Café in France
In 1644, an Armenian merchant brought the first coffee to Marseille. This is according to literature that clearly documents the origin of coffee in France via Jean de Laroque, a traveller to the Levant.
The Levant and the influence of the eastern Mediterranean region on coffee and its spread, not only as a trade route but also as the place of origin of a long-established method of coffee preparation in the Ottoman Empire and among the neighbouring Armenians, played a decisive role in the early history of French coffee.
Coffee culture itself did not reach France until around thirty years later, in 1671, after an Ottoman had made coffee fashionable and the first coffee houses had opened. As in other countries, the correct preparation of coffee was the decisive factor in promoting coffee consumption – which is still true today.
The Ottoman envoy Suleiman Aga sought contact with the Sun King in order to renew the Franco-Ottoman alliance on behalf of Mohammed IV. After Louis XIV expelled him from Versailles to Paris due to a political scandal, Aga devised a new strategy to win advocates in the influential circles of the nobility.
In 1669, Suleiman Aga presented coffee as a ‘magical drink’ served mixed with cloves, cardamom and sugar. He had an elegantly designed house built, where he invited the Parisian authorities and had waiters dressed in Ottoman attire serve the newfangled black drink. He quickly became the darling of the ladies of Parisian high society, who quickly came to appreciate and imitate his extravagant coffee ceremonies with music and theatre performances.
He was thus a major catalyst for French Orientalism, which was strongly criticised by Molière on the orders of Louis XIV. However, this had little effect, and turbans, caftans, carpets, cushions, confectionery and parrots became fashionable throughout France.
In 1669, a single shop run by an Armenian in Paris, located in Faubourg, St. Honoré, sold coffee beans. It was a small beginning, but more would soon follow.
Two years later, in 1671, an Armenian named Pascal ran a coffee stand called ‘Maison de coava’ at the fair in St. Germain. He sold coffee from a tent and had waiters dressed in Ottoman clothing offer small cups of coffee throughout the fairgrounds. The Armenians knew coffee and how to prepare it from the Ottoman Empire and brought it to all corners of Europe during this period (1645-1670). They were responsible for the first coffee houses opening in Vienna, Oxford, London and almost all major cities.
In 1672, Pascal opened a permanent coffee bar in Marseilles on Rue du Louvres, later on Quai de l'école. Only Knights of the Order of Malta, foreigners and a few merchants who knew coffee from the Orient visited his café. Due to economic failure, he closed the café and decided to move to London to open a café there.
In 1675, the first coffee house opened in Paris, where Procopio dei Coltelli worked as a waiter – but its operator was none other than Pascal. He handed over the successful café to Maliban, another Armenian, who took over the café located near the Abbaye de Saint Germain in Rue Bussy. He opened another café on Rue Férou (near St. Sulpice). Churches meant frequent visitors and customers. Maliban, who also sold tobacco in the cafés, left his business to his assistant Gregor and moved to Holland.
Gregor, an Armenian who came from Isfahan in Persia, decided to introduce literature into his café, as he had seen in the coffee houses of the Orient. There, coffee houses were places of poetry, literature and theatre. He therefore moved the café to Rue Mazarin, near the Comédie Française, in 1685, in order to be closer to intellectual guests. His decision proved to be a complete success, and many literary figures praised the ‘theatre café’ to the skies.
Gregor later handed over the very successful café on Rue Mazarin to Markar, who was also Armenian, and the café on Rue Férou to Le Gantois.
In 1686, what is probably the most famous coffee house in France, the Café Procope, opened. The Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, who now had a licence to sell spices, ice cream and lemonade, opened this café, which is still the oldest surviving coffee house in Europe today. It is often mistakenly referred to as the first coffee house in Paris. It was a highly luxurious coffee house with large mirrors from St. Gobain and a select clientele, to which women also had access.
In order to control access to exotic goods, François Damame was granted the first sales privilege for coffee by Louis XIV in 1692. This gave him exclusive import and sales rights for ten years in all cities and provinces of the kingdom. The price for a pound of coffee was set at 4 francs, and a cup of coffee (‘une prise de café’) at 3 sols and 6 deniers. To ensure better control, coffee could only be imported via the port of Marseille.
