When night fell, the woman paid for her drinks and left, followed by the men’s avaricious gaze. She answered him with a beautiful but ice-cold smile and the ladies’ man withdrew, dazed. In the end, a bolder or daring man went up to her table and addressed the woman.

And, the air continued to be stirred up with excitement, while those present caressed the strange woman’s beautiful figure with their avaricious gaze. Some said that she had arranged to meet a man there, who was probably married others said that she was trying to trap her husband to see if he came with another woman… but time passed by and neither her date, or the adulterous husband appeared. Predictions and hypotheses about her presence immediately came pouring in. Maybe that’s why, when a beautiful, 30-something year old woman who was elegantly dressed, appeared one afternoon at the Cafe Paris and sat down alone at a table, she sparked the interest of the male public there. And, their male partners weren’t very inclined to take their better half to Cafe Paris because that’s where they discussed a range of subjects, from politics to their romantic encounters. It was an almost exclusively male environment, back in the early 20th century, in the Havana which had just gained its independence, where women didn’t normally go to cafes, unless they were accompanied by their male partner. Well, there was (and still is) a Cafe Paris in Havana too, on the corner of O’Reilly and Compostela Streets, which an exclusive group of young dandies, musicians and intellectuals would regularly go to, including some of the writers and poets who have left their mark on Cuban literature. Word has it that if you haven’t sat in a “Cafe Paris”, to talk, read or try and fix the world, sitting at one of these marble tables with thick glass cups, or just watching people pass by from the cafe’s terrace in the city, then you haven’t really lived like one of the locals. HAVANA TIMES – Nearly every capital in the world has a Cafe Paris, maybe in memory of or imitating these kinds of establishments in the French capital, where most of Europe’s history has been written, witnessing the birth of great artistic works and movements.

This chronicle in inspired by these memories, half legend and half fiction, which, nonetheless, resonates with Cuban reality today.īy Richard Potts Old Havana’s Cafe Paris. Even though time has blurred her existence in the mist of legend, the story of the Lady of the Cafe Paris still sparks the interest of those who have been lucky enough to hear stories about her special and short-lived time spent at a cafe in Old Havana.

Old havana cafe