The quality of the coffee is worth the trouble; not quite as good as its direct neighbor, but the coffee itself is ground 50 meters away (at the ``maison MEO'') which guarentees freshness, and therefore a taste always identical. It is well balanced, not to strong, but perhaps a bit short.

If Madame prefers coffee which is not too strong, then for her it is Aux Villes du Nord, whereas without doubt, Monsieur will prefer its neighbor Rendez-Vous des Belges...

Brasserie Lipp

Where: 151 blvd St-Germain, 6th
Métro stop: St-Germain-des-Prés
Open: 08h - 0h45 daily; Closed August.
Brasserie Lipp is a preserve of the Belle Epoque world of 1900. Léonard Lipp opened his brasserie in the 1870's after fleeing Alsace during the Franco-Prussian War. As such, it's menu is typical of that region including beer, sausage, sauerkraut and so forth. It stayed in the family until 1920 when Marcellin Cazas bought it in 1920. In 1958 Cazes was given the Legion of Honor for running the best literary salon in Paris. No wonder the publishers Grasset, Gallimard, and Hachette are nearby. But it has also been a meeting place for television personalities, ministers (it is halfway between the French Senate, and National Assembly), and actors, among others.

Ernest Hemingway also frequented Brasserie Lipp, and in his book A Moveable Feast wrote:

The beer was very cold and wonderful to drink. The pommes à l'huile were firm and marinated and the olive oil delicious. I ground black peper over the potatoes and moistened the bread in the olive oil. After the first heavy draft of beer I drank and ate very slowly. When the pommes à l'huile were gone I ordered another serving of cervelas. This was a sausage like a heavy, wide frankfurter split in two and covered with a special mustard sauce.
I mopped up all the oil and all of the sauce with bread and drank the beer slowly until it began to loose its coldness and finished it and ordered a demi ...

Where: rue de Dunkerque, 10th
Métro stop: Austerlitz.
RER stop: Austerlitz.

Service : Nothing special, but correct. The small terasse can be nice on sunny days, and you can be sure to be well off of the tourist track if you come here. Don't expect anything more from this café than you would from any other train station anywhere else in the world. Then again, perhaps exactly this piece of daily life is what you are looking for.

Le Dauphin 

Le Dauphin is an unassuming turn of the century braqsserie and café one block north of the Louvre, just outside André Malraux Square. The brasserie has been family-owned and operated since 1945 and offers a variety of traditional entrees, a modest selection of regional wines, and memorable desserts such as the hot prune pie with Armagnac. Expresso and other coffees are standard for this type of café.

The rear dining room provides a dark, slightly decaying refuge to linger over dinner or coffee and is a stark contrast to the traffic congested square just outside.

Much to my dismay, an additional dining room was recently added but does not distract from the brasserie's original atmosphere.

Where: 172 blvd, St Germain, 6th
Métro stop: St-Germain-des-Prés.
Open: 7h - 01h30 Daily.
Like its celebrated rival Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore can claim to have been the heart of the Existentialist Movement during the early part of this century with Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Camus and others regularly meeting here.

Where: place de la Bastille, 4th
Métro stop: Bastille.

Where: 93, ave des Champs Élysées, 8th
Métro stop: George V.

Le Paris probably has the least expensive coffee on all of of the Champs Élysées. Rather than a tourist place - and the Champs Élysées is full of them of course - Le Paris has a clientel of regulars. These are people who work on the Champs, people from CCF which is just a few metres up the street, as well as other businesses. The waiters and proprietor are friendly and know their customers. Overall, it is a a small oasis from the tourists outside.

Where: Cour Napoléon; 93, rue de Rivoli; 1st Arrondisement.
Tel: 49 26 06 60
Métro stop: Palais-Royal Musée du Louvre.
The place to be and be seen, Le Café Marly is in the Richelieu wing of the Louvre Palace. It's terrace is on the Cour Napoléon; the Pyramid is no more than 50 yards away. Inside of the café, glass walls are all that seperate the salon from sculpture and works of art in the Louvre itself.

Situated just across from the building of the engineering school for computer science EPITA, Le Campo is a very friendly small café Many students congregate here (notably due to the proximity with EPITA and the Medical School at the Pitie Salpetriere and the associated nursing school). So the ambiance is therefore very student linke, and Parisienne, yet calm and it isn't that noisy!

The interior of the café, the placement of the tables, and the decor allows one to have an excellent café. The service is simple, rapid and efficient - exactly as it should be! With two of my colleagues, we thus savored the excellent pure Arrabica here at Le Campo - and we appreciated it! It is really very very good - worth trying!

Situé juste en face du batiment de l'ecole d'ingenieurs informaticiens EPITA, LE CAMPO est un petit café bien sympathique. Beaucoup d'etudiants s'y retrouvent (notamment par la proximite de l'ecole EPITA et de la faculte de medecine de la Pitie Salpetriere ainsi que l'ecole d'infirmieres qui y est associee). L'ambiance est donc tres etudiante et Parisienne, mais calme et il n'y a pas trop de bruits!

L'interieur du café, la disposition des tables ainsi que le decor permettent de boire un excellent café. Le service est simple, rapide et efficace : c'est juste comme il faut! Avec 2 de mes collegues, nous avons donc deguste l'excellent pur Arrabica disponible a LE CAMPO ... et nous avons apprecie! Il est vraiment tres tres bon.... a essayer!

Situated just across from the building of the engineering school for computer science EPITA, Le Campo is a very friendly small café Many students congregate here (notably due to the proximity with EPITA and the Medical School at the Pitie Salpetriere and the associated nursing school). So the ambiance is therefore very student linke, and Parisienne, yet calm and it isn't that noisy!

The interior of the café, the placement of the tables, and the decor allows one to have an excellent café. The service is simple, rapid and efficient - exactly as it should be! With two of my colleagues, we thus savored the excellent pure Arrabica here at Le Campo - and we appreciated it! It is really very very good - worth trying!

The coffee is - by the way - very good. After having questioned the waiter, I found out that it is a pure Arabica. The Canon des Gobelins also has excellent decaffinated coffee for those who like that (which isn't my case) : my financée tried it and she thought it was good.

Ambiance: Typicially Parisian.
Service: Normal, well done, and discretely.
Quality of the Coffee: Excellent (less expensive and better than at Fouquets).

Where: 170 blvd, St Germain, 6th
Métro stop: St-Germain-des-Prés.
Open: 8h - 02h Daily; closed second week of January.
Named after the two wooden statues (the two magots) which still dominate the room, Les Deux Magots is one the most famous cafés in Paris. Jean-Paul Sartre, and Hemingway were both patrons in an earlier era. Its rival - Café de Flore - is just next door.

Where: 133, ave Champs Elysées, 8th
Métro stop: Etoile.
Open: 9h - 02h Daily.

Ambiance: Very bourgeois and distinguished.
Service: Fast, and absolutely perfect.
Quality of the Coffee: Very good but without anything exceptional.