Seems like a lifetime ago, the social lifestyle we used to have when we were able to go to cafés and terraces, just sit in the sun for a while or enjoy the beautiful habit of people watching.
I remember when, early in the morning, when the city was not even half awake, Café de Flore opened its doors for les habituels. They were reading the newspaper 10 minutes before running to work—a Parisian luxury that many hope to indulge in again soon.
The café’s terrasse was never empty, and at any given moment of the day, you could have find the wicker chairs and round metal tables filled with people sipping espresso, reading books, catching up with friends, or later in the day, enjoying a glass of wine and contemplating life.
Café de Flore used to be bien fréquenté, as one of their managers says when talking about the café. Mostly known for its history as a rendezvous spot for Surrealist artists and intellectuals, luminaries like Ernest Hemingway, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Julia Child, Pablo Picasso, and Albert Camus were known to frequent this ever-inspiring and iconic quartier de Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
But the café scene is even more established and modern on the right side of the Seine, specifically in les Hauts Marais, where coffee places such as Fragments are the very definition of cosy and creative spots, where the coffee is not only exceptional, but there are non-dairy options on offer, as well as specialities like the best avocado toast in town, Swedish-style cinnamon buns, or mouthwatering carrot cakes. Of course, these places are not open at the moment.
In the meantime, as I’m day dreaming about the day when we’ll be able to go to our favourite cafés in the city once again, here are a few addresses that are open for takeaway or have a mise en place system (click & collect) to respect the rules of deconfinement but to serve the clients as well.
