PARIS — The Café de Flore in Paris, once a favorite drinking hole of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, spread its tables along the pavement, in front of the neighboring book store, and reopened on Tuesday for the first time in 11 weeks. Locals could once again enjoy a morning espresso, albeit only at tables spaced a meter apart, as the government allowed cafés and restaurants to open outdoor terraces, lifted travel curbs within France and permitted sunbathing on beaches. Across Paris, café owners encroached on sidewalks to maximize the number of tables they could set. Each had to submit their new configuration to the local authorities online and in the days ahead their new layout will be inspected. Those without little or no outdoor seating have been less fortunate. Across the boutique-lined Boulevard Saint-Germain from the Café de Flore, the Brasserie Lipp, which kept serving through World War Two but was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, remained closed. Some cafés replaced menus with chalkboards, others asked patrons to scan a barcode to bring up the menu on their smartphone. Finance Minister Bruno le Maire on Tuesday promised a solidarity fund to help cafés and restaurants would run until the end of 2020. Many depend on the tourists who in normal times swarm through Paris, the world’s most visited city. — Reuters

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