When, more than a century ago, Émile Zola wrote a novel about the turbulent emergence of Haussmann's Paris, he made cafés an important point of reference for his characters. No one could have thought then that this invention coming from the eighteenth-century world would continue for another hundred years without losing its mythical and literary aura.

The café, as a type of public place, is demonstrating a surprising capacity for survival and even a notable resurgence in these last years of revivals. As opposed to the more mechanistic and Americanizing formula of the cafeteria, and in opposition to the individuality and anonymity generated by the linear and undifferentiated space of the bar, the café offers personalized intimacy around the circle of the table, the possibility of gathering or isolating oneself in a corner that facilitates reading, writing or observation...[+]