Coffee with the Three Musketeers: A Parisienne’s Café Adventures
In this column, native Parisian Edith de Belleville — author, attorney, and tour guide — shares her café discoveries
I don’t know if you’re like me, but I always arrive early for my appointments. I’m so afraid of being late that I often arrive too early. The unexpected happens so quickly. A metro breakdown, a passenger incident, a passenger feeling unwell, a passenger on the track or a passenger who has forgotten their suitcase, and then you have to call in a bomb disposal team as a matter of urgency. In short, you can never be too careful with the Paris metro.
So, when I give my guided tour of the Marais, the charming 17th-century district of Paris, I always arrive 45 minutes before everyone else. But that’s no big deal, because every time I do, I wait patiently for my customers over coffee at Les Chimères. It’s convenient because this café is located on a pedestrian street right next to the metro (you know, the place where anything can happen). Even though it’s still lunchtime, I can always find a shady spot on the terrace to enjoy a cup of coffee. And this is no ordinary coffee, because it’s an organic coffee from Mexico.
If you look up, you’ll understand how this place got its name. You’ll see magnificent sculpted chimeras. Chimeras are these fantastic flame-breathing half-dragon, half-lion animals. These were carved in 1728 and are located just below the rocaille-style wrought-iron balcony overlooking this café.
Go inside Les Chimères café and you’ll be greeted by a huge white and blue earthenware peacock staring down at you from its full height. The vintage checkered floor, the old bar with its wooden scrolls and the black and white photographs hanging above the comfortable blue banquettes will remind you that Les Chimères has been a café since 1911. It’s always moving to think that, in the same place as us, there were already other Parisians enjoying their coffee long before us. While doing some research, I even discovered that this café was originally a private mansion built in 1626 and owned by a great family of magistrates called Séguier. The name rang a bell…
Oh yes! I first saw Monsieur Séguier at the Louvre. There’s a very large portrait of Pierre Séguier by the famous French painter Charles Le Brun. We see Séguier on horseback, surrounded by six handsome young pages. One of them is holding a large blue-and-white parasol over the chancellor’s head, who is looking down on us from his full height. For Pierre Séguier was the king’s chancellor, the equivalent of our Minister of Justice. A very important man in the kingdom of France. So important, in fact, that he features in Dumas’ famous novel The Three Musketeers. As you probably know, The Three Musketeers is set in the 17th century- in 1625 to be precise.
That’s just one year before the construction of the Hôtel Séguier, where I drink my coffee. And it’s no coincidence that the Marais was the district of chic, wealthy Parisians at the time. I remember reading a chapter of The Three Musketeers to my sons at night to put them to sleep. Their favorite musketeer was Athos, because he was the most moral. They didn’t much like Richelieu. He was the villain. And in the novel, Richelieu tries to compromise the beautiful Anne of Austria, the wife of the king Louis XIII, with the complicity of the chancellor Séguier.
Well, I won’t spoil the ending for you. If you want to read or reread The Three Musketeers, the Chimères terrace is the place to be. You can choose between the shady terrace or the sunny one across the street. And every hour you’ll hear the sound of the nearby church bell. It’s the bell of the grandiose Saint Paul -Saint Louis church, the foundation stone of which was laid by Louis XIII (the husband of the beautiful Anne of Austria, for those keeping track). And guess who celebrated the first mass in this church? Cardinal de Richelieu!
Reading The Three Musketeers while hearing this bell ringing is a great way to get into the Grand Siècle mood (the 17th century is considered the “Great Century” for the French). But you can also do as I did at the Chimères terrace. Which is to say, not much, apart from watching the people passing by and those sitting next to you. The last time I was there, I struck up a conversation with my neighbor, a charming Dutch musician from Amsterdam, who was eating a hamburger with a glass of rosé and spoke a little French.
Inspired by his nationality and my beverage, I told him that it was the mayor of Amsterdam who had introduced the cultivation of coffee to France 311 years ago. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht put an end to 12 years of war. To celebrate the peace and as a token of friendship, the mayor of Amsterdam presented Louis XIV with four coffee plants, which were carefully cultivated in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. The Treaty of Utrecht is also known as the Coffee Treaty.
Continuing my story, I told him that it was also in his country that d’Artagnan, the famous Musketeer, had died in 1673, during the siege of Maastricht. For d’Artagnan really did exist. His death even made King Louis XIV weep. My charming neighbor told me with emotion that The Three Musketeers had lulled his childhood. Then he added that true heroes never die. He then raised his glass of rosé and exclaimed in French “All for one…” I in turn raised my cup of Mexican coffee and replied with a flamboyant tone, “And one for all!”
DETAILS
Les Chimères
133, rue Saint-Antoine, 4th arrondissement
Lead photo credit : Café Les Chimères. Photo: Edith de Belleville
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