Paris and the written word is a love story older even than print, when books were hand-copied for students in the Latin Quarter. The city’s celebrated cafés have since served as backdrop to many a literary debate or framed a writer in a corner scribbling madly at an open notebook. The French capital is deservedly famous for its hospitality to authors and here Memories France gives you a smattering of addresses to stop at and soak in some inspiration, from the well known historical references to those offering shelter and company to tomorrow’s stars of the Republic of Letters.
CLASSICS
Saint Germain-des-Près and nearby
Les Deux Magots
This august institution calls to tourists to come sip a coffee or nurse a glass of wine, putting themselves for a time in the shoes of such celebrated writers as Ernest Hemingway who set some scenes of The Sun Also Rises here. Luminaries of the French literary scene -- such as Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Louis Aragon, Apollinaire, Albert Camus, George Bataille, Raymond Queneau, Jacques Prévert, and Robert Desnos-- have also added to its fame over the years. Before them, when the place was a mere purveyor of liquor, cameSymbolist poets such as Verlaine, Rimbaud and Mallarmé. To continue to foster talent, the café hosts the monthly the “Writer Mondays” workshops. On top of this, since 1933 it has bestowed a yearly award to a young author deserving of greater recognition, on the last Monday in September. The café’s signature quote comes from the writer and near-mythical minister of culture, André Malraux, “Culture is not inherited, it is conquered.”
📍6, place Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Métro Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Line 4. Open daily
Café de Flore
Just a skip away stands another haunt of a similar set. Hemingway wrote here in the afternoons. Sartre described the hours he and Simone de Beauvoir spent there, working, discussing, and debating with friends. “It may seem bizarre to you, but at the Flore we were at home.” To this day, the upstairs rooms also host gatherings of post-reading poets and the café continues with its proud tradition, also bestowing its own award. The Prix de Flore goes to a young author, usually a first novel, with a 6000+ euro encouragement, as well as a year-long offer of a glass of finest Pouilly Fumé in their own engraved glass.
📍172 Boulevard Saint-Germain, 75006. Métro Saint-Germain des Prés, Line 4. Open daily
Brasserie Lipp
Across from the Deux Magots, editors, authors, and other scribblers follow in the footsteps of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince’s creator), Verlaine and Apollinaire in frequenting this brasserie established in 1880. Since 1935, it also awards a literary prize, the Prix Cazes, for a writer not having otherwise received any other.
📍151 Boulevard Saint-Germain. Métro Saint-Germain des Prés, Line 4. Open daily
We can show you all the ins and outs of the Latin Quarter-Saint Germain des Près, on our tour of the neighborhood, setting the scene for the Lost Generation and their literary proclivities.
If a walking tour with Hemingway himself sounds up your alley, book a tour with a professional actor-guide in the writer’s shoes taking you through his favorite haunts
Le Procope
Coffee and writers go hand in hand. So back in 1686, when the brew was barely a twinkle in Europe’s eye the Procope was already a literary hangout. Right near the French Académie, its members would meet here after hours. Then in the Enlightenment, American ambassador Benjamin Franklin used to enjoy the java, as did Voltaire and Rousseau while Diderot developed his Encyclopedia project within these walls. During the Revolution, Danton and Robespierre would debate here, until both met their dreary ends at the guillotine. Later Honoré de Balzac (who powered his 18 hour writing sessions with 50 cups of coffee a day) and Victor Hugo became customers. By the time Verlaine was coming around in the 1880s, the café was listed in a literary guidebook, so it’s pedigree is beyond compare. Not to be outdone by its Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighbors, the Procope too grants literary prizes, or rather two. The first concerns socio-political philosophers and the second the Prix Jean-Zay, a newcomer to the scene since 2011, and recognizes virtuosos of dark humor.
📍13 rue de l’Ancienne Comédie 75006. Métro Odéon line 4. Open daily.
Montparnasse
La Rotonde
Founded in 1903, the Surrealists made merry here as did expats like Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, and of course Hemingway, who all knew where to find a good drink. Simone de Beauvoir remembered coming here as a Sorbonne student. After her first sip of alcohol in a nearby bar, she was whisked here. She writes “Time no longer existed, it was already two in the morning when at the La Rotonde bar, I drank a ‘green mint’. Around me fluttered faces emerging from another world with miracles bursting at every crossing.”
📍105, boulevard du Montparnasse 75006. Métro Vavin (line 4), Notre Dame des Champs (line 12) Raspail (line) Edgar Quinet (line 6). Open daily
Le Select
These same circles also haunted the nearby Select, established in 1923, just in time to be all the rage for the Roaring Twenties, or as the French say, the Madcap Years. In the more somber era of the Occupation, gay artists and writers met here, finding safety in like company, famous names such as poet Jean Cocteau’s lover, the star of his 1946 Beauty and the Beast, dashingly handsome Jean Marais.
