Lets begin by wandering down rue Mazarine from the Odon square. Bingo? We almost immediately come on Le Procope, where a plaque affirms it is the oldest caf in the world.
It opened in 1686, mainly to offer coffee. This beverages fashion had been recently imported from Austria – the Viennese got their caffeine zonks from the Turks during a lull in the Ottoman siege of their city ca. 1623.
Voltaire and… God
The Caf Procope was an early favorite rendez-vous of actors from the Comdie Franaise – the national theatrical company, then situated nearby- and later, during the turbulent pre-Revolutionary mid-18th century, of Encylopaedists (such as Diderot and DAlembert) and other non-conformist thinkers, who had this was still during the reign of Louis XV to be careful with what they spouted in public.
Voltaire recounts that one day, he and a host of like-minded philosophers wanted to discuss a very thorny issue around a cup of coffee at Le Procope: does God exist? They coded God into Monsieur Nant (Mister Nothing) and the wrangling went on for several hours.
At a nearby table sat a gentleman who had time to read his newspaper several...
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