It has been said that "Paris is the city of exiled writers, cursed poets and existentialist philosophers". Even today, no other city in the world places such a high value on writers, and today 440 of the 6,000 streets in Paris are named after them. In Paris, as they say, "the ghosts of those who have passed, continue to roam the streets", oh, not only in the streets, but also in the cafés of Paris.
Imagine a coffee society
In the 17th and 18th centuries in European cities, a cultural phenomenon called the "coffee society" arose in which coffee houses were used as social venues to communicate, share ideas, and build social networks. As Balzac once wrote, "the café terrace is the people's parliament", and political, social, and cultural trends such as the France Revolution, the Enlightenment, and existentialism all went from the café to society.
Café culture became the spiritual face of the city of Paris at the end of the 19th century, and there was hardly a single artist in Paris who did not have a relationship with the café.
插画：The New Yorker
Café de Flora, which has been open for more than a hundred years, saw the birth of surrealism and later became the domain of the close comrades-in-arms of the France poet Preville. During World War II, the existentialist masters Jean ·Paul · Sartre and Simone ·· de Beauvoir were particularly fond of coming to the second floor to sit by the fire and seek a touch of human warmth. The authors of "Dirty Hands" and "The Second Sex" sit together, eating freshly boiled eggs and the day's dishes, and then pull out their wallets to pay the sky-high bills.
Carrying so much cultural heritage, Café Flora is more than just a café. Today's customers need to follow some unwritten rules when going to Café Flower: the café is most crowded not during lunchtime and after, but at 8:45 and 9:15 a.m., when customers flock to the café for croissants and cream coffee; The open-air seating in the café is for photo shoots, usually reserved for foreign tourists; The seats on the first floor are the favorite of writers, to be precise, the kind of popular writers who are widely criticized in the criticism world or widely reported by the media, and beautiful women with famous brands also like the first floor, most of them carry nostalgic second-hand bags; The second floor is usually where celebrities are interviewed, and it is relatively hidden.
Photo: Cafe DeFlore
In my imagination, entering the Flower God Café requires some "pretentious gestures": I have to hold a stack of newspapers under my arm, walk in a hurry, and as soon as I enter the door, I go straight to the table where I usually sit, which one has to be; After sitting down, he greeted people briefly from side to side, accompanied by a smirk, and soon understood the gossip about who was with whom and why; When you see a celebrity, you have to turn a blind eye, even if it's a favorite idol, you have to swallow your excitement into your stomach, and you can't see a big scene indifferently. Of course, these are all exaggerated imaginations, and the most common situation for ordinary people in reality is that they walk into a café, even if they are regulars, they don't know anyone.
I don't know if it is influenced by the fact that the Flower God Café is the "stronghold of the literary world", but there is a very interesting phenomenon among the people who enter the café: after two-thirds of the people sit down and order a cup of coffee, they will pick up any kind of paper at hand and write a few sentences, just a long sentence and phrase with a random feeling - as if this is what they have to do in the Flower God Café.
Literary dreams in a café
At the end of the day, the irreplaceable aura of a Parisian café comes from literature rather than a Welsh cheese with white wine lunch menu.
In Paris, a café is famous not only for the food but more importantly for the literary greats. This tacit rule is as beautiful as classics such as sauerkraut and seafood platters and leather-topped couches.
Thus the literary prizes awarded by the café were born, and they are still alive and well today, and are bound to perpetuate the literary genes of the Parisian café.
Double Couple Cafe Literary Award
插画：Eat Draw Repeat
Founded in 1933, the Double Couple Café Literary Award is a long-standing qualification for essays and novels. Founded in 1884, the duo café Auy Deux Magots takes its name from the fact that two old men dressed in Qing Dynasty Chinese costumes stand on the walls of the café.
