Coffee Break

I have spent a rather large part of my life in cafes on one kind or another. 

Paris, Venice, Prague have all featured in my travels and in each city I have - over the years - discovered a particular favourite cafe in which to hang out, catch up on the news, meet friends and perhaps even fall in love!

VENICE

Nothing new in that! In fact, cafes per se date back to the early 18th Century and one of the oldest is my favourite Venetian cafe, Florian's

 There is nothing better than taking an early morning 'espresso' with a croissant or two at Florian's and enjoy the magnificent views across St.Mark's Square

The Florian first opened with two, simply furnished rooms on 29 December 1720 and was known then as "Alla Venezia Trionfante" (Venice the Triumphant) but soon became known locally as Cafè Florian - after its original owner, Floriano Francesconi

The Cafè was patronised in its early days by notable people, including the Venetian playwright  Goldoni and Giacomo Casanova who was, no doubt , attracted by the fact that Cafè Florian was the only  Venetian coffee house that allowed women - many of whom were of dubious character!

Later Lord Byron, Marcel Proust and Charles Dickens were frequent visitors

It was at Florian's that I myself encountered Charlie Chaplin and his young wife. Later that night they showed Chaplin's masterpiece 'Limelight' (1952) on a huge screen at one end of St Mark's Square - to commemorate the great man's life. He died two years later, in 1977 

Florian's was one of the few places where Gasparo Gozzi's early newspaper 'Gazzetta Veneta' could be bought in the mid-18th century, and became a meeting place for people from different social classes

It also became a secret rendezvous for political activists, particularly during the Napoleonic period and, therefore, the  victim of frequent police raids.


PARIS

It was in Paris during the second half of the 19th Century that cafe society reached its apogee - with cafes like Le Relais  Odeon, Cafe de Flore and the Les Deux Magots', also on the Boulevard Saint Germaine des Pres

It was here that artists such as Renoir and Rodin met, drank coffee, got drunk  on absinthe and picked up their women. It was here too that bohemian Paris bumped up against wealthy bourgeoise society - a clash of cultures and classes that in part explains the dynamic nature of 'Bohemian' Paris 

 Degas and Manet were amongst  the first to included cafes and restaurants in their work - something previously unheard of within academic art circles. It is thanks to them that we still have such vivid images of these exciting places and the extraordinary people who frequented them

It was a tradition that was to continue well into the next century

Les Deux Magots, for example, was the cafe of choice for  many of the Surrealists; novelists like James Joyce, Ernest Hemmingway and Camus; and philosopher Jean Paul Sartre and his partner, Simone de Beauvoir

In later years it became more of a tourist spot, with visitors from America providing a different kind of glamour and excitement - less intellectual, more 'show biz'

I first drank at  Les  deux Magots at the tender age of seventeen!

 It was my first trip to Paris, a visit that lasted nearly six weeks. I was still at school so this was not only a premature 'escape' but probably the shortest 'gap year' ever undertaken!

I thought I was a young james Joyce. I even found a cheap hotel room overlooking where he had once lived and promptly embarked on the novel that was to bring me fame and fortune!

Footnote

My Parisian masterpiece remains, as yet, unpublished!

No, this is NOT a self portrait but a painting by Lautrec!

PRAGUE

Next to Paris or Venice my favourite city is Prague and my favourite watering hole the elegant, somewhat expensive  Kavarna Slavia:

The Slavana opened at the turn of the 20th century and was, like its Paris counterparts, one of the city's intellectual 'hubs' where poets, artists and other intellectuals met. In modern times it was frequented by playwright Vaclav Havel who subsequently became President of the Czech republic

I was there during the winter of 2008 and remember vividly the glossy Art Nouveau interior and fabulous food. It is not a place you can easily 'hang out' in for it is hugely expensive and full of fat American tourists - counterbalanced, as it were, by an equally large contingent of excessively slim Japanese!

Still, it was good to say that I had at least sampled one of Europe's great watering holes!

SWITZERLAND

         While many of the great artists  I have listed above drew on their cafe life for inspiration or even exchanged their work for a meal or two, not many actually used their talents to design a complete cafe

My next artist is the exception to this rule

You probably know HR Giger as the genius behind the iconic imagery in 'Alien' but he is also celebrated - especially in Switzerland - for two cafe interiors which he designed - in Chur, where he was born and in Gruyeres

I have been to the one in Gruyeres and it is stunning. Giger has applied his biometric format to every detail, including the tables and chairs

 Every architectural detail follows his 'Alien' style, including doors and windows

As with all perfectionists, Giger brought to both these cafe projects that obsessive  attention to detail that he always displayed in his art. 

The result is an environment that is uniquely 'his' and yet which, as a cafe/restaurant - feels even 'cosy'.

Mind you, I  was on my third Kirschwasser when I came to that conclusion!

FOOTNOTE

While Giger may have created something special there is nothing new in this world!
19th Century Paris boasted the infamous Cafe de L'Enfer

It is said that punters were met by a doorkeeper dressed as a Sultan, with the words : 'Enter and be damned!'

Now that's not what I would call 'customer friendly'

By the rather sombre mood of the cafe interior  perhaps the punters shown here (above) are already feeling the weight of that doorman's curse!

MIKE HEALEY