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55-470: Les Deux Magots ( French pronunciation: [le dø maɡo] ) is a famous café and restaurant situated at 6, Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris' 6th arrondissement , France. It once had a reputation as the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual elite of the city. It is now a popular tourist destination. Its historical reputation is derived from the patronage of Surrealist artists, intellectuals to

110-448: A beverage to be enjoyed, and it had a limited clientele. He left for London, and another Armenian named Maliban opened a new café on the rue de Buci , where he also sold tobacco and pipes. His café also had little commercial success, and he left for Holland. A waiter from his café, an Armenian named Grigoire, born in Persia, took over the business and opened it on rue Mazarine , near

165-621: A depot to collect and preserve the furniture, decorations, and art treasures of the nationalised churches and monasteries. The old monastery officially became the Museum of French Monuments. The paintings collected were transferred to the Louvre, where they became the property of the Central Museum of the Arts, the ancestor of the modern Louvre, which opened there at the end of 1793. The École des Beaux Arts ,

220-476: A few days away. Now these political prisoners began to be viewed as a genuine threat, should any of them be conspiring with France's enemies. In what was a planned but inhumane tactic, politicians at Paris sent bands of criminals, armed mainly with pikes and axes, into each prison. Although at least one deputy from the Convention accompanied each band, the results were horrifying. Hundreds of prisoners were cut down in

275-556: A palace with extensive gardens and established herself as a patroness of literature and the arts, until her death in 1615. In 1673 the theatrical troupe in the city, the Comédie-Française , was expelled from its building on Rue Saint-Honoré rue Saint‑Honoré and moved to the left bank, to the passage de Pont-Neuf (the present-day rue Jacques‑Callot ), just outside the Saint‑Germain quarter. Its presence displeased

330-488: A success; the café is still in business. By 1723 there were more than three hundred eighty cafés in the city. The Café Procope particularly attracted the literary community of Paris, because many book publishers, editors and printers lived in the quarter. The writers Diderot and d'Alembert are said to have planned their massive philosophical work, the Encyclopédie , at Procope, and at another popular literary meeting place,

385-544: A unit in São Paulo . There are more plans to new units in Cape Town , Prague , London and Guangzhou . 48°51′14″N 2°20′00″E  /  48.854°N 2.3332°E  / 48.854; 2.3332 Saint-Germain-des-Pr%C3%A9s Saint-Germain-des-Prés ( French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ ʒɛʁmɛ̃ de pʁe] ) is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris , France , located around

440-608: A wide south to north axis from the Montparnasse railroad station to the Seine. which became the rue de Rennes . The rue de Rennes was only completed as far as the parvis in the front of the Church of Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés by the end of the Second Empire in 1871, and stopped there, sparing the maze of narrow streets between boulevard Saint‑Germain and the river. The quarter

495-420: Is so sale , so utterly depressing, so hopeless. Pray do what you can." He corrected proofs of his earlier work, but refused to write anything new. "I can write, but have lost the joy of writing", he told his editor. He kept enough sense of humor to remark: "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go." He died on 30 November 1900, and was first buried in a small cemetery outside

550-456: The Brasserie Lipp and Les Deux Magots , where the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and writer Simone de Beauvoir held court. Sartre (1905–1980) was the most prominent figure of the period; he was a philosopher, the founder of the school of existentialism , but also a novelist, playwright, and theater director. He also was very involved in the Paris politics of the left; after the war he

605-683: The Brasserie Lipp , as well as many bookstores and publishing houses. In the 1940s and 1950s, it was the centre of the existentialist movement (associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir ). It is also home to the École des Beaux-Arts , Sciences Po , the Saints-Pères biomedical university center of the University of Paris , the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences , and

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660-651: The Cordeliers Section of what is now the 6th arrondissement , became centers of revolutionary activity after 1789; they produced thousands of pamphlets, newspapers, and proclamations which influenced the Parisian population and that of France as a whole. The prison of the Abbey of Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés, a two-storey building near the church, was filled with persons who had been arrested for suspicion of counter-revolutionary motives: former aristocrats, priests who refused to accept

