Sunday, February 21, 2010

"Cafe Tour"...Day Four...Café De Paris & Bar Chez Des Amis

A splendid hotel in Prague is Hotel Paříž, or Hotel Paris, and within this hotel is a magnificent cafe appropriately named Café De Paris.  Adjoining the cafe we have Bar Chez Des Amis...where we'll enjoy a Bloody Mary in just a few.  The hotel also has a very famuous restaurant, Sarah Bernhardt, which is named after the famous singer & actress, but we're here to enjoy the cafe today.  The hotel itself is architecturally stunning, and I'll tell you more about it when I give you my recommendations of places to stay in Prague.
One of the reasons I adore this cafe is that the establishment is owned and run by the same family, the Brandejs family, that built the hotel back in 1904.  In 1991, after the Velvet Revolution, the hotel was returned to the Brandejs family in restitution.  After regaining possession of the building and having to renovate, the owners made sure to pay attention to even the smallest detail and took it back to "the grace and opulence of its halcyon Art Nouveau days...". 

Alphonse Mucha's "Four Times a Day" (1899) includes Morning Awakening, Light of Day, Evening Reverie, and Night's Rest
(Mucha is one of my favorite artists so I'll take you to the Mucha Musuem in a week or so)...
Today, Café De Paris perfectly resembles a traditional Parisian café circa 1930, and echoes the Art Nouveau 1920´s culture that still flourishes in Prague. Café De Paris and Bar Chez Des Amis is a great place to meet for coffee or afternoon tea and watch the world go by. 

Or perhaps a glass of Absinthe is more your style...

We passed on the absinthe this time around because there was champagne to be had...

Are you ready for that aforementioned Bloody Mary?

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