The more I think about it, the more I think it’s a great idea! They could do a Snobbish Café Tour which would include Le Fouquet’s, Café de la Paix, Le Lutétia, and Le Café Marly to name a few. Or a Writer’s Dream Café Tour; this tour could actually be a walking tour around Montparnasse! One could just imagine the spirits of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sartre, and Miller following the tour to La Coupole, Le Dôme, Le Sélect, La Rotonde, and La Closerie des Lilas.

Or what about The Artists’ Café Tour taking you to Les Deux Magots, Le Café de Flore….okay, okay the writer’s tour and the artist’s tour would have to be combined because it seems that the likes of Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, Modigliani, etc., loved the same cafés that the writers did! There could also be the “In” Café Tour with the Café Beaubourg leading the way.

Anyway you get the idea. There’s so much rich history in all these cafés! So….why am I thinking that The Starbucks Tour just doesn’t seem to fit in?! There are now 21 Starbucks Coffee shops in Paris (and growing!) when just four years ago, there were none! I remember the scandal and the reaction of horror (no exaggeration!) when Mc Donald’s opened their first fast-food restaurant in France back in the 70’s. Yet it seems like the invasion of Starbucks has gone virtually unnoticed.

Is it because we have gotten so used to seeing an American influence in Paris that no one gets rattled by it any longer? I sure hope not!

Photo Credits: Flickr

Post from: The Paris Traveler