Nous Sommes En Terrasse

We are a non-profit collective of local writers, artists, business owners, restaurateurs—Parisians and expats—celebrating café culture. We love all cafés—old and new—and we pretty much live in them, sometimes all day long. We write about café life, feature local cafés around Paris (nominate your local fave!), alert you of café closures—and we’ll be creating initiatives to promote the café culture of Paris, and France. Read our latest articles.

Why We Care

The neighborhood café is a vital part of local community life. Often unpretentious and affordable, they are inclusive public houses serving people from all walks of life. In a city where people live in tiny apartments, cafés serve as our living rooms, our offices, and our connection to the larger world. But despite their popularity, since 2014 Paris has lost 300 cafés, particularly in local neighborhoods. The culprit? Changing tastes to a small degree; rising rents and gentrification to a much larger degree. We’re here to shine a light on this: You can’t take cafés for granted.

To learn more about why we care, go here.

Save the Paris Café Celebrates Paris Café Culture

We seek to celebrate what’s special about café culture, work with café owners to help them innovate with the times and remain relevant—and encourage city government to support local business owners, preserving cafés by helping them thrive.

Our Goals Include:

• To highlight what is vitally important about cafés and bistros, and why we need to protect them
  • Not just for the lifestyle/culture, but for the larger issue of protecting small businesses, and the local residential life in cities and small towns
• To start a conversation about the local café
  • Feature and promote favorite cafes around Paris and in France
• To create outreach for café owners
  • A platform/forum for owners to share with each other
• To liaise with government regarding legislation that can help café owners survive and thrive in today’s economy
  • A source of advice/education on how to improve their business (e.g., proper cleaning of coffee machines; benefits of serving fresh vs. flash-frozen food)

Featured image top of page: Au Baroudeur, 11th arrondissement. A favorite unpretentious local joint where everybody knew your name. It did finally reopen under a new owner, with a new look and new name.

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