Rita Crane Photography: Paris / historic cafe / night / architecture / lanterns / Left Bank / Le Procope, Latin Quarter, Paris

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    Dear Flickr friends, we are going to return to Paris with several views of Paris cafes and restaurants from my archives.

    Here is Paris' OLDEST cafe, dating to the 1600's! In the late 1700's the French Revolutionaries met here to plan their moves. A historically important place and well known in its day as the center of French revolutionary activities. In addition, their American friends, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson wined and dined here, and enjoyed the exciting new beverage of the day: coffee! When it was first introduced into France coffee was considered a 'radical drink' and Madame de Pompadour apparently tried unsuccessfully to have it banned from court. !! The back entrance to this cafe is on the ancient Cour de Commerce St. Andre which has remained unchanged for centuries and has some of Paris' oldest cobblestones that you can see in "Bistro 1900, Paris" a wonderful old bistro which is situated right behind the Procope. (see my photo below of Bistro 1900).

    And here is some helpful information from a Flickr email I received:

    "Le Procope was founded in 1648 -- yes, that's true -- but it derives its importance from the fact that The Enlightenment of the 18th century can be said to have been hatched there and that it continued to be a source of intellectual and artistic ferment until the end of La Belle Epoque (World War I, 1914 - 1919) when the Western world lost its innocence. It does not derive its importance from a visit of Benjamin Franklin because he went there precisely because of the reputation that Le Procope, at his age, still had."

    More about Le Procope: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%c3%a9_Procope

    This is one of the cafes from a set of nineteen images from my recent show "Historic Cafes of Paris" See the rest of them in my Cafes of Paris set. :o)
    www.flickr.com/photos/44548980@N00/sets/72157600076275556/

    Judy & Paul, John Levanen, juntos ( MOSTLY OFF), Maureen F., and 67 other people added this photo to their favorites.

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    1. BigGuy1611 38 months ago | reply

      Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Why I Love Paris, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

    2. nebulous 1 36 months ago | reply

      This is great, the fotos and the info!! Well I guess I will just have to go back to Paris!

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