Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots

On a corner of Saint-Germain, two cafés sit side by side, and both have a place in Paris's cultural history.

■ Café de Flore Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Picasso were regulars here. The Art Deco interior, with its red leather banquettes, big mirrors, brass railings and classic chandeliers, still feels like it did a century ago. Dadaism, Surrealism and existentialist philosophy are said to have been born in this very room. Take a look at the paper placemats too: the drawings are by Jean-Jacques Sempé, a customer here for 40 years. The catch is that tourists now pack the place, and even breakfast means a wait in line.

■ Les Deux Magots Just around the next corner, Les Deux Magots was a haunt of Hemingway, André Gide and Fernand Léger, among others. From the outside it looks like Café de Flore's twin, and it was just as much a regular meeting place for writers and artists. From a window seat or an outdoor table, you can see your next stop, the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inside, look for the two Chinese figurines (the "magots") seated on a pillar.

■ Two cafés, one tradition Both were places where writers, philosophers and artists gathered to socialize and debate, and both award a literary prize named after the café. They are better for a taste of salon culture than for the coffee itself. Les Deux Magots has the slightly more upscale, tourist-oriented image, while Café de Flore keeps a more traditionally Parisian feel. With so much history and tradition, both are always crowded, and prices are high, so stick to a drink.

■ Hemingway in Paris Ernest Hemingway, who won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in the United States. His mother raised him in a feminine way, even dressing him in skirts, while his father taught him fishing and hunting and raised him to be tough. That upbringing led him to serve in World War I, and the experience left a deep mark on his writing. It is one reason his work so often deals with life and death.

After the war he worked as a Paris correspondent for a newspaper and mixed with many of the city's artists and writers. It was in this period that his famously spare, clear style took shape. He went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and, the following year, the Nobel Prize in Literature.

■ Following the writer through Paris Hemingway often visited cafés and studios in Montparnasse, where he mingled with fellow artists such as Picasso, and he lived there for a time. That period was important for his work and for Paris's literary history, and he described life in Montparnasse in his writing. Two other areas are inseparable from his name: the Latin Quarter near the Sorbonne, where he spent his early newlywed days in Paris, and the Saint-Germain district around his favorite café, Les Deux Magots. We'll cover the Latin Quarter on the way to the Sorbonne Chapel.

The Luxembourg Gardens and Palace were also among his favorite spots, and he is said to have drawn great inspiration from the Impressionist exhibition held at the Luxembourg Palace. Shakespeare and Company was where he often borrowed books during his poor days as a Paris correspondent, and it is also where he met F. Scott Fitzgerald. We'll return to the bookshop later in the tour.

■ On to the next stop With the café behind you, turn your head to the right and you'll see a bell tower. That's the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, our next stop.