One of the historically resonant cafés in Paris — Sartre and de Beauvoir wrote here, Camus argued here, and the terrace on the corner of Boulevard Saint-Germain and Rue Saint-Benoît remains a well-known Paris café experience. Overpriced, always crowded, and entirely worth one long morning.
Why It Belongs on the List
Café de Flore is not the best café in Paris by any culinary measure — the croissants are ordinary, the prices are high, and the tourists outnumber the philosophers. It is nevertheless essential: the corner terrace on Boulevard Saint-Germain is one of the great public spaces in any city, and the act of sitting over a grand crème watching the street is specifically and irreducibly Parisian. Go once, on a weekday morning, and stay for two hours.
What Stands Out
- Most historically resonant café in Paris
- Saint-Germain-des-Prés
- Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus — the Existentialist café
- Go on a weekday morning
- Stay for two hours