The most enjoyable cafés in Paris are often ordinary, local places, but there are particular areas which café-lizards head for. Boulevards Montparnasse and St-Germain on the Left Bank are especially favoured. There you'll find the Select, Coupole, Closerie des Lilas, Deux Magots and Flore – the erstwhile hangouts of Apollinaire, Picasso, Hemingway, Sartre and de Beauvoir, and mostly still popular today with the Parisian intelligentsia.The location of other lively Left Bank cafés is largely determined by the geography of the university. Science students gravitate towards the cafés in rue Linné, by the Jardin des Plantes. The humanities gather in the place de la Sorbonne and rue Soufflot. And the whole world – especially non-Parisians – finds its way to the place St-André-des-Arts and the downhill end of boulevard St-Michel. The more contemporary, up-and-coming gay, arty and hip café culture is found on the Right Bank around the Marais, Bastille and eastern Paris, where the new concept of the culture café goes beyond the literary and intellectual scene into art exhibitions, live music and Internet access. The opening of the landmark Bastille Opéra in 1989 saw a growth in new cafés, art galleries, restaurants and bars in the immediate area and futher east in the traditional working-class quarters of Belleville, Ménilmontant and Charonne. As the young and the trendy have moved in, they've kept the old charm of premises like the Café Charbon, while giving them a contemporary energy. You can drink a leisurely cup of coffee in a plethora of gay bars in the Marais by day before they transform into spots for night-time revelry. Nearby, Les Halles, once fashionable, now finds its trade is principally transient out-of-towners up for the bright lights. As to cost, obviously, addresses in the smarter or more touristy arrondissements set prices soaring. The Champs-Élysées and rue de Rivoli, for instance, are best avoided, at double or triple the price of a café in Belleville, La Villette or the lower 14e. As a rule of thumb, if you are watching your budget, avoid the main squares and boulevards. Cafés a little removed from the main thoroughfares are invariably cheaper.
| 