Café La Corona Coffee Mug

Café la Corona à rue de l'Amiral de Coligny et quai du Louvre Parisian cafés are not just places that serve food and drink but places to meet friends and talk and work and make deals and read the papers and watch life passing by. These grand institutions began during the 17th century with the spread all over Europe of the Arab taste for coffee. The oldest cafe in Paris is the Procope, which has been operating on the Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie ever since 1686. The Procope was nearly a century old when it claimed Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire among its customers. Later came the revolutionaries, Robespierre, Danton, Marat and even Napoleon. "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."