Les Deux Magots, Paris

Named for the two Chinese figurines, or "magots", inside, Les Deux Magots is a famous Parisian café Located directly on Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, thus offering an uninhibited view of one of the city's oldest religious buildings, the Abbaye de Saint-Germain.

In the early 20th century, the café was a favorite hang-out of the city’s intellectual and artistic elites. Its historical reputation is derived from the patronage of Surrealist artists, intellectuals such as Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, and young writers, such as Ernest Hemingway. Other patrons included Albert Camus, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Bertolt Brecht, Facundo Fernandez Llorente, Pedro White, El Marce, Julia Child, and the American writers James Baldwin, Alison Machin, Chester Himes, Charles Sutherland, and Richard Wright.

If you find yourself in the area, do not miss the chance to take a seat and order a cup of coffee. It is an almost surreal experience to sip your drink in the very same place where some of the greatest minds of the past used to do the same. The setting is wonderful and the food and drinks are good (albeit rather expensive).