76. The Café de la Nouvelle Athènes at Place Pigalle provides the setting.

• Édouard Manet — La Prune, c. 1877. 

• Édouard Manet — Au Café, 1878. 

  
  

THE DESIGN DETAIL

The woven rattan chair. There is something immediately Parisian about seeing rows of them on a café terrace. I particularly notice their colours and woven patterns—a small design detail that has become part of the visual identity of Parisian streets. Inspired by this familiar element of Parisian life, I chose a pink rattan chair for a corner of my apartment in Paris.

ARTS DE LA TABLE

The arts de la table are among the details I notice immediately: the plates, cutlery and glasses, their shapes, colours, materials and design. I love when these pieces are chosen with the same attention as the interior itself. For me, they are an important part of the overall aesthetic experience of a café.

THE INTERIOR

For lunch or dinner, I usually prefer to sit inside. I like enough space to feel comfortable, a beautiful interior and beautiful seating — particularly a banquette or canapé in velvet, leather or an interesting fabric — and an atmosphere that feels warm and inviting.

I don't have one particular decorative style that I prefer for a café. A historic interior can attract me just as much as a contemporary one if the space is beautifully designed.

THE LIGHT

Warm and flattering. I don't particularly enjoy harsh lighting or sitting in direct sunlight. During the day as much as in the evening, I prefer soft light that creates atmosphere and makes the space feel comfortable.

MY MORNING RITUAL

Before work, my order is simple: a fresh orange juice and a pain au chocolat. Before leaving, I take a coffee with plenty of oat milk with me to the office.

I like those few minutes on the terrace before the working day begins — watching Paris, observing the people passing by and what they are wearing, and seeing the rhythm of the street around me.

THE TERRACE

For a morning café, my criteria are equally simple: a beautiful terrace, beautiful rattan chairs, a clean and well-maintained setting, and a table positioned where I can observe Paris.

THE SERVICE

I appreciate attentive, professional and warm service, but I also like being given the freedom to enjoy my table and my time without feeling rushed or constantly interrupted.

WHERE I GO

Paris 8th & the Triangle d’Or — For drinks, dinner or lunch and casual meetings. Around Rue François-1er, Avenue Montaigne, Rue Marbeuf and the surrounding streets, I am always discovering new places with interiors that make me curious to go inside. For me, it is often a combination of business and pleasure.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés — For drinks or lunch followed by galleries, bookshops and a walk. Some of my favourite crêperies are also around Rue André des Arts.

Le Marais — For drinks or lunch, and wandering afterwards. I particularly enjoy walking from Rue des Rosiers towards Place des Vosges, discovering shops and interesting objects along the way.

Palais-Royal, Rivoli & Saint-Honoré — For an afternoon that can move naturally between a café, architecture, galleries, boutiques and a walk through central Paris.