10 Famous Paris Cafés You Should Visit
Real addresses, real history, and what each one actually costs — no fluff, no guessing.
Quick Facts
- CountryFrance
- CityParis
- CurrencyEuro (€)
- LanguageFrench
- Main café districtsSaint-Germain-des-Prés (6th) and Montparnasse (6th/14th)
- Typical coffee price€4–7 at a table, less at the bar
- Best time to visitBefore 10am or after 9pm to avoid the worst crowds
- Nearest metro hubSaint-Germain-des-Prés (Line 4) or Vavin (Line 4)
Why These Ten Cafés
Paris has thousands of cafés. Most of them are unremarkable in the best way , a coffee, a newspaper, a few minutes of quiet. The ten on this list are different. Each one has a documented history: a founding date, a roster of regulars, sometimes a literary prize named after it. You’re not just buying a coffee at these places, you’re sitting where Hemingway sat, or where Sartre argued with Camus, or where Voltaire supposedly drank forty cups a day.
That history comes at a price. Expect to pay more here than at a neighborhood café, and expect crowds, especially in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Montparnasse. I’ve included real addresses, opening hours where I could confirm them, and honest notes on cost so you know what you’re walking into.
1. Café de Flore
Café de Flore
Café de Flore sits on the corner of Boulevard Saint-Germain and Rue Saint-Benoît, named after a statue of Flora across the street. Its own website dates the opening to 1887, though Wikipedia notes the exact date is undocumented , it simply “appeared” sometime in the 1880s, during the Third Republic. What’s not disputed is the guest list: Sartre and Beauvoir wrote here for years, and Picasso, Camus, and later Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway all had their turn at its red banquette seats.
The décor hasn’t changed much since the 1930s: red banquettes, mahogany tables, brass fittings. Drinks still arrive in the café’s signature white-and-green china. It’s touristy, and the staff know it, but the room itself is the real thing.
2. Les Deux Magots
Les Deux Magots
Directly across from Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots takes its name from two carved wooden Mandarin figures , “magots” still mounted on a central pillar inside, leftover décor from the building’s earlier life as a fabric and novelty shop. It became a café in the mid-1880s and quickly built its own guest list: Verlaine and Rimbaud early on, then Hemingway, Joyce, Picasso, Sartre, and Beauvoir through the 20th century. Since 1933, the café has awarded its own literary prize, the Prix des Deux Magots, to an unconventional French novel each year , and it’s still handed out today.
The terrace looks out on Place Sartre-Beauvoir and the Église Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which makes it one of the better spots on this list simply to sit and watch Paris go by.
3. Le Procope
Le Procope
Le Procope claims the title of the oldest café in Paris, opened in 1686 by the Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli. It was the city’s first spot to serve coffee with proper table service in porcelain cups, at a time when coffee itself was still a novelty in France. Voltaire is said to have worked through 40 cups a day here. Rousseau, Diderot, and Benjamin Franklin were regulars too, and the café later hosted political discussion during the French Revolution. According to café lore, Napoleon once left his hat behind as collateral for an unpaid bill , it’s still on display.
Le Procope operates now mostly as a restaurant, with dark wood paneling, antique mirrors, and a hidden outdoor terrace. If you want the coffeehouse experience specifically, the afternoon coffee lounge is the way to do it without committing to a full meal.
4. Café de la Paix
Café de la Paix
Built in 1862 as part of the Grand Hôtel next to what’s now the Opéra Garnier, Café de la Paix belongs to Haussmann’s Second Empire Paris, the same wave of renovation that reshaped the city’s boulevards. Its guest list runs to Victor Hugo and the Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev. The interior keeps its ornate ceiling frescoes and gilded columns, more grand hotel lobby than casual café.
Sit indoors near the window rather than at the back — the rear tables are dimmer and less photogenic for the price you’re paying.
5. La Closerie des Lilas
La Closerie des Lilas
La Closerie des Lilas opened in 1847 and is the oldest of the Montparnasse cafés on this list, older than the district’s café scene by decades. Hemingway called it his “home café” — a place to actually write rather than be seen — and edited The Sun Also Rises at one of its tables. F. Scott Fitzgerald reportedly read him an early draft of The Great Gatsby here. Baudelaire and Zola were regulars in the 19th century, drawn partly by the terrace’s lilac bushes, which gave the café its name.
Unlike La Rotonde or Le Select, this one is set back from the boulevard behind greenery, which keeps it noticeably calmer.
6. La Rotonde
La Rotonde
Victor Libion opened La Rotonde in 1911 and ran it in a way that made it an artists’ haven almost by accident: he let painters nurse a single coffee for hours, looked the other way when someone was short on cash, and reportedly accepted drawings in place of payment. Picasso, Modigliani, and a circle of Bolshevik exiles all passed through. Hemingway went often despite disliking the place , he compared walking in to entering “the bird house of a zoo.”
