Le Procope

Maybe there is no café in the world with so much history. Decisions were made here, the greatest thinkers gathered here, and it all started as a lemonade kiosk.

In 1686, a young Sicilian named Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli took over a small street stall from an Armenian immigrant who sold lemonade and coffee on the Rue de Tournon. When his mentor left for London, Francesco moved the whole operation to this very spot. Then something unexpected helped him along: in 1689, the Comédie-Française opened directly across the street, the oldest theatre company in the world. Actors, writers, and philosophers poured in almost automatically, and Procope became the first literary coffeehouse in Paris, largely by accident.

The place you are standing in front of now became the beating heart of the Enlightenment and the Revolution. Diderot wrote parts of the Encyclopédie at a marble table that is still here. Voltaire reportedly drank around 40 cups of coffee a day in this room. The Club des Cordeliers met here, Danton and Marat lived in the courtyard next door, and the orders to storm the Tuileries Palace in 1792 were given from inside these walls.

And Napoleon? He once left his hat here as payment because he forgot his wallet. The hat is still on display, which makes this place a true museum.