715-455: The Far East ". The name originally belonged to a fabric and novelty shop at nearby 23 Rue de Buci. The shop sold silk lingerie and took its name from a popular play of the moment (19th century) entitled Les Deux Magots de la Chine . Its two statues represent Chinese " mandarins ", or " magicians " (or " alchemists "), who gaze out over the room. In 1873, the business moved to its current location in

770-448: The Musée national Eugène Delacroix , in the former apartment and studio of painter Eugène Delacroix . Until the 17th century the land where the quarter is located was prone to flooding from the Seine, and little building took place there; it was largely open fields, or prés , which gave the quarter its name. The Saint-Germain-des-Prés Abbey in the center of the quarter was founded in

825-461: The 6th century by the son of Clovis I , Childebert I (ruled 511–558). In 542, while making war in Spain , Childebert raised his siege of Zaragoza when he heard that the inhabitants had placed themselves under the protection of the martyr Saint Vincent . In gratitude the bishop of Zaragoza presented him with the saint's stole . When Childebert returned to Paris, he caused a church to be erected to house

880-408: The Abbey developed into a major center of scholarship and learning. A village grew up around the Abbey, which had about six hundred inhabitants by the 12th century. The modern rue du Four is the site of the old ovens of the monastery, and the dining hall was located along the modern rue de l'Abbaye . A parish church, the church of Saint-Pierre, also was built on the left bank, at the site of

935-544: The American Thomas Eakins . Architects graduated from the school included Gabriel Davioud , Charles Garnier , and the Americans Julia Morgan , Richard Morris Hunt and Bernard Maybeck . The painter Eugène Delacroix established his residence and studio at 6 rue de Furstenberg and lived there from 1857 until his death in 1863. The vast public works projects of Napoleon III and his Prefect of

990-785: The Bertrand family of Auvergne , owners of the Angelina tea house, of fast food chain Bert's, and of the Sir Winston pub chain. In 1935, then innkeeper Marcellin Cazes established the Prix Cazes, a literary prize awarded each year to an author who has won no other literary prize. Up to the present day, the prize is advertised by the Lipp. Recipients The writer Pierre Bourgeade (1927–2009) wrote several pieces with

1045-644: The Café Carrefour, an all-night restaurant. Because of its low rents and proximity to the University, the quarter was also popular with students from the French colonies in Africa. There were between three and five thousand African students in the city; their association had its headquarters at 184 boulevard Saint‑Germain and 28 rue Serpente . Because of the number of workers, it also hosted an important bureau of

1100-779: The Café Landelle on the rue de Buci . A significant event in American history took place on 3 September 1783 at the Hotel York at 56 rue Jacob ; the signing of the Treaty of Paris between Britain and the United States, which ended the American Revolution and granted the U.S. its independence. The signing followed the American victory at the Siege of Yorktown , won with assistance of

1155-683: The Cordeliers Section. The Monastery of Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés was closed and its religious ornaments were taken away. The buildings of the monastery were declared national property and sold or rented to private owners. One large building was turned into a gunpowder storeroom; it exploded, wrecking a large part of the monastery. Another large monastery in the quarter, that of the Petits-Augustins, had been closed and stripped of its religious ornamentation. The empty buildings were taken over by an archaeologist, Alexandre Lenoir , who turned it into

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1210-693: The French Communist Party. Immediately after the War, Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés and the nearby Saint-Michel neighbourhood became home to many small jazz clubs, mostly located in cellars, due to the shortage of any suitable space, and because the music at late hours was less likely to disturb the neighbors. The first to open in 1945 was the Caveau des Lorientais, near boulevard Saint‑Michel , which introduced Parisians to New Orleans Jazz, played by clarinetist Claude Luter and his band. It closed shortly afterwards, but

1265-552: The French fleet and French army. The American delegation included Benjamin Franklin , John Adams and John Jay . After the signing, they remained for a commemorative painting by the American artist Benjamin West , but the British delegates refused to pose for the painting, so the painting was never finished. Because of its numerous printers and publishers, Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés, and especially

