• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
The Cybercafes of Paris
Bob Biderman
From the Archives of Cafe Magazine. The Cybercafes of Paris was rst  published in June 1996.
In Paris,
L’Intenet est arrivé! Or has it? Like everythingelse in the mysterious world of Galliccyberspace, it depends on who you talk to. Statistically, France issomewhat behind the rest of Europe in accessing the Web. Twothings have stood in the way. The rst is that very French desire for linguistic pre-eminence. Francophones tend to recoil in horror at asystem that, at its core, is English (or, more correctly, American).The second is the enormous investment that France has put intoits highly successful Minitel information network - which, thoughpurely text-based, now also provides an e-mail facility, the mostpopular service on the Net.Despite the lack of support from the French government andnews organisations, which have failed to hype the coming cyber revolution in the messianic tones of their English counterparts,there is a signicant sector of the French market ripe for thepickings (at least this is what the legions of American-accented
 
cyber-salesmen taxiing in from Orly and Charles de Gaulle seemto believe). Not surprisingly, the rst ranks of converts are theyoung.The youth in France are techno-savvy. For many of them, theNet is a Siren’s call emanating far beyond the cramped andsterile quarters of the Academic Francaise. Just like the ear-splitting, rhythmic beat of Techno music and the retina-shatteringphosphorescent colours zapping out from computer screensat nightclubs and discos, the Net provides a path to pulsating,international anarcho-solidarity.Curiously, it is that most stalwart of French institutions, the café,which has become the epicentre of the new cyberculture. Though6,000 traditional cafés shut their doors forever last year, thecybercafe is doing a booming trade. Paris has 15. On a recent tripI checked them out.Chief among these techno-emporia is Le Shop, a cybercafe onRue d’Argout, only a short walk from the frenetic junction of LesHalles. A virtual cyber-palace, Le Shop is the perfect combinationof metallic design, electronic music, the Net and hamburgers.Presided over by the grinningly youthful Baptiste Cadiou, the caféthrobs with spaced-out bliss (if your senses can take it).When Le Shop closes its doors at around seven in the evening,Zowezo opens up. Zowezo, which is an African term describinghuman diversity (so the owners claim), is a music bar located near the eshpots of Pigalle. A hang-out for young techno-artists, itsthree Net terminals buzz on through the night - or at least till theofcial closing hours of two am.Close to Le Shop is Cristal Palace, another huge music bar/restaurant - this one decorated with a Mexican Andy Warhol motif.It combines the Net with networked computer games and the musicof Jimi Hendrix, till six in the morning. Two cinema multiplexes,UGC at Forum des Halles and Gaumont at Montparnasse,have incorporated cybercafes into their architecture. So, too,has Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Hausmann, with its BistrotInternet. Virgin Records on the Champs Elysées also caters tothe new youth culture with seven Internet connected PCs in its
 
basement.Young, arty net-heads aren’t the only ones catered for inthe expanding Parisian Net culture. The High Tech Café atMontparnasse tower is frequented by the more serious technocrat.Overlooking the bustling business district, set back on a concreteterrace, the bunker-like structure is lled with sleek-suited and chicbodies. HTC (as it is known by the clubbies who ock there after ofce hours) is strictly for the urban professional and requires amembership card that costs Fr600 (£75) a year; there is an hourlyusage fee on top of that. Here, whisky is the drink. The music is jazz. The mood is a mannered “cool”. In the background, hoveringover the smoky glass tables, is a giant screen with constantlyshifting Web addresses. It is a great place if you want to meet afuture techno-king.But if techno-queens are your thing, there is always the newlyopened Café Cox. Near the Hotel de Ville in “Vieux Paris”, it claimsto be the rst gay cybercafe (at least in France). With an abundanceof ancient wood and stone, the computer screens beam up fromunder the glass tables, creating a curiously anachronistic illusion.Cyberia at the Centre Pompidou combines a proper Englishrectitude with a slightly laid-back French ambience, and hascarved out a nice little space on the mezzanine of this wonderfullyfanciful oasis. The staff are mainly British, speaking passableFrench, and their focus is cyber rather than café. Betting a chainwith its home base in London, they all wear T-shirts with the webaddress running down the sleeves, rather like a uniform - to setthem off, I suppose, from the ordinary tourists. A more relaxingspot is right across from the Jardin Luxembourg on the rue deMedicis. It is quiet during the week and if the sun is out you canenjoy your Viennese coffee outdoors before strolling inside for aquick surf or e-mail.The most intriguing of the Parisian cybercafes, though, mustcertainly be Le Web Bar. Located on rue Picardie, bordering theold quarter of Le Marais, it was fashioned out of a disused artgallery. You enter into an ordinary café, but in the back is a circular rotunda with a glass dome through which the marvellous Parisian
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...