In 1711, a new coffee drink developed in France, probably derived from the Yemeni Quisher, the ‘Café á la Sultane’ – a drink made from brewed, dried coffee cherries, which was introduced by Nicolas de Bois-Regard Andry (1658-1742), a doctor and professor at the Royal Academy. It is also reasonable to assume that the idea arose from the high price of coffee and was a cheaper alternative to bean coffee.
At that time, ground coffee was cheaper than whole coffee beans, as it is today, because it was stretched with roasted peas. The quality of the coffee could already be recognised by the colour in the cup, as roasted peas did not develop the same colour intensity as coffee beans – so inferior qualities were hidden in ground coffee then as now.
In 1714, the mayor of Amsterdam sent a coffee tree approximately 5 feet tall to Louis XIV as part of war reparations. The king had the plant planted in the botanical garden in Paris. On the recommendation of Monsieur Chirac (one of Louis XIV's personal physicians), seedlings from this plant were brought to Martinique in 1720 by the young naval officer Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu. Within 50 years, this one plant – which, incidentally, is the original Tipica coffee plant – had developed into around 18,000,000 coffee plants, which the French spread throughout all their Caribbean possessions.
Numerous health debates flared up, fuelled and promoted by various parties and interest groups. It was not until 1718 that it was proven that coffee did not cause apoplexy, as had long been claimed by its opponents. In the same year, a doctor from Grenoble recommended drinking coffee with milk, known as ‘café au lait’, which quickly became a popular trend.
During the reign of Louis XV (1715-1774) – who, unlike Louis XIV, was himself a coffee drinker – there were around 600 coffee houses in Paris. By the end of the 18th century, there were already over 800. With the introduction of the first coffee percolator, ‘La Débelloire’ by Jean-Baptiste de Belloy (Archbishop of Paris [1802-1808]), which greatly simplified coffee preparation, the number of cafés grew to over 3,000.
At the 1855 Paris World's Fair, Edouard Loysel de Santais finally presented the first hydrostatic percolator – a coffee machine that could prepare large quantities of coffee under pressure – the ancestor of espresso machines.
France is therefore not only the origin of Tipica coffee and Bourbon coffee – which still bears the name of the royal noble family today – but also the starting point for the development of the espresso machine – a not insignificant contribution to the coffee world we live in today.
Since its opening on 5 May 1862, the Café de la Paix has enjoyed a worldwide reputation. In 1896, Eugène Pirou screened the first films with his cinematograph from 8 p.m. to midnight. In the 1950s, Marlene Dietrich frequented the café, attracting large numbers of visitors. In 2003, the Café de la Paix was completely renovated, strictly preserving the original furnishings.
Café Procope (Le Procope): www.procope.com
Founded in 1686 by Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, this café is considered the oldest existing coffee house in Europe. In addition to coffee, it also offered ice cream, which was an innovation at the time. In the 18th century, it became a famous literary café and is considered the cradle of the ideas of the French Revolution.
Café les Deux Magots: www.lesdeuxmagots.fr
Founded in 1812 at 23 Rue de Buci, the café moved to 6 Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1873 due to lack of space. The two seated figures of Chinese merchants that gave the café its name also date from this period.
Café de Flore: www.cafedeflore.fr
The café opened in 1887 and owes its name to a sculpture of the goddess Flora that stood across the street. Karl Lagerfeld is a frequent guest at Café de Flore.
Founded in 1861, the café bears the name ‘good drinking’ and was the first place in France to offer beer from a tap.
Café Brûlot: Flambéed coffee with cognac, spices and sugar. Very popular in New Orleans.
Café Granité: Coffee sweetened with sugar is frozen; shavings are scraped from the frozen coffee with a spoon and placed in a pre-chilled glass with cream.
Café Liégois: French iced coffee with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.
Café Serré: French ‘espresso’ prepared with very little water.
The Levant and the influence of the eastern Mediterranean region on coffee and its spread, not only as a trade route but also as the place of origin of a long-established method of coffee preparation in the Ottoman Empire and among the neighbouring Armenians, played a decisive role in the early history of French coffee.
