Simone de Beauvoir at the table

Beauvoir's table is not that of grand bourgeois cuisine: it is the rhythm of the post-war Parisian café-restaurant. One follows an aperitif at the zinc counter, a single quick dish served at the marble table, a cheese or simple dessert, and the black coffee that prolongs the conversation. The structure is not starter/main/dessert, but a social succession: one eats in order to continue thinking and talking, the meal is punctuation of intellectual work, not ceremony.

The red thread of her food life: strong coffee drunk at the counter or at a café table (Flore, Deux Magots, La Coupole), accompanied by cigarettes, wine and unpretentious dishes. Coffee is not a drink, it is a workplace and the signature of the entire existentialist meal.