Opening its doors in 1686, Café Le Procope is to be considered as the oldest operating café in Paris, and probably one of the most ancient ones in the Western world. Located in the heart of the bohemian Saint-Germain des Prés district, right in the so called Rive Gauche, the Left Bank of the Seine, Café Procope was originally a Sicilian-led undertaking. Known for decades as one of the most relevant cafés littéraires of the French Capital, it hosted figures such as Voltaire and Diderot, while during the 19th Century, after being renowned, personalities of the calibre of Victor Hugo, Alfred de Musset, Honoré de Balzac, and Paul Verlaine were used to attend this café and write there a few of the most famous pages of French literature.