1320-650: The Paris intellectual community, and celebrities from the Paris cultural world. They soon had doormen who controlled who was important or famous enough to be allowed inside into the cramped, smoke-filled cellars. A few of the musicians went on to celebrated careers; Sidney Bechet was the star of the first jazz festival held at the Salle Pleyel in 1949, and headlined at the Olympia music hall in 1955. The musicians were soon divided between those who played traditional New Orleans jazz, and those who wanted more modern varieties. Most of

1375-635: The Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés . In 1884, the business changed to a café and liquoriste , but kept the name. Auguste Boulay bought the business in 1914, when it was on the brink of bankruptcy, for 400,000 francs. Auguste Boulay's son added glass walls to allow more light into the café. The statues remained the same since the store opened (they were not replaced by copies). A café Les Deux Magots opened in Tokyo in 1989. Catherine Mathivat, great-great-granddaughter of Auguste Boulay, started to work in

1430-456: The Revolution in 1789, when it was closed down permanently. At the end of the 16th century, Margaret of Valois (1553–1615) the estranged wife of King Henry IV of France but still officially Queen of France, decided to build a residence in the quarter, in lands belonging to the Abbey near the Seine just west of the modern rue de Seine , near the present Institut de France . She built

1485-485: The Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann in the 1860s dramatically changed the map of the quarter. To reduce the congestion of the narrow maze of streets on the Left Bank, Haussmann had intended to turn the rue des Ecoles into a major boulevard, but the slope was too steep, and he decided instead to construct boulevard Saint‑Germain through the heart of the neighborhood. It was not completed until 1889. He also began

1540-487: The area. Gentrifying real estate values then intervened. By 2009 many publishers, including Hachette Livre and Flammarion had moved out of the community. Brasserie Lipp On 27 October 1880  ( 1880-10-27 ) , Léonard Lipp and his wife Pétronille opened the brasserie on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Their speciality was a cervelat rémoulade starter, then choucroute garnie , served with

1595-527: The authorities of the neighboring Collége des Quatres-Nations (the present Institut de France ) and in 1689 they moved again, this time to the rue des Fossés des Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés (the modern rue de l'Ancienne‑Comédie ), where they remained until 1770. The poor condition of the theater roof forced them to move in that year to the right bank, to the Hall of machines of the Tuileries Palace, which

1650-478: The baton to his son Roger. On 29 October 1965, Mehdi Ben Barka , a Moroccan anti-monarchist politician opposed to King Hassan II , was abducted by the Morocco Secret Service in front of the brasserie, probably with the help of the French. The 'Ben Barka Affair' became a political scandal which fundamentally changed France–Morocco relations . Since 1990, the brasserie has been progressively developed by

1705-635: The café in 1993, and took over when her father died in 2012. In 2016, the café led a study revealing that 60% of its clientele were international tourists. In 2017, Mathivat partnered with her cousin Jacques Vergnaud to redesign the café and reclaim its Parisian clientele. In 2022, the Saint-Germain café alone made a revenue of 15 million euros. In 2023, a café Les Deux Magots opened in Riyadh ( Saudi Arabia ) and another one in Tokyo . In December 2023, it opened

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1760-525: The case of Nicolas Grenier . Egyptian writer Albert Cossery spent the later part of his life living in a hotel in this district. James Baldwin frequented the cafés, written about in Notes of a Native Son . Charles Dickens describes the fictional Tellson's Bank as "established in the Saint Germain Quarter of Paris" in his novel A Tale of Two Cities . At one time numerous publishers were located in

1815-581: The cellars on the rue de Rennes . Jean-Paul Sartre , Simone de Beauvoir , Juliette Gréco , Léo Ferré , Jean-Luc Godard , Boris Vian , and François Truffaut were all at home there. But there were also poets such as Jacques Prévert and artists such as Giovanni Giacometti . As a residential address Saint‑Germain is no longer quite as fashionable as the area further south towards the Jardin du Luxembourg , partly due to Saint‑Germain's increased popularity among tourists. On 29 November 1965, Mehdi Ben Barka ,

1870-484: The church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés . Its official borders are the River Seine on the north, the rue des Saints-Pères on the west, between the rue de Seine and rue Mazarine on the east, and the rue du Four on the south. Residents of the quarter are known as Germanopratins . The Latin quarter's cafés include Les Deux Magots , Café de Flore , le Procope , and

