Cafes in Paris

Source: Anh Minh VnExpress and By Liz Alderman The New York Times

The cafés in Paris are not only a place to eat and drink. Parisian cafés are a social institution, a place to meet with friends or colleagues, but also a pleasurable way of sitting unbothered for a while with a book or just watching the world pass by. Few other cities can match the café culture of Paris. Synonymous with ornate interiors and sprawling terraces, the city's rich café history blossomed in the late-19th century, when writers, philosophers, and creatives would spend hours discussing any and all topics in Paris' largest coffee shops.

The sound of clinking wine glasses floated through the evening air recently as throngs of patrons sipped chilled rosé and nibbled on cheese plates in front of the cafes, restaurants and épiceries bordering Place d’Aligre in the Bastille district of Paris.

Waiters threaded through the crowd, their trays loaded with Aperol spritzes and oysters, as more people hurried in to meet friends. Children played tag and scampered to their parents to grab an occasional French fry. Tourists ordered drinks and posed for Instagram photos sure to inspire envy back home.

The diners were squeezed into hundreds of chairs that had been put out earlier in the afternoon. But time was precious; the entire inviting setup would have to be dismantled by 10:00pm under strict post-pandemic rules to balance the interests of those enjoying the scene — and those finding it a nuisance.

Paris has long been renowned for its bustling cafe culture, with 13,000 open-air terraces occupying sidewalks and squares in the years before the pandemic. But thousands of additional outdoor spaces bloomed under an emergency program set up to relieve businesses during Covid lockdowns. They are now permanent, after a 2021 decree by Mayor Anne Hidalgo that allows them to return every year from April through November.

As a result, parts of Paris that used to be vacant or even sketchy have morphed into animated destinations, complete with a mini-economic boom. The Place d’Aligre is one of them. Mostly empty at night before 2020, a vibrant transformation has unfolded here.

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