ImagesBrighton pictures of the week 27-7-2004

IMAGESBRIGHTON photography by david gray
	P A R I S C A F E S
	P I C T U R E S O F T H E W E E K 2 7 - 7 - 2 0 0 4

The first cafe in the world was opened in Paris in 1686 by a Sicilian called Francesco Procopio. Le Procope is still there in St Germain, though now a restaurant. Voltaire is said to have been a regular visitor, drinking an astonishing forty cups a day of a mixture of coffee and chocolate. If he did that today, especially at a fashionable cafe "terrasse", he'd have to be a very rich man. Countless tourists have discovered that a cafe au lait drunk sitting down costs twice as much as the same cup standing at the counter. One of those little tricks deployed by Parisians to catch foreigners out. To be fair, an hour or so of happy idling at a good cafe on a lively boulevard is well worth the price. You will also probably get a better welcome nowadays, since French cafes are finding it much harder to survive. Changing work patterns and the growth of fast food outlets have been eroding their business. It would be sad indeed to see the end of them. The pictures in this set were all taken in June 2004.

Reading the papers at a cafe on the Left Bank (image 2525-287)

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