It’s kept more of its bohemian edge than some of its Montparnasse neighbors, with walls that still nod to the era when artists paid their tabs in sketches.
7. Le Dôme
Le Dôme
Le Dôme opened in 1898, the first of the big Montparnasse cafés to draw a specifically intellectual and artistic crowd — its regulars earned the nickname “Dômiers.” Anaïs Nin, Amedeo Modigliani, and Wassily Kandinsky all spent time here in the early 1900s, when the café functioned as an informal exchange for artistic gossip and ideas.
Le Dôme has drifted furthest from “café” toward “restaurant” of anything on this list. Go in expecting a proper seafood dinner, not a quick espresso.
8. Le Select
Le Select
Le Select opened in 1923 near the Vavin crossroads, now Place Pablo-Picasso, and became a hangout for Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, and Man Ray during the interwar years. Hemingway reportedly called it “the soul of Montparnasse.” Compared to La Coupole across the street, it’s smaller and less polished , deliberately so, by most accounts, and unpretentious in a way its neighbors aren’t.
Ask staff to point out where Hemingway used to sit — most are happy to, and it’s one of the few spots on this list where the anecdote feels earned rather than rehearsed for tourists.
9. La Coupole
La Coupole
Ernest Fraux and René Lafon opened La Coupole on December 20, 1927, right as the Roaring Twenties were peaking in Montparnasse. It’s the largest and most theatrical of the Montparnasse brasseries, decorated in full Art Deco style, with painted pillars contributed by a rotating cast of resident artists at the time. It’s technically a brasserie rather than a café, but its role in the same 1920s scene as Le Select and La Rotonde earns it a spot here.
Even if you skip the meal, it’s worth stepping inside just to see the painted columns , dozens of different artists contributed panels when the café opened, and most are still there.
10. Angelina
Angelina
Angelina opened in 1903 on Rue de Rivoli, founded by Antoine Rumpelmayer and named for his daughter-in-law. It’s a tea salon rather than a coffeehouse, and it’s built its reputation almost entirely on one drink: the “chocolat l’Africain,” a hot chocolate thick enough that it’s closer to drinking melted chocolate than cocoa. It arrives in a small jug with whipped cream on the side. Coco Chanel was reportedly a regular, always at table 45.
Angelina sits directly across from the Tuileries Garden and steps from the Louvre, which makes it an easy stop to fold into a museum day. Expect a line, especially in the afternoon.
Café Etiquette and Pricing in Paris
A few things are worth knowing before you sit down at any of these.
| Where you sit | What it usually costs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standing at the bar (comptoir) | Lowest price | Common for a quick espresso; no table service |
| Indoor table | Mid-range | Standard café pricing applies |
| Terrace/outdoor table | Highest price | Street-facing seats often cost more, especially at famous addresses |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Paris café is the oldest?
Le Procope, opened in 1686 in the 6th arrondissement. It’s widely credited as the oldest café in Paris still operating today, though it now functions more as a restaurant than a casual coffee stop.
Are Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots worth the tourist crowds?
Both are genuinely historic rather than manufactured attractions — the décor and the guest lists are real. Whether the crowds and prices are worth it depends on what you want: if you’re after a quiet coffee, pick a smaller neighborhood café instead. If you want to sit in a room that shaped 20th-century French literature, these two deliver that.
Do I need a reservation for these cafés?
For a coffee, no. For dinner at the brasserie-style spots — La Coupole, Le Dôme, La Rotonde, Le Procope — reserving ahead is a good idea, especially on weekend evenings.
Which café has the best hot chocolate?
Angelina’s “chocolat l’Africain” has the strongest reputation citywide for thickness and richness. Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore both serve well-regarded versions too, if you’d rather stay in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Are these cafés expensive?
Yes, relative to an average Paris café. Expect to pay a premium for the history and the address, particularly for a terrace table. Standing at the bar for an espresso is the cheapest way to experience any of them.
What’s the difference between these cafés and the Montparnasse brasseries on this list?
Technically, La Rotonde, Le Dôme, Le Select, and La Coupole are brasseries — larger, full-menu establishments — rather than cafés in the strict sense. They’re included here because they share the same 1920s Montparnasse café culture and the same regulars as the others on this list.
Publisher Notes
Angelina hot chocolate price before publishing , most recent confirmed figure (2020) was €8.20; current menus may differ. current opening hours for La Rotonde, Le Dôme, and Café de la Paix, which were not confirmed via live source in this research pass. Related-article slugs below (Montparnasse guide, 3-day Paris itinerary) are placeholders for companion pieces in this cluster and should be replaced with live URLs once those articles exist.
Been to one of these cafés recently? Prices and hours change — let us know what you found in the comments so this guide stays accurate.