Cafe de Flore.

The first post-war surrealists

It was only in the last moments of World War I that Cafe de Flore began to attract artists. Guillaume Apollinaire, in 1917 was the first to install himself next to the heater in the morning and spend the day there. In addition to writing his books, he also brought his friends: André Breton, Paul Réverdy, Louis Aragon and Paul Éluard. While Montparnasse and Montmartre were still the favorite places for artists living in Paris, it is said that it was there at Café de Flore that the “surrealist revolution” began.

The Occupation and Golden Age of Café de Flore

Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone du Beauvoir and Boris Vian and his wife Michelle at Café de Flore

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Pablo Picasso at the Café de Flore. Photo by Brassai.

The surrealists ended up deserting in the following years and by the end of the 1930s, in an environment that nobody expected, Cafe de Flore found its new life. Parisian writers and artists have always frequented cafés, not for social life, but mainly to find a more pleasant and warm place than their tiny apartments. 

Installing a larger and more powerful coal-fired heater

It was in 1939 that the new manager of the Café de Flore had the brilliant idea of installing a larger and more powerful coal-fired heater to heat the establishment. This heater not only warmed up the ground floor, but also the first floor, which is much quieter. 

Simone de Beauvoir, who used to go to Dôme in Montparnasse, quickly got used to sitting at one of the dozens of tables on the first floor to work there. The director let her and some other regular customers go all day without consuming too much. 

Because they were less famous at that point, the cafés in Saint-Germain-des-Prés attracted fewer German Wehrmacht officers than the cafés in Montparnasse, so that the writers and thinkers of the time could work there with some peace of mind. On the recommendation of his wife Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre arrived at Café de Flore in 1941. He came from a few months spent in the French army and in a detention camp in Germany.

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