Café Culture in France

Cafe Deux Magots.

French cafés as Social Media.

French cafés are more than just a place for a stiff espresso. French cafes are extremely important places to meet others, talk freely, and make connections. Customers often use neighbourhood cafes to have packages dropped off or find the name of a local electrician. And in rural areas, the local cafe is often the only place outside work and home to meet and chat or read the newspaper.

But increasingly, iconic French cafes are changing or dying off. The “Brooklynization” of cafes means more coffee being served in to-go cups, an abundance of co-working spaces, and rural cafes shuttering.

Café Culture in Paris

In the last half century, the number of cafes has dropped from approximately 200,000 to 40,000. So French President Emmanuel Macron recently approved a €150 million euro rescue plan to save One thousand cafes in small towns.

Cafe closures and new client demands have altered the way cafe owners do business, with some moving toward acceptance of changing habits, and others remaining steadfast in their desire to hold onto the past.

Just sitting and watching at a Cafe in Paris

People Watching at a Cafe in Paris

Even so, French cafe culture is alive. Owners – French and foreign patrons – desire to keep it alive, even if that means seeing it in a new way. They’ve gone through a major transformation over the years, but still hold a very important place in the collective imagination of French people.

Many clients use to find community while working or escape small apartments etc. Proprietors have adapted in various ways to the change in culture. In many cafes owners can ask customers to buy a drink every hour and leave at noon to make way for lunch-goers. Some cafes do advertisment as a co-office, allowing computers to be opened, but only during certain hours, in order to preserve a convivial cafe ambiance.

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