The French Cafe

The French Cafe

From Booklist If you love Paris, you love caf{}es. Journalist Boyer loves caf{}es, and with the practiced lens of photographer Eric Morin accompanying her, she ushers the privileged reader-viewer of their delightful collaboration on a spin around Paris, to other urban areas of France, and out to places in the French countryside, seeking caf{}es of particular distinction or charm. "For the price of a cup of coffee you can stay as long as you want" is the philosophy of caf{}es; and all the caf{}es Boyer and Morin feature simply beg to be patronized for hours on end. Her prose imparts a good history of French caf{}es and their sociological and cultural place; his photos of exteriors and interiors are beautifully evocative. A helpful directory for travelers is appended, listing "a hundred caf{}es of character in and around Paris and in the provinces of France, chosen for their decor, location or ambience." Not an essential library purchase, but a perfectly pleasurable one. Brad Hooper The French cafe epitomizes the French art of living. Through its timeless glass doors float the aromas of strong coffee and black tobacco, hot milk and fresh croissants. The cafe, open early till late, is both focus and microcosm of society. Friends talk; lovers linger; the white saucers pile up as the world goes by; a lone customer comes in to read the newspapers or for a petit verre at the bar. The French cafe is a refuge, a place to meet, to sit, to see and be seen.An essential book for anyone interested in French life and culture, here is a wonderfully new and intimate look at a great institution, from the grand establishments dating from the beginning of the century to the small rural bistro, from the workers' local cafes to the legendary Parisian cafes where the poets, painters and philosophers gathered. From Directoire decoration to Starck style, this book reveals the rich variety and extraordinary inventiveness of cafe design.