Paris: Home of the world's most expensive cup of coffee

You may remember me waxing rhapsodic last year about espresso in Rome. And it's true. An espresso (un caffe or a naturale) in Rome is sublime. When I was in Paris I had espresso several times at several different locations, and I'm sad to report that it was never as good as it was in Rome.

Ah, but café society is non-pareil. Think Toulouse-Lautrec. Or Renoir's famous painting of the Moulin de la Galette.

If Paris is the very expression of the cafe culture, the center of the cafe universe seems to be Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a neighborhood on the Left Bank of the Seine, across the river from the Louvre. It also happens to be the location of the Le Procope, which is credited as the first cafe in the Europe. It opened its doors in 1686 -- and amazingly is still there. It's now an elegant restaurant, and my friend Ann and I didn't stop there. Instead, we went to Café de Flore, which is right next door to Les Deux Magots, a cafe that Hemingway frequented and celebrated in The Sun Also Rises (one of my all-time favorite novels) as the place where Jake meets Brett.

We arrived at Café de Flore just as a table outside opened up. We grabbed it. That it was cool outside and an occasional light rain was falling mattered not in the least. In this cafe, as in so many others in the area, the tables on the sidewalk line the outside of the building, one deep, under the awning with an electric heater above each table. We were toasty. Naturally you sit with your back to the cafe's window facing the sidewalk. It's a bit amusing, actually. Everyone sits that way -- as if the only thing in the world that mattered was flow of pedestrians past your table, watching you watching them, everyone dressed to the nines, as if on the runway, parading their wares for you alone to judge...

Sorry, where was I?

So Ann and I sat down and each ordered an espresso. I felt kind of bad about taking this table located on prime real estate for people watching and ordering only two espressos, until we got the bill.

8.80 euros

In today's market, that's about $13. For two espressos. About 3 ounces of coffee. Total. If a venti cup of drip coffee at Starbucks was priced at the same rate, it would be $80.

But to say that the coffee wasn't great or that it was expensive would be to miss the point entirely. It's all about being there. And that was easily worth the price.