📍99, boulevard du Montparnasse 75006 Métro Vavin (line 4), Notre Dame des Champs (line 12) Raspail (line) Edgar Quinet (line 6). Open daily
La Coupole
Opening in 1927, La Coupole got in the game of the Madcap years, with, again, Jean Cocteau and friends at the helm, while the eternally present Hemingway liked to take a drink here as well, along with Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, in between penning masterpieces. What if you have done entirely too much sightseeing and can’t get up to leave your digs? If you are located in Paris 5, Paris 6, Paris 7, Paris 8, Paris 13, Paris 14, Paris 15, Paris 16, Paris 17, Neuilly sur Seine or Levallois-Perret the La Coupole also delivers signatures dishes to your doorstep, word to the wise.
📍102, boulevard du Montparnasse 75014. Métro Vavin (line 4), Notre Dame des Champs (line 12) Raspail (line) Edgar Quinet (line 6). Open daily
Le Dôme
Appearing in texts of Simone de Beauvoir, Hemingway, Henry Miller, W. Somerset Maugham, Jean-Paul Sartre, and even in Edith Piaf, the other Montparnasse venues have nothing on the Dôme, which opened in 1897. To honor such laurels, this establishment also has its prize, the Prix Double Dôme in literature as well as music and the visual arts. It is awarded to rising French-language artists, one male and one female.
📍108 Boulevard du Montparnasse 75014 Paris. Métro Vavin (line 4), Notre Dame des Champs (line 12) Raspail (line) Edgar Quinet (line 6). Open daily but closed from 3pm to 7pm
La Closerie des Lilas
Yet, opening in 1847, the Closerie des Lilas is the grandmother of the Boulevard Montparnasse literary havens. It started when an establishment welcomed the students coming from the next door dance hall after tripping the light fantastic (Marie Duplessis, inspiration for Dumas Fils’s Lady of The Camellias/Camille/La Traviata got her early start here before her beauty caught the eye of the upper crust). A planted pot of lilacs gave it the name we know it by today. Here you might have met with Zola, Théophile Gautier, Baudelaire or the Goncourt Brothers with their august literary prize that started the others, or a little later, the poet Apollinaire, André Breton the pope of Surrealism, and Dada Master extraordinaire, Tristan Tzara
When Henry Miller named the nearby Vavin crossroads (now named after Picasso) the “navel of the world” it became an official HQ for him and his crowd. It’s said that here Hemingway penned most of his 1921 The Sun also Rises, and that on the terrace the author would read the manuscript of the a younger writer named Fitzgerald, whose book was entitled The Great Gatsby. The Closerie also has its own prize, awarded to the most inappropriate book to see publication that year.
📍171 Boulevard du Montparnasse. Métro Port-Royal ( RER B). Cocktails open at 11 am, the brasserie an hour later, open daily.
Opéra
Café de la Paix
A legend in our time and well before, right near the Opéra Garnier and its phantom, this luxurious café dating from 1862 saw the likes of Emile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, Marcel Proust, and André Gide as customers. Of course, that pillar of watering holes, Hemingway, also stopped by. And no wonder: at the cutting edge of artistic creation, by 1896 it hosted projections of the bits of film that would conquer the world as the Seventh Art. As a pilgrim to this most luxurious of all Parisian cafés, your pocketbook may feel the effects of your homage, but it may well be the highest density people-watching hot spot for the well-heeled and their wannabes that you could possibly find.
📍5 Place De L'Opéra, 75009. Métro Opéra (lines 3, 7, and 8). Open daily
Drouant
Founded in 1880, the Drouant is the elected home of that prestigious bestower of French literary awards, the Académie Goncourt, which has counted among their members Colette, Louis Aragon and so many other grand names of the written word. On the first Tuesday of every month since 1914 to this day they have met and continue to meet in this self-styled “temple” of literature. The name is well-earned, for since 1926 it also offers the Prix Renaudot, established by students unable to wait for the Goncourt’s results, named for a 16-17th century editor of one of the first newspapers, the Gazette de France
📍18 rue Gaillon, 75002. Métro Opera (lines lines 3, 7, and 8) or Quatre Septembre (line 3). Open daily
UP AND COMING
Shakespeare and Company Café
We were tempted to put this in with the Classics: the bookshop, taking up the mantle of Sylvia Beach’s Lost Generation establishment near the Odeon, has indeed been in business since 1951, hosting Beat Poets in the day, as well as welcoming customers like Henry Miller, Anais Nin and James Baldwin. True to its vocation, and its motto out of the Bible “‘Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise,” the establishment has continued sheltering poets and writers passing through Paris, baptized the Tumbleweeds at no cost except the obligation to help out in the shop for a few hours. It offers regular readings and free events with many authors, including in recent years Annie Ernaux, Colson Whitehead, Deborah Levy and Rachel Cusk. What is new is its café, which looks out on Notre Dame, and thus an unbeatable place to crack open that volume of poems you just picked up next door, and jot your own thoughts in your journal. You might even cross paths with a Tumbleweed and if you do, make sure you note their name and maybe even their autograph.
