Les Deux Magots on Boulevard St-Germain
The Café Les Deux Magots is an iconic café and one of the last vestiges of a bygone era, and stands opposite the Saint-Germain-des-Prés abbey church.
It retained the name of the shop selling Chinese fabrics and antiques that occupied the premises in 1873. The owner was indeed inspired by the successful play “Les Deux Magots de la Chine” (The Two Magots of China) when choosing the name for his shop.
In 1884, the silk shop gave way to the café, and two Chinese statuettes, known as “Les Deux Magots,” remained and still adorn the central pillar of the ground-floor room. Like its neighbour, the Café de Flore, the Café des Deux Magots quickly became a meeting place for intellectuals, artists, and writers, establishing itself in turn as a true Parisian institution.
The Mecca of poetry and letters
The Café Les Deux Magots quickly became a haven for artists of the time, counting among its regulars luminaries such as Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Mallarmé, and soon established itself as the epicentre of Parisian poetic expression.
Auguste Boulay acquired the establishment in 1914, and his descendants still owned the establishment. From 1920 onward, the café became a favoured meeting place for Surrealist writers, thanks to the influence of Jacques Prévert and André Breton.
The Prix des Deux Magots was founded in 1933, following the awarding of the Prix Goncourt to André Malraux for La Condition Humaine, thus cementing its prestige as a literary café. The intellectuals, writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians of the post-war Existentialist era flocked in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, solidifying the cultural status of Les Deux Magots and contributing to the neighbourhood’s international renown. André Gide, Boris Vian, Elsa Triolet, Fernand Léger, Giacometti, Hemingway, Jean Giraudoux, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Juliette Gréco, Picasso, Prévert, and Raymond Queneau are just a few of the personalities who frequented its tables.
To this day, Les Deux Magots remains deeply rooted in tradition. Customers are indeed still served by waiters dressed in black and white aprons, thus preserving the authentic Parisian bistro atmosphere.
Directions: 6th district – 6 Place Saint-Germain des Prés
Metro: Saint Germain des Pres on Line 4
Coordinates: Lat 48.854006 – Long 2.333205
