Even if you’ve never been to Paris, you’ve probably seen them in movies or magazines: those colorful little French café chairs and tables that have been the hallmark of Parisian cafés for over a hundred years.

And you’re probably aware of the role they played in the history and culture of the last century, when the likes of Hemingway and Sartre, Fitzgerald and Picasso sat in these very chairs at these very tables, defining the art, literature, and philosophy of America. the twentieth century.

serious things

But there was much more going on in Paris a century ago than just a philosophical discussion.

HAS batch plus. And a lot more wild!

And it was happening right there, between the chairs and tables of the French bistro!

Oh, surely, to the untrained eye (or mind), coffee chairs and tables certainly appearance exactly how small restaurant chairs and tables.

however, english coffee chairs and tables mean coffee, croissants and philosophical debate; French small restaurant chairs and tables have more to do with wine, music and romance. That magical La Vie En Rose.

Like werewolves of French furniture, the cerebral café chair transforms into the exotic bistro chair when the Parisian sun goes down.

And the names that come to mind are less Hemingway and Sartre, more Josephine Baker and Bricktop.

Which is not to say that the two will never meet.

Because if Hemingway avoided the bistro for the coffee, he apparently took a peek from time to time. He is supposed to have said of Josephine Baker that he considered her “the most beautiful woman there is, ever was, or ever will be.”

And Josephine Baker said, “She wasn’t naked. She just had no clothes on.”

But he also said: “Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than skin tone, when religion is seen only as a way of speaking of the soul; when birthplaces have the weight of a print run. of dice and all men are born free, when understanding engenders love and brotherhood”.

Hmmm. Could it be that the legendary Josephine Baker, toast of the Parisian bistro, was, at heart, a coffee philosopher?