À la Civette, tobacconist on rue Saint-Honoré since 1716

À la Civette is a tobacconist opened in 1716, now at 157 rue Saint-Honoré, in the 1st arrondissement, across from the Palais-Royal. It is the oldest tobacco shop still trading in Paris. Its name is thought to come from the civet, whose secretions were used by perfumers: the shop may first have sold scents.

Legend has it that a sister of the king promised the court’s custom to the owner, who was not selling enough. In the 18th century Casanova, Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau came here, then Manet and Degas in the 19th, and Colette, who lived a few doors away.

The house moved at least four times in a century and a half, always near the same corner, before settling at number 157 in 1876. Its owners have changed over time, but the shop keeps its patinated wooden fittings, its old display cases and the civet sign hanging on its façade.

Under its green and white striped awning, beside the Comédie-Française, the shop serves actors, politicians and travellers. Customers choose from some 300 cigars in the walk-in humidor, nearly 200 pipes, pipe tobacco or a newspaper.