In the late 19th century the Paris boulevards were thronged with café-goers, especially between five and seven o’clock, when Parisians liked to drink absinthe, read the evening papers, and gossip. Perhaps the favourite café at this time was the Café Tortoni, where Talleyrand used to sit; it was the headquarters of the wits, the gossips, and the scandalmongers of the capital. The Café Riche was the favourite of the financiers and the stockbrokers, while the Café du Helder was where the army and navy officers met. Then there was the Café de la Paix, the rendezvous of the gilded youth of Paris, who sat at the little round tables on the pavement to watch the passers-by on the boulevard.

There were less elegant cafes too, where there was much billiard playing, dominoes, and cards, where the habitués sat round the tables smoking, drinking beer or absinthe, and talking at the tops of their voices, in an atmosphere thick with the fumes of tobacco, alcohol and kitchen smells.

The staff of the Parisian cafes were interesting too. There was the caissiere, who sat at a desk amidst sheaves of spoons, piles of saucers, and small carafes of cognac, writing down every order that the waiters announced; the maitre d’hotel, corpulent and dignified, who inquired kindly after the health of the habitués; the waiter who cried ‘Boum!’ in reply to orders, and carried five glasses of beer in one hand, and balanced a heavy tray in the other; the sommelier, who ran from table to table laden with bottles, and distributed absinthe, amer picon, chartreuse, bitters, Madeira, vermouth, cassis, and a dozen other delicious distillations; and the verseur, who carried a coffee pot and a milk pot, and filled the cups when the waiter bellowed out ‘Versez 10!’ to indicate the number of the table.

The café-concert was the French equivalent of the British music hall. They tended to be sited in commercial districts, and so were always crowded with shopkeepers and clerks. The audience was packed tight into rows, and in front of the seats was a narrow ledge on which was placed what was known as the ‘consommation’ of each visitor – cherries preserved in eau-de-vie, coffee, beer, peppermint, or redcurrant syrup. Smoking was allowed, and as the evening wore on the atmosphere grew more and more hot, while the flaring gas jets became gradually obscured by the thick blue fog of smoke; on the stage the singers grew hoarse as they bawled out popular songs or sentimental ballads.

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