caffeinated

Coffee and cigarettes is to the French what fast food and apple pie is to the Americans. I’m a pretty pathetic excuse of a smoker but I do love drinking cup after cup of steaming hot coffee. In order to appease the cultural desire for moderation but secret love for excess, the French consume caffeine many times a day but they drink it out of cups the size of shot glasses. Every now and then when I’m at Sciences Po and want a cup of coffee that doesn’t look like it was designed for Barbie I hit up Lili’s Brownies a few blocks away. This adorable little shop was clearly designed with the expat in mind. Inside you can buy American sized coffee, gourmet muffins, donuts, and slabs of carrot and lemon loaf topped by thick white icing. This coffee shop is cute, overpriced, and exactly what my non-French soul needs when I’m stuck at Sci Po from 10 in the morning to 9 at night. Not only will they serve you normal sized coffee but, horror of horrors, they will actually put it in a cup so you can take it to go. (The French have a stark aversion to eating and drinking while not at a table. It’s considered very déclassé). When my uncouth self walked into my history class this afternoon holding my piping hot latte I was bombarded with questions from the American students about where they could find “normal” coffee. Lili’s should give me a cut for spreading the good word.

Lili’s Brownies
35 rue du dragon
75006