Coffee or Café Culture?

I read several blogs on a regular basis. usually because I find the content interesting, and I appreciate the blogger’s writing style. One such blog is ‘A Bit About Britain’ where I recently enjoyed a post entitled ‘Coffee in Britain’. I recommend you have a read! This got me thinking about coffee culture in France, or do I mean café culture? Is there a difference?

In my opinion, there is a difference. Coffee culture focuses on the coffee itself; this can mean the aroma, the flavour and the coffee style. These days there is a wide range of types of coffees, from espressos to lattes, cappuccinos and beyond.

I met some friends for coffee this week and came across a ‘dirty chai latte’. I love a chai latte and was intrigued to know what could make it dirty, a shot of coffee as it turned out. Definitely, not one for me!

Café culture is about where the coffee is drunk; the venue, ambiance and surroundings. Cafés are central to life in France. They can be found on almost every street corner and are places to socialise, catch up on the latest news or simply watch the world go by. When I first went to Paris, aged seventeen, the cafés made an impression on me and I didn’t even drink coffee in those days!

Before writing this post, I knew little about how or when coffee arrived in France. As far as I was concerned, it had always been there, an integral part of French life. Time for some research! Coffee had actually been around for almost a thousand years before reaching France, reportedly from Ethiopia. It was first introduced to Paris in 1669 by Suleyman Aga, an Ottoman ambassador to the court of King Louis XIV.

Two years later in 1671, an Armenian called Pascal opened a coffee-drinking booth at the St.-Germain fair. This proved to be very popular and was the beginning of Parisian coffee houses, inspiring others to open across France.

By the reign of Louis XV there were six hundred cafés in Paris, and by the end of eighteenth century eight hundred. In 2020 there were estimated to be at least fifteen 15 thousand cafés across France.

When I first visited France, I didn’t drink coffee but as a student in Tours, I spent hours in the Café L’Univers, practising French with friends of all nationalities. By the time I was teaching in Metz, I was a full-on coffee drinker, enjoying strong black coffee.

To this day, I still love spending time in a French café, savouring my coffee and watching the world go by. If the weather permits, there is nothing better than sipping my drink on the outside terrace of a cafe. I’m not a fan of grabbing a coffee and drinking it as you hurry along.

Participating in Coffee culture in France is a delightful and absorbing experience. It’s not solely about the drink in your cup but also the atmosphere of the café environment. To me, it epitomises French lifestyle and traditions. Are you a fan of café culture?!