The charm of Huashen Cafe

Source: China Food News Network

American writer Mitchell said: "If you don't go to the cafe in Paris, it is like you don't see the pyramid in Egypt." Walking on the streets or alleys in Paris, you can see an elegant cafe everywhere. There is a fragrance of coffee everywhere. I often walk into a cafe on the roadside. However, what I deliberately searched was a cafe called "Flower God". Because there used to be a place where Sartre often went to drink coffee.

The "Flower God" cafe is named the ancient Roman goddess "Flore" and is located at No. 72 Saint -Germain Street. This is an apartment -style building, and the cafe occupies the first and second floors of the house. A dark paint next to the room leading to the room upstairs. In 1920, Zhou En came to France to work hard and stayed upstairs in this cafe. At that time, the young Zhou Enlai came out of this door every day and passed in front of the door of the "Flower God" cafe. In addition to Sat and Bolka, Hemingway, Byron, Picasso and others have also been regulars here.

Since the 1940s, Sartre and Polka have often both involved in the "Flower God" cafe. Sat once lived in Bang Namapa Street near the "Flower God" cafe, and later moved several times, not far from here. Sartre and Polka were originally written and gathering in the "Double Puppet" cafes. Later, they turned to the "Flower God" cafe. They liked the quietness and elegance here.

They took it directly as their own studio, and came out of the house every day, sitting in front of the cafe to think, talk, discuss and write in front of the cafe. It is said that the atmosphere of this cafe is particularly adapted to Sarta's unpredictable thoughts and strokes that cannot be stopped. Sartre mentioned in "70 -year -old self -portrait" that his "Delay" and "Existence and Nothing" were finally completed in the "Flower God". At that time, many people mail the letter to Sartre and Bolka directly to "Flower God". When they came in every day, the waiter first did not hold the menu, but gave them a stack of mail. After the beginning of World War II, the summoning order against Sat was also sent to him in the "Flower God" cafe. Sartre said that the life of this kind of cafe is "My life, I have always lived like this."

With Sartre as the center, a group of radical intellectuals stimulated here, breeding the philosophy and literature of existentialism that became popular in the world later. The "Flower God" cafe is also a literary cafe with huge appeal under their influence. Now, the menu of the "Flower God" cafe is still printed on the quotation of Sartre: "The God of Liberty via the road of Huashen ..."

After Sartre's death, many people came here with a pilgrimage mood to remember a generation of existential masters. "Flower God" has become a tourist destination in Paris. Paris's tourism guide puts the "Flower God" cafe in the most advanced position and spares no effort to promote tourists from all over the world.

I came to the "Flower God" cafe in the afternoon of Sunday. It seems to be in a sea of ​​flowers, with flower baskets hanging on the outer wall and window sills. The flowers are clustered and green. It is decorated with mirror walls and peach blossom heartwood to protect the wall, which is warm and soft. However, unexpectedly, almost all the seats here are full of people, crowded and noisy, without a trace of quiet atmosphere and deep artistic conception. I originally planned to go upstairs and sit on the seat of Sartre drinking coffee that year to feel the meaning of Sat, but the "flower god" full of people is no longer a place suitable for thinking. And cream taste. I had to sit on the street on the seat outside the cafe and asked for a cup of coffee two or three times higher than other cafes. I could no longer return to the profound topic of existentialism.

Today's cafe has no ups and downs in the past, and it seems that there is less free and easy romantic talent. French scholar An Dima once said with concerns: "We must have lost something. Those cafes are still in the old place in Montaasas, but now they are just tourists." The evolution of history is unavoidable. Sad, sigh. However, the charm of history may be here.

(Author Wu Bin, a well -known cultural and historical scholar, a special professor of the Chinese Institute of Culture International Communication of Beijing Foreign Studies University, President of the former Shenyang Palace Museum.)

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