 |
| Click to enlarge |
Café de Flore has always been famous since 1885, even there was one located in Omotesando in Japan (not sure whether they are from the same organisation). The name came from a sculpture of the goddess of flowers - Flora (Flore in French), and the season of spring in Roman mythology.
Delicious hot chocolate and elegant Art Deco interior design may be some reasons why people loves to visit Café de Flore, but most of all are due to the attraction by it’s history, a hub where the intelligence gathered around in the 1920s. Even though we may not know the story of each of them, at least, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso were the well known.
In my previous blog post introducing the book ‘Left Bank- by Agnés Poirier’ , Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus were the names among those that frequently appeared, as what they called French intellectuals who really acted as the icons here.
Café de Flore was a place for them to hang around, expressing their thoughts, ideas, awareness of the world issues (political & culture) , especially for France & America; or in person (Female & Male, You & I) that matters, then transformed their avant-garde thinking into plays, writings, journals, music, poem…,etc; even though they might not be acceptable in those days. It became a place that dreams could be made, no matter what the reality might be in chaos.
So I put this into the center page of my book, as a symbolic of the belief that any of us can embrace. We can have numerous dream, great or humble, global or for one’s own; provided the motivation is not evil, there is always a path to reach the success, nothing to do with the rocket sciences but keep trying and move on.
Whether you like to stay in Café de Flore or Les Deux Magots; you are in Hong Kong, France or elsewhere; you are a teenager or old guy, male or female, rich or poor…, dream is no boundary once you act.
