Café de Flore: Why It Is the Most Famous Café in Paris (and Is It Worth Visiting?)
Updated: Oct 15
The waiters still wear long white aprons and black waistcoats, the banquettes are still red, and the mirrors still throw back the light of boulevard Saint-Germain onto the Art Deco walls. Order a hot chocolate and it arrives in its own little pot, thick and dark, with a jug of cream on the side. Look up at the first floor, and you are looking at the room where Simone de Beauvoir wrote her novels during the Occupation, wrapped in her coat, because it was the only warm place she could find.
Café de Flore is famous because, for more than half a century, it was the living room of Parisian intellectual life: Apollinaire and the young surrealists gathered there from 1917, and during and after the Second World War it became the home of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and existentialism. It has kept its 1930s Art Deco interior almost intact, at 172 boulevard Saint-Germain, in the 6th arrondissement.
When did Café de Flore open?
Nobody is quite sure. The date usually given is around 1885, the same period as its neighbour and eternal rival, Les Deux Magots, just across the little square. For its first years it was simply a neighbourhood café, named after a statue of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, that stood nearby.
Around 1900 it took on an unexpected political colour: the nationalist movement Action Française, led by Charles Maurras, held its meetings there, and the first issue of its bulletin was written on the first floor.
How did Café de Flore become the café of writers and artists?
It began in 1917, when the poet Guillaume Apollinaire settled near the stove and made the café his office. He brought his young friends with him: André Breton, Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, Philippe Soupault. Some of the ideas that became surrealism were discussed around those little marble tables, even if Montparnasse and Montmartre were still the main artists' quarters.
The real golden age began in 1939, when a new owner, Paul Boubal, installed a large stove that heated the whole café, including the quiet first floor. During the Occupation, when heating was rare, that warmth changed everything. Simone de Beauvoir came to write there every day, and Jean-Paul Sartre joined her in 1941, after returning from a German prison camp. Boubal let them stay for hours over a single drink. They worked there all day and received friends in the evening: Albert Camus, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Raymond Aron. It is often said that Sartre even had a telephone line reserved for him at the café.
After the Liberation, the Flore and Saint-Germain-des-Prés became the centre of the world for young Parisians: existentialism, jazz cellars, Boris Vian, Juliette Gréco, Jacques Prévert. Since 1994, the café has also given its name to a literary award, the Prix de Flore, which keeps that tradition alive.
Café de Flore or Les Deux Magots?
Both are beautiful, both are historic, and both are a few steps apart. Les Deux Magots, with its terrace facing the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, is associated with Hemingway, Picasso and the surrealists of the 1920s. The Flore is more intimate inside, with its red banquettes and first-floor room, and more closely linked to Sartre and Beauvoir. Both terraces are wonderful for watching Saint-Germain go by. If you only have time for one, I would choose the Flore, for its hot chocolate and the story of its first floor.
Is Café de Flore worth visiting today?
Yes, as long as you know what you are coming for. Most of the customers today are visitors, and prices are well above those of an ordinary Paris café: you are paying for the setting and the history, not for a bargain. Go for a coffee or the famous hot chocolate rather than a full meal, and choose a quiet hour, ideally early in the morning. On a cold or rainy day, the first floor is calmer and still feels like the room where Beauvoir wrote.
My own advice: arrive early and take a table outside, on the terrace, so you can feel Paris and watch it wake up around you. And above all, do not leave without tasting the hot chocolate, which is certainly one of the best in Paris.
The Flore is a natural stop on a literary walk through Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which is exactly what our Literary Food Walk Through Paris explores. For other legendary tables of the city, here are the iconic Paris restaurants loved by writers and artists, and if you are visiting the museums nearby, here is where to eat near the Musée d'Orsay, a fifteen-minute walk away.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Café de Flore so famous?
Because it was the meeting place of Paris's writers and thinkers for more than fifty years, from Apollinaire and the surrealists in 1917 to Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and the existentialists during and after the Second World War.
Where is Café de Flore?
At 172 boulevard Saint-Germain, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, at the corner of rue Saint-Benoît, next to Les Deux Magots. The nearest métro station is Saint-Germain-des-Prés, line 4.
Did Sartre really write at Café de Flore?
Yes. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir worked there almost every day from the early 1940s, often on the first floor, which was heated when much of Paris was not.
Is Café de Flore expensive?
It is more expensive than an ordinary Paris café, because you are paying for the history and the setting. A coffee or a hot chocolate is the best way to enjoy it without spending on a full meal.
If you would love to discover Saint-Germain-des-Prés through its cafés, bookshops and literary tables, I would be happy to design that day for you. Tell me about your trip.
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