Marcel Bovis, L'heure de l'aperitif

A bit of history: Café Procope started to serve coffee indoors in 1686. In 1843 there were over 3000 cafés - by that time Paris had become one great coffeehouse (Jules Michelet, Histoire de France, quoted by Val Clark, The Parisian Café: A Literary Companion).
Marcel Bovis was a self-taught photographer. Beginning in 1927, Bovis often photographed Paris at night (his most famous photo is Café de Nuit). He loved fairs and circuses, and published a book about them in 1948, called Fêtes foraines. (information provided by New England Art Express)


I was talking some other day about Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin, the letters Miller was sending to her from cafés all over Paris, about her thoughts in reply, noted by Anaïs in her diary. Henry Miller was married, and Anaïs was married, too... The complicate drama was recreated recently by an Australian playwright, Wendy Becket. Her Anaïs Nin: One of Her Lives is played these days in New York, at the Samuel Becket Theater (by the way, Mrs. Becket is said to be distantly related to the author of Waiting for Godot). There is a review in today's New York Times - not very favorable (which seems to be the norm there, Times reviewers are rarely favorable to somebody or something).