Tour · 7 stops · ~2.5 hours, mostly sitting
Literary Cafés
Where the books got written.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés to Montparnasse, hitting the cafés where Hemingway, Sartre, Beauvoir, Joyce, and the rest argued, drank, and occasionally wrote. About 3 km from end to end, or you can break it across two métro stops.
Through the6e · Saint-Germain-des-Prés14e · Montparnasse & Denfert
1Le Procope
Opened 1686 — the oldest continuously operating café in Paris. Voltaire is said to have drunk forty cups of coffee a day here. Benjamin Franklin came to draft parts of what became the U.S.–France alliance. The wood-panelled rooms upstairs still feel 18th-century.
Ask to sit upstairs — the ground floor is the bar, the upper floor is the original 18th-century rooms with Voltaire's writing desk on display. Best as a coffee or aperitif stop; the food is fine but the prices are tourist.
From Wikipedia›
The Café Procope, also known as Le Procope, on the Rue de l'Ancienne Comédie, is a café in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. The original café was opened in 1686 by the Sicilian chef Procopio Cutò ; it became a hub of the Parisian artistic and literary community in 18th and 19th centuries. It sometimes is erroneously called the oldest café in the world in continuous operation ; however, the original café closed in 1872 and the space was used in various ways before 1957, when the current incarnation was opened, so the claim of "oldest café in continuous operation" is not supported.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Little Breizh2 minKodawari Ramen (Yokochō)2 min
48.85360, 2.33890
2Brasserie Lipp
Alsatian brasserie founded 1880. Hemingway wrote that he came here to eat "as well as he could" when broke; the pommes à l'huile and demi blonde are still on the menu. The downstairs ground floor is the literary one — upstairs is for tourists.
The waiter at the door decides where you sit. Looking like a regular helps; asking specifically for the ground floor sometimes works. The pommes à l'huile is still €12 and still the best dish on the menu.
From Wikipedia›
Brasserie Lipp is a brasserie located at 151 Boulevard Saint-Germain in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It sponsors an annual literary prize, the Prix Cazes, named for a previous owner.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·La Villa Saint-Germain-des-Prés4 minHôtel des Marronniers4 min
48.85380, 2.33260
3Café de Flore
Sartre and Beauvoir lived upstairs at the Hôtel La Louisiane and wrote at Flore most mornings — Sartre claimed he could see "all of Paris" from his table. Apollinaire used to nap in the corner. The Art Deco interior is largely 1939.
Sartre's preferred table was on the first floor by the corner window — climb the small staircase by the bar to see it. Order the chocolat chaud à l'ancienne; it arrives in a small jug, viscous, and is the same recipe since the 1940s.
From Wikipedia›
Thé Café de Flore is one of the oldest coffeehouses in Paris, known for its emblematic shopfront and celebrated for its famous clientele, which in the past included influential writers, philosophers, and members of Parisian high society (tout-Paris). The café is located in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a historic quarter on the left bank of the Seine. It sits the corner of Boulevard Saint-Germain and Rue Saint-Benoît, in the 6th arrondissement.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·La Villa Saint-Germain-des-Prés3 minHôtel des Marronniers3 min
48.85400, 2.33310
4Les Deux Magots
Two doors down from Flore and its eternal rival. Named for the two Chinese figurines ("magots") above the bar — leftover signage from a silk shop that occupied the space before 1885. Picasso, Joyce, Brecht, all regulars.
Sit on the terrace facing Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés — the church across the way is the oldest in Paris. The two figurines are inside, behind the bar; ask the staff to point them out. Service is brisk; if you want to linger, order a second drink.
From Wikipedia›
Les Deux Magots is a café and restaurant situated at 6, Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris' 6th arrondissement, France. It once had a reputation as the main rendezvous of the literary and intellectual elite of the city. It is now a popular tourist destination. Its historical reputation is derived from the patronage of Surrealist artists and intellectuals to the likes of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, as well as young writers at the time, such as Ernest Hemingway. Other patrons included Albert Camus, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Bertolt Brecht, Julia Child and the American writers James Baldwin, Chester Himes and Richard Wright. The New York Times has labeled the restaurant as the "most popular café in Paris."
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Musée national Eugène-Delacroix3 minHôtel des Marronniers3 min
48.85400, 2.33380
5La Closerie des Lilas
Hemingway's actual office. He wrote much of The Sun Also Rises at a corner table — there's a brass plate marking it. Verlaine drank himself into trouble at the bar; Lenin played chess in the back room; Modigliani sketched the waiters.
Brass plates on the bar mark the regulars' spots. Hemingway's is on the right side; Trotsky's nearby. The bar (zinc-counter, no reservation) is far more atmospheric than the dining room. Get a drink there before the long walk south to Montparnasse.
From Wikipedia›
The Closerie des Lilas is a famous Parisian restaurant located on the Boulevard du Montparnasse in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was opened in 1847 by François Bullier and was a simple brasserie at the beginning. Initially, it was named after a theatre piece called La Closerie des Genets by Frédéric Soulié. It progressively evolved into the Closerie des Lilas because its owner, Bullier, used to plant lilac flowers.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Musée Zadkine1 min
48.84290, 2.33440
6Le Dôme
1898. The Lost Generation's eastern outpost on the Carrefour Vavin. Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Man Ray, Kiki de Montparnasse. Now mostly a serious seafood brasserie — but the vintage coffered ceiling is unchanged.
Even if you don't eat, walk in for thirty seconds — the entrance vestibule has framed period photographs of the regulars. The seafood plateau is the move at lunch; for a quicker visit, sit at the bar and order a half-dozen Belon oysters.
From Wikipedia›
Le Dôme de Marseille is an indoor amphitheatre, located in Marseille, France. The capacity of the arena is 8,500 people.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Lenox Montparnasse1 minHôtel Raspail Montparnasse2 min
48.84180, 2.32840
7La Coupole
Opened 1927 with 33 painted columns by 27 different artists. Capacity 600 — possibly the largest brasserie in Europe. Josephine Baker brought her cheetah to dinner here; Camus celebrated his Nobel in 1957 in the back.
Walk in just to look up — the columns are the point. The lamb curry has been on the menu unchanged since opening. After dinner the basement dance hall sometimes has tango on weekends; check posters at the door.
From Wikipedia›
La Coupole, also known as the Coupole d'Helfaut-Wizernes and originally codenamed Bauvorhaben 21 or Schotterwerk Nordwest, is a Second World War bunker complex in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from Saint-Omer, and some 14.4 kilometers south-southeast from the less developed Blockhaus d'Éperlecques V-2 launch installation in the same area. It was built by the forces of Nazi Germany between 1943 and 1944 to serve as a launch base for V-2 rockets directed against London and southern England and is the earliest known precursor to modern underground missile silos still in existence.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Lenox Montparnasse1 minHôtel Raspail Montparnasse2 min
48.84200, 2.32870