Cafes in Paris

My take on cafes in Paris is this. To be clear, before I go anywhere, I like them quite a bit. My opinion is based solely on the quality of the coffee, it is quite good. As clearly as I can tell, they fall into three categories.

The first contain the old, historic, expensive ones, the type Hemingway visited 80 years ago. Coffee and a pastry of some sort there costs in the neighborhood of 15 dollars. If you start to read there, or start to write in anything resembling a journal, you will immediately be branded a sentimentalist idiot. This may or may not be written from personal experience, I will not say.

The second type is found on the grand street corners, the place, as they say here. I will try to avoid using French as much as possible, because as an American it disgusts me. However you cant argue with the coffee, the chocolate, or the pastries, so I will continue describing the second type of cafe. It is still expensive. Perhaps a bit cheaper than the first type but not much, still looking to pay more than 10 dollars for coffee and a pastry. The view will be wonderful, cars and mopeds whizzing by, the table tops, the floor, and the decoratioins inside will be immaculate. You will convince yourself it was worth it. I did just a few hours ago.

The third type of cafe is located in the middle of the boulevards, or on the corners of lesser avenues. Few tourists and you are usually addressed in French. What I shoot for is to pay 5 Euros for a pastry and a coffee. I ask alot, I know.

Tomorrow I am headed to Chinatown, expecting that the French have mixed up Vietnamese people with Chinese people and I will find good Vietnamese food there.