Terrance Gelenter
Despite his busy life, this raconteur, singer, tour guide and writer
always finds time for a coffee at Café de Flore in Paris
AS TOLD TO
CORINNE LABALME
PHOTO
OLIVIA RUTHERFORD
one day, i realised
I didn’t want to be 70 or dead and
say I’d always wanted to live in Paris, so I sold my
2,000-
book library in California and bought a ticket.
I had my first coffee at
CAFÉ DE FLORE
[
172
Boulevard
Saint-Germain; cafedeflore.fr
]
about four years ago.
I ended up sitting next to [the writer] Malcolm Gladwell.
We got into a great conversation and I started coming
back regularly with my Sunday
NYT
crossword. Little
by little, like coral on a reef, I began to collect people.
People who read my newsletter (
paris-expat.com
)
knew
I’d be here and they began coming too.
The 50s were the heyday of the Flore:
Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de
Beauvoir would sit and write; and
Miles Davis wooed Juliet Greco
here, an act that could have got
him killed in America at the time.
Normally, I just have coffee, but I recommend the
omelet jambon et fromage, because it’s very light, and
the oeufs brouillés – scrambled eggs served in a bowl
with a little bit of cheese and chives.
People come to my table because they know my
newsletter or they’ve heard me sing [Tuesday nights at
the Hotel Perle;
hotel-paris-laperle.com
],
and they end up
meeting each other and making friends.
The Flore is a comfortable place to write (or not
write) and pay attention (or not pay attention). I feel at
home here and the staff refer to me as “our
American”. Armani has an office across
the street and pays thousands of
euros in rent. I spend €300 a year
on coffee and we both have an
address on Saint-Germain. It
works for me.
The Flore is a
comfortable place to
write (or not write) and pay
attention (or not pay attention).
I feel at home here
0 1 5
W H E R E O N
E A R T H ?
T H E R E G U L A R S
The coolest places around the
network by the people who
know them best
