| Paris café is not just a place where one | | | | first to choose the place, and he was |
| comes to drink a cup of coffee. In fact, one | | | | followed by Chagall, Vlamink, Kandinsky, |
| doesn't actually come there - the word "come" | | | | Leger and Gijom Apolliner. |
| presupposes a short-time action. People drop | | | | |
| in at a café to go on living… The | | | | There was always hot soup, coal, and warm |
| story began at times when Paris was not such | | | | stoves. The atmosphere was free and easy, |
| a well-appointed city. In 1920th people came | | | | although there were some rules: the ladies |
| to a café to warm themselves attracted by | | | | were not allowed to take their hats off and |
| warm stoves. They sat there infinitely with a | | | | to smoke. On the other hand, they were |
| single cup of coffee and a book, sketchbook | | | | allowed to dance on the tables. |
| and a pencil or in a company of a good friend | | | | |
| or a beloved. Little by little formed small | | | | Haim Sutin painted his best works at the cafe |
| companies of habitués, many of whom went | | | | (at that time they cost a cup of coffee, |
| down in history. Some due to their | | | | nowadays they are sold for millions of |
| indisputable talents and some due to the fact | | | | dollars). Modigliani painted portraits of all |
| of their acquaintance with a genius. | | | | the habitués of La Rotonde. His portraits |
| | | | cost nothing to friends and hot dinner of a |
| French café is organized like a theater. | | | | shot of vodka for the other visitors of the |
| The tables are turned towards the street, in | | | | café. Jean Cocteau distributed poems, |
| summer they are placed right at the pavement. | | | | making fun of the snobs, which were destined |
| Each of the Paris cafes has its own history | | | | to enter the history… |
| and can boast of its own visitors. But one of | | | | |
| them has more reasons to be proud of its | | | | When Paris welcomed "Russian seasons", |
| history than the others. This is the | | | | legendary Dyagilev and Nizhinsky came to La |
| legendary La Rotonde, located at | | | | Rotonda to order music to young composers |
| Montparnasse, 105. | | | | (Debussy, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Milhaud, |
| | | | Satie). Young poets Max Voloshin, Anna |
| Nowadays it is a luxury restaurant, and | | | | Akhmatova and Vladimir Mayakovsky were also |
| there's no bitter, hungry and smoky | | | | frequent guests of La Rotonde. |
| atmosphere of bohemia there…it was over | | | | |
| 90 years ago when this café opened its | | | | In 1903 Gabrielle Chanel sang there folk |
| doors to public. Nobody thought that it is | | | | songs to the rapture of the audience. This is |
| destined to become one of the most famous | | | | at La Rotonde, where she met her rich sponsor |
| places in Paris as well as in the whole | | | | with whom she would live at aristocratic |
| Europe. | | | | Vichi and become a fashion queen, a |
| | | | personification of style. |
| At that time anise vodka cost 5 sous, a | | | | |
| breakfast - 10 sous. Low prices attracted the | | | | Between the two wars the café was favoured |
| Bohemia. Besides they got tired of the | | | | by the writers, such as Hemingway, Breton, |
| Montmartre and started wondering across Paris | | | | Fitzgerald. |
| in search for a better place. Picasso was the | | | | |