Le Procope & Cour du Commerce Saint-André: Coffee, Pamphlets and the Guillotine
Why is it significant?
Stand on Rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie in front of the red facade with gilded lettering and old lanterns, and read the date on the front: 1686. Le Procope is often called the oldest café in Paris, and for three centuries it has been the place where writers came to talk far more than they wrote.
Key Facts
| Place | Le Procope & Cour du Commerce Saint-André: Coffee, Pamphlets and the Guillotine |
|---|---|
| Address | 13 Rue de l'Ancienne Comédie, 75006 Paris, France |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.85310, 2.33880 |
| Part of Walk | Ink, Coffee and Revolution: A Literary Walk Through Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand on Rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie in front of the red facade with gilded lettering and old lanterns, and read the date on the front: 1686. Le Procope is often called the oldest café in Paris, and for three centuries it has been the place where writers came to talk far more than they wrote.
It was opened by a Sicilian, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, at a time when coffee was still an exotic novelty. His timing was perfect. In 1689 the Comédie-Française moved into a theatre right across this street, which is why it is still called the street of the Old Comedy. Actors, critics and playwrights poured in after every performance, and the café became the city's first literary salon with a counter.
In the eighteenth century the regulars read like a table of contents of the Enlightenment: Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau. Legend has Voltaire drinking dozens of cups a day of coffee mixed with chocolate. Benjamin Franklin, in Paris to win French support for American independence, was a regular too. And inside, behind glass, you can see a bicorne hat. The story goes that a young, penniless artillery officer named Bonaparte left it as security for an unpaid bill.
Now walk around the corner into the cobbled passage behind the café, the Cour du Commerce Saint-André. In 1789 and the years after, this was a nest of revolutionaries. Jean-Paul Marat printed his furious newspaper, The Friend of the People, at number 8, and Danton lived just steps away. Legend says Doctor Guillotin's new machine was tested here on sheep before it was ever used on people. Nobody can prove it... but the legend refuses to leave.
Look into the shop windows on the left side of the passage: in one of them, the base of a stone tower from the wall that King Philippe Auguste built around Paris around the year 1200 still stands, right among the tables. Then come back out and cross the Boulevard Saint-Germain into Rue de l'Odéon, the gently rising street leading south toward a theatre with columns.