A 3-Sided View of things

Paris is synonymous with cafes. They are (seemingly) all over the place and represent a certain identity for the city. Apparently their numbers are coming down, slowly but steadily; but unlike the almost-extinct Mumbai Irani cafe, you can still find them everywhere. Almost at all corners in the main part of the city and along sidewalks.

All Parisian cafes have similar menus – they serve beverages of all manner (alcoholic, bubbly, caffeinated) sandwiches, pizza, pasta, burgers (that was a surprise, as Pink Panther 2 had left me thinking the French looked down on that very-American creation) and desserts. This fare is fairly uniform and after a few visits, we got quite ski of finding croque monsieurs and madames staring at us everywhere. Some had a range of crepes available as well, with the monopoly of making the crepes solely in the hands of south asian types, which left me wondering if they were the chaat wallahs of India and Pakistan who had left our shores for the far stronger Euro?

But you don’t go to a Parisian cafe to eat, or for that matter to drink. Of course you do, but that’s not the main deal. You go there to take a pause, to take a moment to observe life (and hence the particular seating style of chairs facing the pavement and not each other), to feel its pulse, to dial down, to take a deep breath, to connect with a friend, with your soul mate or just with yourself.

The big cafe chains have missed this totally and got it mostly wrong. Many aren’t picturesque enough, encourage the quick in-and-out and have many distractions in the form of wifi, music, TV that actually take you away from making that connection. Given how much thought they take in defining their positioning, I wonder why they don’t aspire to have at least a few cafes with such an atmosphere?

A few hours later, at ~ 7 pm, we are at Le Cavalier Cafe, waiting on our respective tipples – beer, mojito, Lait demi creme – watching Argentina play Belgium. The evening culture of the cafe is now on display – buzzy, heady yet, as always, full of life.