📍37 rue de la Bûcherie 75005. Métro Cité (line) 4 or Cluny La Sorbonne (line 10). Open daily
Bar Perché, Printemps Haussmann (Homme)
You might not think this fashionista headquarters to host a literary scene but it has recently opened its Bar Perché, with its magnificent view on the Eiffel Tower, certainly a point of inspiration. Whether at teatime or for the apéro, its generous terrace offers a space to “bouquiner” or dive into a something you’ve bought next door at La Librairie Par Gibert, itself an institution, with its 20 000 volumes. Come with pages you want to turn or to write, you’ll find others of like-mind.
📍70 Boulevard Haussmann 75009 Métro Havre-Caumartin (lines 3 et 9). Open daily
Les Editeurs
In the Odeon neighborhood, a favorite of Parisian publishing houses, stands this new address with its 5000 books scattered all over or in proper shelved rows making for cosy little nooks with comfy armchairs and booths. Here, or on the generous terrace, you might even run into your own future editor! In proper Saint-Germain style, the house hosts a literary circle, which when the Jazz festival is on, invites musicians to come chat as well.
📍4 carrefour de l’Odéon, 75006 Paris. Métro Odéon, (line 4). Open daily till 2 am.
Café-Bookshop Tram
Another newcomer to the literary scene is Tram, set on a cobblestone street near the Pantheon, final resting place of the likes of Victor Hugo and others. Inspired by its famous neighbors, here thousands of titles offer an embarrassment of riches if you’re willing to venture into French-language literature, which you can thumb through as you sip a coffee and nibble at one of the fabulous pastries, or outright enjoy an unforgettable lunch with a sympa service. You can even buy a little carnet for your own works, at the café’s stationer’s corner. Fun fact, Tram is is on the street in the film Midnight in Paris where Owen Wilson travels back in time!
📍47 rue de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève, 75005. Métro Cardinal Lemoine (line 10). Closed Sunday and Monday
Used Book Café
“Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack”
— Virgina Woolf
Not far from the Picasso museum, you can come take your pick amongst this pied plumage of thousands of wild books, and settle in for a good read of them at the café. This address, as frequented by neighborhood locals as international visitors, is also a good place for a peaceful tête-à-tête, or intimate gathering of friends within the cozy confines of shelves of thousands of wild books.
📍111 bd Beaumarchais, 75003. Métro Saint-Sébastien-Froissart (line 8). Closed Saturday
Book Nook (BKNK)
Joining ranks with the independent Beta Publishing House, their own hybrid books lining the shelved walls, this convivial bookshop-café offers you matcha lattes or CBD recipes, an off-the-beaten-track address for an alt-literary culture in which a publisher, its editors and writers meet to whip up a creative ferment. Here, revolution of the book industry fills the air, on top of which, they offer weekend brunches!
📍11 rue Blanche, 75009. Métro Trinité – d'Estienne d'Orves (line 12). Open daily
Maison Fleuret
Originating back in 1872, this one is for the romantics, a one-time bookshop in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. It’s motto comes from Proust who wrote that "Dishes are read, and books are eaten." Here you are invited in with whatever volume obsessing you at present, and read while enjoying something sweet to sip on, or nibble from their veggie leaning menu, in a poetic encounter with the countless books lining its walls “where dishes become novels, and books are highly edible!”
📍30 Rue Des Saints-Peres, 75007. Métro Rue du Bac (line 12) and Saint-Germain-des-Prés (line 4). Closed Monday and Tuesday
L’Ours et la Vieille Grille
In the Latin Quarter where the whole love affair with books started, between the Jardin des Plantes and the Arènes de Lutèce, stands this two-story, quirky address, the Bear and the Old Gate (they’ve kept the gate). One-time theater, today it is a gathering place of for all lovers of books, but especially for the poets since, although you can find all sorts of books here, contemporary chapbooks and other volumes of verse, free or otherwise, that make up the focus of the establishment. The proprietors -- who also own their own independent publishing house, LansKine-- welcome you to come upstairs and work remotely (on your novel or your job) or get some reading in, while those around you whisper to keep the atmosphere. Come evening, the wine cellar gears up for a literary program where authors come to meet and hear each other read, or maybe even enjoy a concert on the corner piano.
