Café Flore appeared a few years after the beginning of the Third Republic, probably in 1887. It owes its name to a sculpture of the mythological goddess Flore located on the other side of the boulevard.

Joris-Karl Huysmans and Rémy de Gourmont were among its first regulars. At the end of the 19th century, Charles Maurras wrote his book "Au signe de Flore" on the first floor. It was also on this floor that the Revue d'Action Française was founded in 1899.

Around 1913, a neighbour, Guillaume Apollinaire, moved in. Together with his friend André Salmon, he transforms the ground floor into an editorial room. Later, the magazine "Les Soirées de Paris" was created there.

In the 1930s, the Café de Flore was the favourite place of a whole family of authors, the whole of literary Paris gathered there: Georges Bataille, Robert Desnos, Léon-Paul Fargue, Raymond Queneau, Michel Leiris... Derain, the Giacometti brothers, Zadkine and Picasso also came there. A special atmosphere reigned there.
The world of cinema was not indifferent either. The director Marcel Carné met the actor Serge Reggiani there. The director Jean-Louis Barrault often arrived with his company after the performances.

In 1939, a local, Paul Boubal, bought the Flore. He attracts an intellectual elite that will mark the golden age of the café1. The couple Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir made it their headquarters:

A league of Romanian thinkers also frequented the place, for example: Emil Cioran (never addressing Jean-Paul Sartre and considering him an entrepreneur of ideas), Eugène Ionesco and the essayist Benjamin Fondane.

In 1984, Miroslav Siljegovic bought the Café de Flore and the Closerie des Lilas.

Coffee is mentioned in the lyrics of the songs:
Et mon père, written, composed and performed by Nicolas Peyrac (1975);
Les Valses de Vienne, written by Jean-Marie Moreau, composed and performed by François Feldman (1989);
L'Entarté, written and performed by Renaud, composed by Jean-Pierre Bucolo (2002).
Every November since 1994, the Flore has hosted the Prix de Flore jury, created by Frédéric Beigbeder, which rewards a young author whose talent is deemed promising.

It was the setting for Louis Malle's 1963 film "Le Feu follet" and more recently for Frédéric Beigbeder's 2012 film "L'amour dure trois ans".

This site is served by the Saint-Germain-des-Prés metro station (line 4).