on the sidewalk in front of a cafe, sipping coffee or liqueur. Here they
love to idle away the time just watching the passing show.

In Paris, there are hundreds of these cafes lining the boulevards, where
one may sit for hours before the small tables reading the newspapers,
writing letters, or merely idling. In the morning, from eight to eleven,
employees, men-about-town, tourists, and provincials throng the cafes
for _cafe au lait_. The waiters are coldly polite. They bring the
papers, and brush the table--twice for _cafe creme_ (milk), and three
times for _cafe complet_ (with bread and butter).

In the afternoon, _cafe_ means a small cup or glass of _cafe noir_, or
_cafe nature_. It is double the usual amount of coffee dripped by
percolator or filtration device, the process consuming eight to ten
minutes. Some understand _cafe noir_ to mean equal parts of coffee and
brandy with sugar and vanilla to taste. When _cafe noir_ is mixed with
an equal quantity of cognac alone it becomes _cafe gloria_. _Cafe
mazagran_ is also much in demand in the summertime. The coffee base is
made as for _cafe noir_, and it is served in a tall glass with water to
dilute it to one's taste.

Few of the cafes that made Paris famous in the eighteenth century
survive. Among those that are notable for their coffee service are the
Cafe de la Paix; the Cafe de la Regence, founded in 1718; and the Cafe
Prevost, noted also for chocolate after the theater.

[Illustration: ONE OF THE BIARD CAFES

There are about 200 of these coffee and wine shops in Paris. They are
frequented mostly by laborers, clerks, and midinettes]

[Illustration: RESTAURANT PROCOPE, 1922

Successor to the famous "Cave" of 1689]

GERMANY. Germany originated the afternoon coffee function known as the
kaffee-klatsch. Even today, the German family's reunion takes place
around the coffee table on Sunday afternoons. In summer, when weather
permits, the family will take a walk into the suburbs, and stop at a
garden where coffee is sold in pots. The proprietor furnishes the
coffee, the cups, the spoons and, in normal times, the sugar, two pieces
to each cup; and the patrons bring their own cake. They put one piece of
sugar into each cup and take the other pieces home to the "canary bird,"
meaning the sugar bowl in the pantry.

Cheaper coffee is served in some gardens, which conspicuously display
large signs at the entrance, saying: "Families may cook their own coffee
in this