Les Deux Magots

Les Deux Magots originated as a silk and novelty shop founded in 1812 at 23 rue de Buci before relocating in 1873 to Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where it expanded into a café. By 1933 it had become a central site of Parisian cultural life, and by the 1950s its literary and artistic activity was at its height: Boris Vian performed there, while Simone de Beauvoir wrote Les Mandarins, alongside regulars such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Ernest Hemingway, reflecting the intellectual milieu of Saint-Germain-des-Prés during Kelly’s Paris years.