One Day in Paris - Lunch

You would have thought that finding somewhere to eat would be easy in Paris. It is if you start looking at 11:30 am. By 1pm everyone is entrenched in their perfect spot on the pavement cafes and watching the world go by….if they are not nose down in electronic devices!

Boulevard St Germain had me singing ‘Where do you go to my lovely?’, (even though that is Boulevard St Michel) fortunately in my head. As we strolled along one of the most beautiful streets in Paris I wondered how I would view the Boulevard had I the money to have it as my High Street.

As we came across cafes, bistros and brasseries the prices were telling us that the address in itself had a currency much like any capital city. So we decided we would take a side street and see if a change of address would make a difference - it didn’t.

We were back on the main boulevard and a café on the corner seemed to be quite popular. They could only seat in twos outside but there was space inside. Ordinarily we may have moved on but time and tummy were telling us we had to stop.

If ever I was to believe in Spirit Guides then this was it. The Café had a stylish antiquity that gave you the feeling of being in a ‘French Salon’ where maybe people had met and enjoyed the arts. The photographs on the wall caught my eye.

In most places the photographs such as these have some significance to the building and these most certainly did. Amongst those who had been there were Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemmingway, Simone de Beauvoir and James Joyce. The waiter explained that all of these artists had frequented the cafe that had been built 130 years previously.

We had stumbled upon ‘Les Deux Magots’.

It had an atmosphere that made me just want to stay here and not leave. I could watch people all day, have coffee and then tea with the most delicious cakes served to me as I wrote my masterpieces. Instead I bombarded the waiter with questions and then asked him to take our photo, ‘My second job’ he responded.

Reinvigorated with our Parisian lunch we were ready to tackle the walk to the bookshop.