Les Deux Magots, café in Saint-Germain-des-Prés since 1884

Les Deux Magots, the café on Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, opened in 1884 in place of a draper’s shop that sold silk. It kept the shop’s name, taken from an 1813 play, and the two carved Chinese figures from its sign, perched on the central pillar.

Verlaine, Rimbaud and Mallarmé soon became regulars. In 1914 Auguste Boulay bought the house, then close to bankruptcy. André Breton’s Surrealists met here, and in 1933, finding the Goncourt too academic, a group of friends founded the Prix des Deux Magots on its terrace, first awarded to Raymond Queneau. Picasso met Dora Maar here in 1935; Sartre and Beauvoir, Hemingway and Boris Vian came by.

The Mathivat family ran the café from 1919 to 1993, when Catherine Mathivat, great-great-granddaughter of Auguste Boulay, took over. The décor dates from the 1920s, and the waiters still wear the white apron. In 2024 the Comptoirs opened on Rue de Buci, the street of the original shop.

Facing the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the terrace and red moleskin banquettes welcome Parisians and visitors. Old-style hot chocolate and the classics of the Parisian café are served, jazz plays on Thursdays, and the café also awards the Prix Apollinaire for poetry.