I'm thrilled...I was published today...A restaurant in Paris

Well, sort of...:) I wrote an essay contest for my local paper, the Miami Herald...actually it was a contest to write about any favorite or unique restaurant or hotel in London or Paris, so I wrote a short blurb about one of the oldest Restaurants in Paris...And it was in the paper this morning  in the Travel section.

It's called La Procope and has been in business since 1686...Located on one of the oldest streets in that grand old city, Rue de L'Ancienne-Comedie, on the Left Bank, near Blvd St Germaine.

Opened as a coffee shop way back then, it became, over the years, a meeting place for everyone who was anyone,( or who helped anyone become someone), in the worlds of the arts, letters and politics, to meet and discuss, whatever was going on in their world..At the time it was called Cafe Procope, when Voltaire, Balzac, Victor Hugo, were regulars.

It was here in the 18th Century that the new liberal philosophy was brought to light...Benjamin Franklin  and Thomas Jefferson visited when they traveled abroad and Cafe Procope is linked with new eighteeneth century revolutionary ideas, Robespierre, Danton, and Marat  used the cafe as a meeting place, and the then young Napoleon Bonaparte left his hat as a pledge..Yes, they all left their mark in one way or another...

Le Procope of today is still faithful to the  memory of it's distinquished past with the table of Voltaire still set and ready.

And, the food is great!  The ambiance incredible and when you walk outside the very old worn down cobblestone street reeks with atmosphere.

I didn't win the prize though, but my memory of having spent an evening there and to look back on that night is prize enough.