Beauvoir once wrote in her diary: "I sat in the café of the couples, my eyes fixed on the white paper on the coffee table...... I felt my fingers tickle and I needed to write. ”
双偶咖啡馆文学奖推荐的知名获奖作品有1956年由马赛知名建筑师费尔南德·普永Fernand Pouillon的《野生石头Les Pierres SauvagesPauline Réage》;1955 年波莉娜·雷阿日Pauline Réage的《O的故事》;塞巴斯蒂安·雅普瑞索Sébastien Japrisot于1978年获奖的侦探小说《夏日谋杀 The Deadly Summer》等等。
From left to right: Covers of Wild Stone, O's Tale, and Summer Murder
Katz Literary Prize at Lip Cafe
插画：Eat Draw Repeat
The Kaz Prize for Literature was created in 1934 and is awarded annually in April, initially with a prize of 100,000 francs. Unlike the crowdfunding prize for the Shuangsuo Literary Prize, the Kaz Literary Prize is exclusively funded by café owners. Founded in 1880, Brasserie Lipp is one of the three major cafes on the left bank of the Seine in France, across the street from the "God of Flowers" and "Shuangsuo".
Hemingway wrote of Lip Café in The Flowing Feast: "The first time I went to Lipp, after losing everything, I felt for the first time that I could write again. It is worth mentioning that after the golden age, literary giants such as Saint-Supéry, the author of "The Little Prince", Proust, the author of "Reminiscences", and Duras, the author of "Lover", all used "Lip" as their study.
From left to right: Covers of "Reminiscences" and "Lover".
Literary Award at Cafe de Flora
插画：Eat Draw Repeat
In order to continue the café literary DNA, in 1994 the writer Frédéric · Bergberger established a literary prize of the same name at the café de la Flora - the Café de la Flora Literary Award - to inspire new talents in contemporary France literature. With a prize fund of €6,150, the winner of the Café de Flore Literary Award will receive a dedicated glass engraved with their name at the Café de Flora and a complimentary glass of white wine every day at a dedicated location on the second floor of Pouilly-Fume for a year.
The winners are judged on the criteria of "absolute rookie with potential, controversial opinions", and the winning work is usually the writer's debut novel. In November 2023, the Café de la Flower Literary Award was awarded to Maria · Pourchet for her Virgo Western Prize.
"Western" sealing surface
Wippler-Postal Fund Literary Award
In 1998, the Abbesses, the abbess's bookstore, was funded by Brasserie Wepler and the Fondation La Poste to set up the Wipler-Postal Fund Literary Prize, which is aimed primarily at non-academic writers and supports those who are fledgling and have been recognized but are rarely mentioned. Its jury is made up of experts and amateurs and varies from year to year.
维普勒奖评委会曾把奖项颁给了安东尼·帕斯隆Anthony Passeron,他的《入睡的孩子们SLEEPING CHILDREN 》是第一本描写法国艾滋病流行年代(The AIDS Years,1983-1995艾滋病在法国被发现并引起社会各界讨论的几年)的小说。
《入睡的孩子们SLEEPING CHILDREN 》封面
Lilac Garden Cafe's Literary Award
插画：Eat Draw Repeat
Founded in 1847, Lilac Garden Café has large floor-to-ceiling glass windows and is surrounded by a high layer of greenery, so you can't see the garden and fountain inside, and you can miss its entrance if you are not careful. In the 20s of the last century, Hemingway, who had just arrived in Paris, would come here every day to write, and the chair with his name written on it still remains in the café.
In 2007, Carole Chrétiennot, daughter of the current owner of the Lilac Garden Café, established the Lilac Garden Literary Prize prix de La Closerie des Lilas, with a prize of 3,000 euros, and the members of the jury are all women, awarded annually to women writers in France, dedicated to encouraging the creation of women writers.
获奖者有《少女》的作者安妮·维亚泽姆斯基Anne Wiazemsky,《当你听到这首歌When you listen to this song》的作者萝拉·拉丰Lola Lafon等。
From left to right: Girl, When You Hear This Song, cover
The young Hemingway wrote in "The Whole of Paris Belongs to Me": You belong to me, the whole of Paris belongs to me, and I belong to this notebook and this pen - in the end, Paris belongs to literature.
Written by nxn
Editor: Luo Min