Coffee culture itself did not reach France until around thirty years later, in 1671, after an Ottoman had made coffee fashionable and the first coffee houses had opened. As in other countries, the correct preparation of coffee was the decisive factor in promoting coffee consumption – which is still true today.
The Ottoman envoy Suleiman Aga sought contact with the Sun King in order to renew the Franco-Ottoman alliance on behalf of Mohammed IV. After Louis XIV expelled him from Versailles to Paris due to a political scandal, Aga devised a new strategy to win advocates in the influential circles of the nobility.
In 1669, Suleiman Aga presented coffee as a ‘magical drink’ served mixed with cloves, cardamom and sugar. He had an elegantly designed house built, where he invited the Parisian authorities and had waiters dressed in Ottoman attire serve the newfangled black drink. He quickly became the darling of the ladies of Parisian high society, who quickly came to appreciate and imitate his extravagant coffee ceremonies with music and theatre performances.
He was thus a major catalyst for French Orientalism, which was strongly criticised by Molière on the orders of Louis XIV. However, this had little effect, and turbans, caftans, carpets, cushions, confectionery and parrots became fashionable throughout France.
In 1669, a single shop run by an Armenian in Paris, located in Faubourg, St. Honoré, sold coffee beans. It was a small beginning, but more would soon follow.
Two years later, in 1671, an Armenian named Pascal ran a coffee stand called ‘Maison de coava’ at the fair in St. Germain. He sold coffee from a tent and had waiters dressed in Ottoman clothing offer small cups of coffee throughout the fairgrounds. The Armenians knew coffee and how to prepare it from the Ottoman Empire and brought it to all corners of Europe during this period (1645-1670). They were responsible for the first coffee houses opening in Vienna, Oxford, London and almost all major cities.
In 1672, Pascal opened a permanent coffee bar in Marseilles on Rue du Louvres, later on Quai de l'école. Only Knights of the Order of Malta, foreigners and a few merchants who knew coffee from the Orient visited his café. Due to economic failure, he closed the café and decided to move to London to open a café there.
In 1675, the first coffee house opened in Paris, where Procopio dei Coltelli worked as a waiter – but its operator was none other than Pascal. He handed over the successful café to Maliban, another Armenian, who took over the café located near the Abbaye de Saint Germain in Rue Bussy. He opened another café on Rue Férou (near St. Sulpice). Churches meant frequent visitors and customers. Maliban, who also sold tobacco in the cafés, left his business to his assistant Gregor and moved to Holland.
Gregor, an Armenian who came from Isfahan in Persia, decided to introduce literature into his café, as he had seen in the coffee houses of the Orient. There, coffee houses were places of poetry, literature and theatre. He therefore moved the café to Rue Mazarin, near the Comédie Française, in 1685, in order to be closer to intellectual guests. His decision proved to be a complete success, and many literary figures praised the ‘theatre café’ to the skies.
Gregor later handed over the very successful café on Rue Mazarin to Markar, who was also Armenian, and the café on Rue Férou to Le Gantois.
In 1686, what is probably the most famous coffee house in France, the Café Procope, opened. The Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, who now had a licence to sell spices, ice cream and lemonade, opened this café, which is still the oldest surviving coffee house in Europe today. It is often mistakenly referred to as the first coffee house in Paris. It was a highly luxurious coffee house with large mirrors from St. Gobain and a select clientele, to which women also had access.
In order to control access to exotic goods, François Damame was granted the first sales privilege for coffee by Louis XIV in 1692. This gave him exclusive import and sales rights for ten years in all cities and provinces of the kingdom. The price for a pound of coffee was set at 4 francs, and a cup of coffee (‘une prise de café’) at 3 sols and 6 deniers. To ensure better control, coffee could only be imported via the port of Marseille.
In 1711, a new coffee drink developed in France, probably derived from the Yemeni Quisher, the ‘Café á la Sultane’ – a drink made from brewed, dried coffee cherries, which was introduced by Nicolas de Bois-Regard Andry (1658-1742), a doctor and professor at the Royal Academy. It is also reasonable to assume that the idea arose from the high price of coffee and was a cheaper alternative to bean coffee.