1925-458: The city, before being reburied in 1909 at Pere Lachaise . The small hotel where Wilde died became famous; later guests included Marlon Brando and Jorge Luis Borges . It was completely redecorated by Jacques Garcia , and is now a five-star luxury hotel called L'Hotel . In the first half of the 20th century, Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés and nearly the whole of the 6th arrondissement, was a densely populated working‑class neighborhood, whose population

1980-525: The clubs closed by the early 1960s, as musical tastes shifted toward rock and roll. The literary life of Paris after World War II was centered in Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés, both because of the atmosphere of non-conformism and because of the large concentration of book stores and publishing houses. Because most writers lived in tiny rooms or apartments, they gathered in cafés, most famously the Café de Flore ,

2035-662: The finest beers. The brasserie's atmosphere and its modest prices made it a great success. Anti-German sentiment during the First World War led to a change of name to Brasserie des Bords for several years. Of Alsatian origin, Lipp left Alsace when it became part of Germany. In July 1920, the bougnat (Paris immigrant) Marcellin Cazes redesigned the brasserie, which had become frequented by poets such as Paul Verlaine and Guillaume Apollinaire . He decorated it with tiled murals by Léon Fargues, with painted ceilings by Charly Garrey, and purple moleskin seating. In 1955, Cazes passed

2090-508: The first week in September. As Englishman Arthur Young noted, the street outside one prison literally ran red with blood. The former Cordeliers Convent , closed by the revolutionaries, became the headquarters of one of the most radical factions, whose leaders included Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins , though both would be run out by ever more extreme factions. The radical revolutionary firebrand, Swiss physician Jean-Paul Marat , lived in

2145-583: The jazz clubs of the neighborhood, but Sartre wrote that he rarely visited them, finding them too crowded, uncomfortable and loud. Simone de Beauvoir (1902–1986), famous philosopher, the lifelong companion of Sartre, was another important literary figure, both as an early proponent of feminism and as an autobiographer and novelist. After the Second World War, the neighbourhood became the centre of intellectuals and philosophers, actors, singers and musicians. Existentialism co-existed with jazz and chanson in

2200-624: The leader of opposition to the government of the King of Morocco, was kidnapped as he emerged from the door of the Brasserie Lipp. His body was never found. The area is served by the stations of the Paris Métro : Many writers have written about this Parisian district in prose such as Boris Vian , Marcel Proust , Gabriel Matzneff (see La Nation française ), Jean-Paul Caracalla or in Japanese poetry in

2255-479: The likes of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre , as well as young writers, such as Ernest Hemingway . Other patrons included Albert Camus , Pablo Picasso , James Joyce , Bertolt Brecht , Julia Child and the American writers James Baldwin , Chester Himes and Richard Wright . The Deux Magots literary prize (Prix des Deux Magots) has been awarded to a French novel every year since 1933 at Les Deux Magots. " Magot " literally means "stocky figurine from

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2310-442: The modern rue Mabillon . There were three hundred forty stalls at the fair of 1483; Special buildings were erected for the fair in 1512, which contained 516 stalls. The fair was also famous for the gambling, debauchery, and the riots that ensued when groups of rowdy students from the nearby university invaded the fair. The buildings burned on the night of 17–18 March 1762, but were quickly rebuilt. The fair continued annually until

2365-470: The national school of architecture, painting and sculpture, was established after the Revolution at 14 rue Bonaparte , on the site of the former monastery of the Petits-Augustins. Its faculty and students included many of the most important artists and architects of the 19th century; the faculty included Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Gustave Moreau . The students included painters Pierre Bonnard , Georges Seurat , Mary Cassatt , Edgar Degas , and

2420-400: The new home of Comédie-Française . When the theater moved in 1689, he moved the café to the same location, on the rue des Fossés‑Saint‑Germain . The café was then taken over by a Sicilian, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, who had worked as a waiter for Pascal in 1672. He renamed the café Procope, and expanded its menu to include tea, chocolate, liqueurs, ice cream and configures. It became

