() is a famous café and restaurant situated at 6, Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris'

6th arrondissement The 6th arrondissement of Paris (''VIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le sixième''. The arrondissement, called Luxembourg in ...

, France. It once had a reputation as the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual elite of the city. It is now a popular tourist destination. Its historical reputation is derived from the patronage of Surrealist artists, intellectuals to the likes of

Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...

and

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

, as well as young writers, such as

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

. Other patrons included

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...

and the American writers

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

, Chester Himes and Richard Wright. The Deux Magots literary prize (Prix des Deux Magots) has been awarded to a French novel every year since 1933 at Les Deux Magots.

Origin of the name

" Magot" literally means "stocky figurine from the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

". The name originally belonged to a fabric and novelty shop at nearby 23 Rue de Buci. The shop sold silk lingerie and took its name from a popular play of the moment (19th century) entitled ''Les Deux Magots de la Chine''. Its two statues represent Chinese " mandarins", or " magicians" (or "

alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

s"), who gaze out over the room. In 1873, the business moved to its current location in the Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés. In 1884, the business changed to a café and ''liquoriste'', but kept the name. Auguste Boulay bought the business in 1914, when it was on the brink of bankruptcy, for 400,000 francs. Auguste Boulay's son added glass walls to allow more light into the café. The statues remained the same since the store opened (they were not replaced by copies). A café Les Deux Magots opened in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

in 1989. Catherine Mathivat, great-great-granddaughter of Auguste Boulay, started to work in the café in 1993, and took over when her father died in 2012. In 2016, the café led a study revealing that 60% of its clientele were international tourists. In 2017, Mathivat partnered with her cousin Jacques Vergnaud to redesign the café and reclaim its Parisian clientele. In 2022, the Saint-Germain café alone made a revenue of 15 million euros. In 2023, a café Les Deux Magots opened in

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...

(

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

) and another one in

. In December 2023, it opened a unit in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

. There are more plans to new units in

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Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

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and

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

References in literature and popular culture

In literature

* Les Deux Magots appears in ''The Chariot Makers'', by Steve Matchett, in which the author describes Les Deux Magots as: "the first café in the quarter to be blessed by the morning sun. Its clientele pay a healthy premium for drinking there, it’s only fitting they should be the first to catch the warmth of the new day." * The café figures prominently in

Abha Dawesar Abha Dawesar (born 1 January 1974) is an Indian-born novelist writing in English. Her novels include '' Babyji'', ''Family Values'', ''That Summer in Paris'', and ''Miniplanner''. Her 2005 novel '' Babyji'' won the Lambda Literary Award for Le ...

's novel ''That Summer in Paris'' (2006). * The café is the setting for a pivotal scene in the 1998 novel ''The Magic Circle'' by Katherine Neville. The novel was displayed for several months in the windows of Les Deux Magots. * In the 2009 novel ''El hombre que amaba a los perros'' (''

The Man who Loved Dogs ''The Man who Loved Dogs'' is a novel by Leonardo Padura and involves the complex political narratives that surround the assassination of Leon Trotsky by Ramon Mercader. The novel was a finalist for the Book of the Year Award in Spain. It was o ...

'') by

Leonardo Padura Leonardo de la Caridad Padura Fuentes (born October 10, 1955) is a Cuban novelist and journalist. , he is one of Cuba's best-known writers internationally. In his native Spanish, as well as in English and some other languages, he is often refe ...

it is one of the places where Trotsky's assassin, Ramon Mercader, spends time while waiting to be sent to Mexico to complete his assignment. * The café features prominently in Marco Missiroli's ''Atti osceni in luogo privato,'' about the early life of "Libero Marsell", whose father will be a patron of the cafè and will befriend writer

before the author's death. * The café is the site of an important event in China Miéville's novella ''

The Last Days of New Paris ''The Last Days of New Paris'' () is a 2016 fantasy novella by British writer China Miéville. The book takes place in an alternate history in which surrealist artists join partisans in Paris to fight Nazi groups. The role of surrealism in histor ...

'' (2016). *''

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humber ...

'', chapter 5, part 1. *'' A Moveable Feast'', chapter 8 by Ernest Hemingway. *

Lorna Goodison Lorna Gaye Goodison CD (born 1 August 1947)Debo ...

, ''At Lunch in Les Deux Magots'', in Oracabessa * Les Deux Magots is referenced in patron

's '' Finnegans Wake'' on page 562.

In graphic novels

* A café with a similar name (Café Deux Magots) is seen in the fictional town of Morioh, Japan in '' Diamond is Unbreakable'', the fourth part of '' JoJo's Bizarre Adventure''.

In art

* 1959 color photograph by Saul Leiter. * 1967 figurative painting by Jean-François Debord.

In film

* Several scenes in the 1949 movie ''

The Man on the Eiffel Tower ''The Man on the Eiffel Tower'' is a 1950 American Ansco Color film noir mystery film directed by Burgess Meredith and starring Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone, Meredith, and Robert Hutton. It is based on the 1931 novel '' La Tête d'un homme'' ...

'' take place here. * The café features in

Jean Eustache Jean Eustache (; 30 November 1938 – 5 November 1981) was a French filmmaker. During his short career, he completed numerous short films, in addition to a pair of highly regarded features, of which the first, ''The Mother and the Whore'', is c ...

's 1973 film ''

The Mother and the Whore ''The Mother and the Whore'' (french: La maman et la putain) is a 1973 French film directed by Jean Eustache and starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Bernadette Lafont and Françoise Lebrun. An examination of the relationships between three characters ...

''. * The café features in the 2011 film '' The Intouchables'', in a scene in which Philippe (

François Cluzet François Cluzet (born 21 September 1955) is a French film and theatre actor. Cluzet has collaborated with many important European and American directors, including Claude Chabrol, Bertrand Tavernier, Claire Denis, Agnieszka Holland, Robert Altm ...

) and Driss ( Omar Sy) stop there after a wee-hours stroll along the Seine, meant to ease Philippe's suffering in the middle of the night.

In television

* The café features in a scene in the final episode of NBC sitcom '' The Good Place''. * The café is shown while filmed in a week-long tour in Paris of ''

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airing from January 3, 2005, to December 19, ...

'' during June, 2011.

In music

* The café features centrally as the main location of the tale told in the song “A Rose Is A Rose” by singer Poe, with many of the café‘s more famous clientele name-checked in the lyrics, each enraptured with the enigmatic Jezebel.

In podcasts

* Cocoa from Les Deux Magots is featured heavily in '' The Amelia Project''.

Footnotes

External links

Les Deux Magots official site

List of Deux Magots literary prize winners since 1933
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deux Magots, Les Restaurants in Paris Buildings and structures in the 6th arrondissement of Paris Bakery cafés Simone de Beauvoir Coffeehouses and cafés in Paris Restaurants established in 1884 1884 establishments in France