At that time, ground coffee was cheaper than whole coffee beans, as it is today, because it was stretched with roasted peas. The quality of the coffee could already be recognised by the colour in the cup, as roasted peas did not develop the same colour intensity as coffee beans – so inferior qualities were hidden in ground coffee then as now.
In 1714, the mayor of Amsterdam sent a coffee tree approximately 5 feet tall to Louis XIV as part of war reparations. The king had the plant planted in the botanical garden in Paris. On the recommendation of Monsieur Chirac (one of Louis XIV's personal physicians), seedlings from this plant were brought to Martinique in 1720 by the young naval officer Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu. Within 50 years, this one plant – which, incidentally, is the original Tipica coffee plant – had developed into around 18,000,000 coffee plants, which the French spread throughout all their Caribbean possessions.
Numerous health debates flared up, fuelled and promoted by various parties and interest groups. It was not until 1718 that it was proven that coffee did not cause apoplexy, as had long been claimed by its opponents. In the same year, a doctor from Grenoble recommended drinking coffee with milk, known as ‘café au lait’, which quickly became a popular trend.
During the reign of Louis XV (1715-1774) – who, unlike Louis XIV, was himself a coffee drinker – there were around 600 coffee houses in Paris. By the end of the 18th century, there were already over 800. With the introduction of the first coffee percolator, ‘La Débelloire’ by Jean-Baptiste de Belloy (Archbishop of Paris [1802-1808]), which greatly simplified coffee preparation, the number of cafés grew to over 3,000.
At the 1855 Paris World's Fair, Edouard Loysel de Santais finally presented the first hydrostatic percolator – a coffee machine that could prepare large quantities of coffee under pressure – the ancestor of espresso machines.
France is therefore not only the origin of Tipica coffee and Bourbon coffee – which still bears the name of the royal noble family today – but also the starting point for the development of the espresso machine – a not insignificant contribution to the coffee world we live in today.
Famous coffee houses in France
Paris
Café de la Paix: www.cafedelapaix.frSince its opening on 5 May 1862, the Café de la Paix has enjoyed a worldwide reputation. In 1896, Eugène Pirou screened the first films with his cinematograph from 8 p.m. to midnight. In the 1950s, Marlene Dietrich frequented the café, attracting large numbers of visitors. In 2003, the Café de la Paix was completely renovated, strictly preserving the original furnishings.
Café Procope (Le Procope): www.procope.com
Founded in 1686 by Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, this café is considered the oldest existing coffee house in Europe. In addition to coffee, it also offered ice cream, which was an innovation at the time. In the 18th century, it became a famous literary café and is considered the cradle of the ideas of the French Revolution.
Café les Deux Magots: www.lesdeuxmagots.fr
Founded in 1812 at 23 Rue de Buci, the café moved to 6 Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1873 due to lack of space. The two seated figures of Chinese merchants that gave the café its name also date from this period.
Café de Flore: www.cafedeflore.fr
The café opened in 1887 and owes its name to a sculpture of the goddess Flora that stood across the street. Karl Lagerfeld is a frequent guest at Café de Flore.
Moulins
Grand Café: Founded in 1898, this Art Nouveau café is considered one of the most beautiful coffee houses in France. It also has post-Baroque features. Huge mirrors give the building an impressive infinite perspective.Toulouse
Café Bibent: www.maisonconstant.com/bibent/Founded in 1861, the café bears the name ‘good drinking’ and was the first place in France to offer beer from a tap.
French coffee drinks
Café au Lait: French milk coffee, drunk from a boule, 1/2 coffee, 1/2 milk.Café Brûlot: Flambéed coffee with cognac, spices and sugar. Very popular in New Orleans.
Café Granité: Coffee sweetened with sugar is frozen; shavings are scraped from the frozen coffee with a spoon and placed in a pre-chilled glass with cream.
Café Liégois: French iced coffee with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.
Café Serré: French ‘espresso’ prepared with very little water.