Famous Paris Cafés

When it comes to style, art, culture, food and drink, the French are the undisputed kings and Paris is their capital. A city bursting at the seams with fabulous sidewalk cafes, bars and restaurants that are renowned for their famous clientele—from ex-pat writers like Hemingway to contemporary authors, artists and celebrities—there are plenty of haunts in Paris where you can sit at a table and sip your cocktail in the same spot Camus once did or drink absinthe where Hemingway got plastered.

While there are many equally great and lesser known cafes, some of the famous Paris cafes and bars are sights in themselves. From the birthplace of the Bloody Mary to the hangout of Picasso and Hemingway, these are places where you can sit and soak up the artistic vibes from generations past or in my case, hope some of that literary genius got left in the air for you to breathe in.

Les Deux Magots

Another Paris institution, Les Deux Magots (yes, it’s a bar called The Two Maggots, but it was actually named for two wooden statues of Chinese commercial agents (maggots) that adorn a pillar in the cafe) has long had the reputation of being the place for rendez vous among the literary and intellectual elite. It has hosted several famous patrons, among them Sartre and Simone de Beauvoire as well as Hemingway, Camus, and Picasso. The café has been featured in many films and like Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots also has a an annual literary prize that has been awarded to a French novel every year since 1933.

My first time at Les Deux Magots, however, had little to do with existentialist thinkers and a lot more with my fascination of sitting in the bar that was the setting of so many conversations read from my text book in French class.

Café de Flore

While there are dozens of bars that claim to have hosted famous scholarly, literary and artistic clientele, there are a few places in Paris that hold a special place in café culture and literary legacy in the City of Lights. Café de Flore is one of these places. Like its main rival (who knew bars could have rivalries) Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore has long been celebrated fro its intellectual clientele and gives out its own annual literary prize called the Prix de Flore.

Café de Flore has a classic Art Deco interior with all red seating, mahogany and mirrors that has changed little since WWII and its hay day of hosting intellectuals like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in the post-war years.

Harry’s Bar

This Paris institution was opened in 1911 by a former American jockey star who named the bistro The New York Bar. The bar later got its name from Harry MacElhone, a barman from Scotland who was hired to run the bar. In a time when Paris was flooded with more and more Americans from the artistic and literary communities, Harry helped popularize the bar and make it a spot where ex-pats could feel at home.

Harry’s bar is not only the birthplace of the bloody mary, but has also hosted many famous American ex-pats and international celebrities like Sinclair Lewis, Hemingway, Coco Chanel, Humphrey Bogart, Gershwin and more.

Bar Hemingway at the Ritz

Hemingway seemed to leave an impressionable mark on the many drinking establishments in Paris, and the Bar Hemingway pays tribute to the hard drinking author with its name. Hemingway did in fact leave his mark on this Paris, when in 1944 during the liberation of Paris he famously ordered a drink at the Ritz Bar while gunfire from retreating Nazi soldiers could still be heard outside. Apparently not even war or the threat of speeding bullets could turn stop Hemingway from getting to his booze.

Today you’ll find grossly overpriced cocktails at this bar (about €15 a pop), but you’ll also be surrounded by history and memorabilia. You’ll see homages to writers like Proust as well as rows of newspapers , with a cozy, wooden interior.

Le Fouquet’s

This bar and restaurant has been a Paris institution on the Champs Elysees since 1899 and has drawn many celebrity and literary figures over the past century. The mainstay on one of Paris’ most emblematic and well known avenues, Le Fouquet’s is known as the place to see-and-be-seen. A longtime celebrity favorite, Le Fouquet’s has boasted patrons like Chaplin, Chevalier, Churchill, Roosevelt and Jackie O.

Not only will you be surrounded by the history of the famous guests who have sat and sipped here before, the great sidewalk seating is perfect for spending a few hours nursing a café or a cocktail and watching people stroll by on the Champs Elysees.

Café de la Paix

When you think Opera, you think of Café de la Paix. Situated in the 9th arrondissement, the café was designed by Charles Garnier, the architect who designed the nearby Paris Opera. A popular meeting spot for after Opera dinner and drinks, it is said that if you sit at Café de la Paix long enough you are bound to run into someone you know.

Café de la Paix opened in 1862 and has attracted many famous clients since its opening—including Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant. On Opera nights, Café de la Paix will fill with the who’s who of Paris, and while certainly not a budget place to eat or drink, it is guaranteed to provide you with prime Parisian people watching..

Le Rotonde

Yet another bar on the list once patronized by Ernest Hemingway, this famous café was immortalized by the author in the Sun Also Rises when he wrote, “”No matter what cafe in Montparnasse you ask a taxi driver to bring you to from the right bank of the river, they always take you to the Rotonde.” Le Rotonde is in the Montparnasse cafes of Paris where known as rallying sites for the Lost Generation, surrealists and existentialists living in Paris after WWI.

Le Rotonde and its Art Deco interior has seen patrons like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald as well as Matisse, T.S. Eliot, Sartre, Toklas and others, who sought out the Montparnasse bars during the time when the neighborhood was known for its Bohemian vibe.

Closerie de Lilas

Another famous Montparnasse bar, the Closerie has been an important Paris institution since its opening in 1847, serving as a magnet for the social and culinary avant garde. The famous people who have sat in the “Pleasure Garden of the Lilacs” include Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Ingres, Henry James, Chateaubriand, Picasso, Hemingway, Apollinaire, Lenin and Trotsky (at the chessboard), and Whistler.

While today you will mostly find tourists rather than literary giants, there is definitely something to be said about sipping a café or glass of wine where it is rumored Hemingway once penned much of the Sun Also Rises.