{"id":221,"date":"2007-10-13T08:38:58","date_gmt":"2007-10-13T16:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/2007\/10\/starbucks-in-paris-drinking-a-latte-for-science\/"},"modified":"2007-10-16T11:23:56","modified_gmt":"2007-10-16T19:23:56","slug":"starbucks-in-paris-drinking-a-latte-for-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/2007\/10\/starbucks-in-paris-drinking-a-latte-for-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks in Paris . . . drinking a latte for science"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wasn’t going to go near a Starbucks for my two months in Paris. I was working\u00c2\u00a0on\u00c2\u00a0the principle that I’d avoid all\u00c2\u00a0American franchises. Especially a franchise that sells coffee in a city that makes great coffee. Actually I was pretty surprised to see Starbucks here. I would have thought France would try to keep Starbucks out. You see KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and Subway here. That seems plenty.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

The first Parisian Starbucks opened in January 2004. But there were lots of skeptics. Thick, dark espresso is coffee <\/em>to the French. “American coffee,\u00c2\u00a0it’s only water,” said Bertrand Abadie. “We call it jus des chaussette<\/em> (sock juice).”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Another\u00c2\u00a0part of Starbucks\u00c2\u00a0hard for the French\u00c2\u00a0to get is the takeaway-coffee-in-a-cup thing. “It’s an absurd idea,” said Jean-Paul Bedel. “The whole point about cafes in France is that you can sit over a coffee as long as you like, read the papers . . . taking away a coffee in a Styrofoam cup is anathema, unthinkable. It’s the kind of thing you’d only think of doing at a railway station.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps the French don’t consider getting a cup of coffee unless they have the time to leisurely sit. Perhaps they also have excellent coffeemakers at work, so don’t see the value in bringing in a Starbucks product when they enter the workplace. Or perhaps the takeaway-coffee-in-a-cup thing is more indicative of a stressed, fast-paced culture. On the other hand, on many occasions, I’ve gone to a Starbucks just because I want the nice sit-down meeting place with pretty good music and a place to use the wireless for my laptop. It’s not just about the takeaway component.<\/p>\n

But what about the comparisons that friends might ask about when I return to the States? Don’t I have an obligation to go into a Starbucks in Paris and see what’s the same and what’s different? In the name of science, I needed to try exactly the same things I get when I’m in a Starbucks in the States: a tall latte and a blueberry scone. I went to the Beaubourg Starbucks (pictured below), which is right next to the modern art museum, the Pompidou.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

STUFF THAT WAS THE SAME. They still played American music.<\/strong> They sold those big city mugs<\/strong>, “Paris” in this case written on the side and decorated with famous monuments. The tables, window bars and stools, <\/strong>and comfy chairs<\/strong> were the same as I’ve seen in other Starbucks across the country. There was coffee stuff and CDs for sale<\/strong>. There’s no smoking<\/strong> in the Parisian Starbucks, a lucky break for me since the French\u00c2\u00a0smoke everywhere else.<\/p>\n

STUFF THAT WAS DIFFERENT. I got my latte in an actual ceramic mug,<\/strong> keeping my drink nice and hot. I did notice a group of four near my stool who had paper cups. Maybe they’d changed their minds about getting their drinks to go. My latte and scone were more expensive<\/strong>. My latte was 3 euro 50 ($4.95), and my scone was 2 euro 30\u00c2\u00a0($3.25). There was also a 19.6% TVA<\/strong> (tax value added) attached to my bill. In the latte-and-scone scenario, the TVA was almost a euro. My final bill was 5 euro 80 ($8.21)). A “tall” size was a “moyen<\/strong>.” I ordered in French<\/strong>. There were no blueberry scones<\/strong>. I had to get a chocolate chip one. The views I got<\/strong> out the window as I sat on my stool was of French cafes, tourists, and French school kids. Some people were begging for coins<\/strong> with Starbucks paper cups.<\/p>\n

I don’t plan to go to Starbucks again on this trip, but it was kinda nice to check out the ambience, the prices, and the coffee. Other mornings a cafe creme<\/em> is my breakfast\u00c2\u00a0drink of choice and a tartine au buerre<\/em> (slice baguette and butter) my carb of choice. I am in Paris, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wasn’t going to go near a Starbucks for my two months in Paris. I was working\u00c2\u00a0on\u00c2\u00a0the principle that I’d avoid all\u00c2\u00a0American franchises. Especially a franchise that sells coffee in a city that makes great coffee. Actually I was pretty surprised to see Starbucks here. I would have thought France would try to keep Starbucks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}