Most Evocative Left Bank Cafe: Old bohemia still lives at the battered but artistic Quartier Latin café, La Palette, 43 rue de Seine, 6e (tel. 01-43-26-68-15), where patrons still down the same Ricard and Pernod they did back in the 1930s.

Most Historical Cafe: Fans of French history flock to Le Procope, 13 rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie, 6e (tel. 01-40-46-79-00), where such luminaries as Voltaire, Oscar Wilde, and Napoleon used to hang out. The ground floor is outfitted like an antique library.

Most Legendary Hangout: Once a gathering place for French intellectuals, Les Deux Magots, 6 place St-Germain-des-Prés, 6e (tel. 01-45-48-55-25), is still going strong, with tourists now sitting at tables where Gore Vidal and James Baldwin once did.

Most Chic Cafe of Today: Today's equivalent of La Coupole or even the Deux Magots is Café Cosmos, 101 bd. du Montparnasse, 6e (tel. 01-43-26-74-36). In days of yore, you might have seen literary masterpieces being scribbled, by hand, at some of the tables of this crowded cafe. Today, in an age where most novels are written at home with word processors, it's where the hip media crowd gathers to discuss the film scripts and modeling contracts they're cultivating at the moment.

Most Quintessential Paris Left Bank Cafe: Vying with Deux Magots , Café de Flore, 172 bd. St-Germain, 6e (tel. 01-45-48-55-26), basks in its memories of its famous visitors, who included Camus, Picasso, and Apollinaire. Even though tourists now take up the tables here, Café de Flore still pulls off a Left Bank aura.