📍9 rue Larrey 75005. Métro Place Monge or Censier-Daubenton (line 7). Closed Sunday and Monday
La Belle Hortense
With its name straight out of a novel set on this street by poet Jacques Roubaud, here books and wine marry well. Not only is there physical sustenance (and delicious sustenance at that), but not living by tapas alone we discover too that this wine bar and restaurant is a bookstore and art gallery as well. Whether seated up at the bar, or in the back where the atmosphere grows cozier, here writers and other Parisians consult Brigitte as to what they should sip by the glass that evening or even what bottle to bring home for dinner. Note the hopscotch path traced on the floor.
📍31 rue Vieille du Temple 75003. Métro Saint Paul or Hôtel de Ville (Line 1). Closed Monday and Tuesday
OFF THE BEATEN PATH
Librairie Violette and Co.
A feminist bookshop originally opened back in 2004, this LGBTQIA+ space was an institution before its founders retired in 2022. A activist collective decided that the show must go on and reopened it recently, with a calm café in its bookshop with its 6000 volumes. The selection remains true to the vision of its beginnings, including a comic and manga heavy youth section, fighting for higher visibility on a world that often offers little room for a marginalized part of humanity. One thing we particularly love is its practice of suspended drinks, that is, paying the amount of a drink for someone who might not have the means themselves, either present or yet to come in.
📍52 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011 métro Parmentier (line 3). Closed Monday
La Régulière
In the colorful neighborhood of the Goutte d’Or (Golden Droplet) this independent bookshop with its concentration in graphic arts -- titles from underrepresented authors and independent publishers are given pride of place -- is also a coffee shop and art gallery. It triples as a workspace full of hanging plants for ambiance, for the modest price of one item consumed per hour. A spot for the littles and less littles to discover is included as well, with art and reading workshops for them. For the older set the bookshop often hosts readings, art openings, round tables, writing workshops and book clubs. To boot, a cat prowls the premises, insuring that all everything is in order. What’s not to love?
📍43 rue Myrha 75018. Métro Château-Rouge (line 4). Closed Monday
L'Eau et les rêves
Water and Dreams, title of a book by Gaston Bachelard, is a fine name for this green-scaped barge anchored on the Canal de l’Ourcq. If you love books about gardens, forests, ecology, all things botanical, this is the bookshop for you, including how-to books on permaculture, zero-waste and do it yourself cosmetics. But to figure in our series of literary addresses, it is also a floating café with a covered terrace, where you can work or just come in for the weekend brunch where all is homemade. A corner where the small ones can also learn of plants and ecology is also present. The barge is often the site of meetings, readings, and signings with authors, festivals and barter sessions.
📍9 Quai de l'Oise 75019. Métro Riquet (line 7) or Ourcq (line 5). Closed Monday and Tuesday
Manga Café V2
A fan’s dream: Japanese candy and a new manga to buy in the bookshop, in between two PS4 video games, a café, as well a library of 18000 volumes upstairs, all for 3€ to 4€ an hour. You can enjoy these nippon delights up at a table, on a cushy couch or even on a futon on the floor, however you’re most comfortable, while life size figures of your favorite manga characters look on.
📍9 rue Primo Levi 75013. Métro Bibliothèque François Mitterand (line 14). Open daily
Now for our final offering which comes with our own Prix Memories France to emerging authors, and the winner is: YOU
Café Pli
Pli is a dusty old word for “letter,” an object quickly becoming itself a relic of a world gone by. So pick up your plume and pen one to your future self. It can be anything, from a burst of nostalgia, a time capsule of your trip to the City of Lights, to a reassurance of your commitment that life holds promises in store (as it always does). Geneviève will send the letter on in the time-frame from you wish, one year, ten, or even twenty. When you’ve forgotten even writing it perhaps, it’ll appear in your mailbox, a beautiful whiff of a moment long past. And while you’re inspired (the atmosphere will do it) pen another to a friend near or far, one to another for a special occasion, and yet another to one who deserves to be remembered, a teacher or a long lost love – your imagination is the sole limit. You simply choose a postcard and the writing implement, then you open your heart and let the words flow on to paper. There’s even an photobooth if you want to send a shot of yourself. When done, seal up the envelope with the colored wax on the candle provided. The whole experience comes to some 15 euros, depending on your order and where you send your card, how many you send, length of time kept aside and where it is eventually sent, but you can also get a package deal, a letter breakfast 8:30am to 11am or a letter-apéro between 6pm and 9pm.
📍38 rue du Faubourg du Temple, 75011. Métro Goncourt (line 11). Closed Monday and Tuesday
We hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse of Paris’s scribbler side, from the arch-traditional to the cutting edge. Settle into any of them and you’re sure yourself to get a masterpiece down on paper or in pixel, and we can’t wait to read it!
