Café de Flore

Stop for a break at no. 172 on Boulevard Saint-Germain. There, you'll savour the pleasure of sipping a coffee on the terrace or tucking into a delicious meal in the comfort of the red seats inside, under the golden Art Deco ceiling lights. The atmosphere is unique. Welcome to Le Flore.

Art and literature unleashed

From the late 19th century, the Café de Flore attracted famous authors such as Charles Maurras. A few years later, it became the favourite haunt of Guillaume Apollinaire, who even made it is study! The Café de Flore thus became the cradle of surrealism and, later, Dadaism. Next, writers, poets, painters, sculptors, fashion designers, filmmakers, singers, musicians and other artists began frequenting the Flore, closely followed by intellectuals.
Among them were Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the couple who turned the Café into a legend. The two philosophers felt at home at the Flore, where they would work in the morning and receive their friends. Existentialism was born and a wind of freedom blew over post-war Saint-Germain-des-Prés, accompanied by the sounds of Boris Vian’s trumpet and the voice of Juliette Greco.

An institution in Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Still highly popular among the Parisian intelligentsia, a meeting place for politicians and the press, the Café de Flore has its established codes. A ‘Flore regular’ can phone to book a table, for example. Are you a newcomer? Visiting Paris for the first time? No worries, just order a ‘café pot’ and they’ll bring you an espresso served in a pot on a tray. Once you’ve accomplished this rite of passage, you’ll be ready to savour a glass of wine or one of the traditional dishes from the restaurant menu.

After your break at this key Parisian address, you can explore the lively Rue des Saints-Pères or Rue du Dragon. Both streets lead straight to the Sèvres-Babylone district, where you can admire the stylish, unique collections on display in the boutiques and the department store, Le Bon Marché Rive gauche.