A Step Back in TIme

I googled this picture of the Cour du Commerce in the Latin Quarter of Paris to introduce you to an 'historic' view of Le Procope, the restaurant featured in yesterday's blog entry. Paris is full of
these passages back into time. You'll be walking along a busy street and spy an opening like this. Some passages are completely covered; this one is only partially covered as you can see. Once you pass the shops Cour du Commerce opens onto a narrow, cobbled, very uneven street...it's one of the oldest surviving streets in Paris, now open only to pedestrian traffic. It's hard to imagine carts and horses ever traveling through such a small space. Dr. Guillotin developed and perfected his humane instrument of death, the guillotine, at No. 7 in the late 1700's. Now the street is lined with cute shops and restaurants, most notably, Le Procope. The story is that Le Procope is the oldest coffee house in Paris, established by a Sicilian, Francesco Procoperio dei Coltelli, in 1686.



This is the restaurant's 'backside' as you walk along Cour du Commerce. It's main entrance faces rue de l'Ancienne Comedie, but it was this view that intrigued me. Many famous French and American authors and politicians have dined here over the years...Napoleon, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson...and their pictures decorate the windows. It went on my 'to-do' list the very first time I saw it. My lunch and its historical ambiance did not disappoint when I finally made my visit on Good Friday 2007!