2475-579: The present Ukrainian catholic church; its parish covered most of the modern 6th and 7th arrondissements . The fortifications of King Philip Augustus (1180–1223), the first recorded walls to be built around the entire city, left Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés just outside the walls. Beginning in the Middle Ages, Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés was not only a religious and cultural center, but also an important marketplace, thanks to its annual fair, which attracted merchants and vendors from all over Europe. The Foire Saint-Germain

2530-450: The quarter; 18.1 percent in 1962. In the years after World War II, Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés was known primarily for its cafés and its bars, its diversity and its non-conformism. The bars were a popular destination for American soldiers and sailors after the war. It was also known as a meeting place for the largely-clandestine gay community of Paris, which at the time frequented the Café de Flore and

2585-527: The relic, dedicated to the Holy Cross and Saint Vincent, placed where he could see it across the fields from the royal palace on the Île de la Cité . In 558, St. Vincent's church was completed and dedicated by Germain, Bishop of Paris on 23 December; on the same day, Childebert died. Close by the church a monastery was erected. The Abbey church became the burial place of the dynasty of Merovingian Kings. Its abbots had both spiritual and temporal jurisdiction over

2640-479: The residents of Saint-Germain (which they kept until the 17th century). Since the monastery had a rich treasury and was outside the city walls , it was plundered and set on fire by the Normans in the ninth century. It was rebuilt in 1014 and rededicated in 1163 by Pope Alexander III to Bishop Germain, who had been canonized. The church and buildings of the Abbey were rebuilt in stone c.  1000   AD , and

2695-528: The revolutionary Constitution, foreigners, and so forth. By September 1792, Paris prisons were quite full. The former king and queen were political prisoners and were moved from the Tuileries Palace to the old Knights Templar towers on the right bank, where there was less risk of rescue or escape. France was at war; the Duke of Brunswick had just issued his menacing manifesto, stating that if the former monarchy were not restored, he would raze Paris, and his troops were only

2750-701: Was a follower (though not a member) of the Communist Party, then broke with the communists after the Soviet invasion of Hungary, and became an admirer of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, then of Mao-tse Tung. In 1968 he joined the demonstrations against the government, standing on a barrel to address striking workers at the Renault factory in Billancourt. The legends of Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés describe him as frequenting

2805-453: Was already famous in 1176, when it allocated half of its profits to the King. The fair opened fifteen days after Easter, and lasted for three weeks. The dates and the sites varied over the years; beginning in 1482 it opened on 1 October and lasted eight days; in other years it opened 11 November or 2 February. Beginning in 1486, it was held in a portion of the gardens of the Hôtel de Navarre, close to

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2860-576: Was also the temporary home of many musicians, artists and writers from abroad, including Richard Wagner who lived for several months on rue Jacob . The writer Oscar Wilde spent his last days in the quarter, at the small, run-down hotel called the Hotel d'Alsace at 13 rue des Beaux‑Arts , near the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He wandered the streets alone, and spent what money he had on alcohol. He wrote to his editor, "This poverty really breaks one's heart: it

2915-413: Was declining. The population of the 6th arrondissement was 101,584 in 1921, and dropped to 83,963. In the postwar years, the housing was in poor condition; only 42 percent of residences had indoor toilets, and only 23 percent had their own showers or baths. By 19-0 the population of the 6th fell to 47,942, a drop of fifty percent in seventy years. In 1954 workers represented 19.2 percent of the population of

2970-469: Was much too large for them. In 1797 they moved back to the Left Bank, to the modern Odéon Theatre. The first café in Paris appeared in 1672 at the Saint-Germain Fair, served by an Armenian named Pascal. When the fair ended he opened a more permanent establishment on the quai de l'Ecole, where he served coffee for two sous and six deniers per cup. It was considered more of a form of medication than

3025-535: Was soon followed by cellars in or near Saint‑Germain‑des‑Prés; Le Vieux-Columbier, the Rose Rouge, the Club Saint-Germain; and especially, Le Tabou . The musical styles were both traditional New Orleans jazz and bebop , led by Sydney Bechet and trumpeter Boris Vian ; Mezz Mezzrow , André Rewellotty, guitarist Henri Salvador , and singer Juliette Gréco . The clubs attracted students from the nearby university,

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