Goals
What you'll be able to doBy the end of this lesson, you'll be able to…
- ☕ Talk about traditional French cafés and their decline.
- 🎨 Describe an original themed café (cat café, café-bookshop, café-coworking…).
- 🔗 Express cause with parce que / comme / à cause de / grâce à.
- 👍👎 Tell apart a positive opinion from a negative / sarcastic one by intonation.
- 🗣️ Present your favourite café and explain why in 5 sentences.
Discover ☕
The vanishing bistro📉 The decline of the bistro A century of closures
💭 How do we explain almost 6 000 bistros closing every year?
✨ New bistros — 5 themed cafés Reinventing the café
Are traditional cafés boring you? Looking for somewhere original to go on your own or with friends? Here are a few spots that might catch your eye:
Le Sun Café
Vous déprimez à cause du manque de soleil et vous aimeriez être un peu plus bronzé(e) ? ("Feeling down because of the lack of sun, and you'd like to come back a bit more tanned?")
La Jungle Café
Vous aimez les musiques exotiques ? Ce café est fait pour vous ! ("Love world music? This café is made for you!")
Le Café de l'École des parents
Vous voulez parler de votre premier bébé, de l'école ou de jouer avec d'autres parents ? ("Want to chat with other parents about your first baby, school, or play time?")
Le Café des Mots
Vous avez envie de prendre un verre et de lire un roman en même temps ? C'est très facile ! ("Fancy a drink and a novel at the same time? Easy!")
Le Cybercafé (2026: café-coworking)
Vous avez envie de prendre un verre avec Luis à Mexico ou Emiko à Tokyo ? Wi-Fi gratuit, prises partout ! ("Fancy a drink with Luis in Mexico or Emiko in Tokyo? Free Wi-Fi, plug sockets everywhere!")
🆕 In 2026, you can also find…
- 🐱 Le Café à chats — drink a coffee surrounded by friendly cats. (cat café)
- 🎲 Le Café-jeux de société — play board games with strangers over a drink. (board-game café)
- 📖 Le Café-librairie — drink a coffee and buy a book. (café-bookshop)
- 🌿 Le Café-laverie — do your laundry while sipping tea. (launderette-café — a recent French import from London / New York)
- 📸 Le Café Insta-friendly — gorgeous decor, gorgeous drinks. (Instagrammable café)
1. Match each sentence to the right café Type the café number (1 → ⑤).
Read each sentence and type the matching café number.
- Grâce à ce lieu en particulier, vous pourriez rencontrer d'autres parents pour parler de vos différents sujets. → Café n° (Café de l'École des parents)
- Votre verre à la main, installez-vous dans un fauteuil devant un des très nombreux livres de ce café. → Café n°
- C'est possible dans ce café où l'accès à Internet est gratuit ! → Café n°
- Alors, rendez-vous dans ce nouveau café où vous pourrez boire un verre, voir des UV, écouter de la musique, le bruit de la mer… bien sûr ! → Café n°
🎙️ Helpful listening · Dialogue Vox-pop on why cafés are closing
— Pardon, monsieur, comment expliquez-vous la disparition de nombreux cafés en France ?
— Pour moi, le problème, c'est la télé. Le soir, les gens préfèrent rester chez eux devant un film
ou une émission… et puis, c'est trop cher !
— Et… c'est dommage ?
— Ah, ben oui ! Nous, on aimerait bien aller plus souvent dans les bars dans la rue à côté, mais on n'a pas
les moyens, quand on sort le prix d'un verre… eh bien, voilà, on ne ressort pas !
— C'est beaucoup trop cher, oui !
— Moi, j'adore aller prendre un verre dans un café… parce qu'on y rencontre des amis, on parle, c'est très
chaleureux. Mais c'est vrai aussi qu'aujourd'hui beaucoup de cafés se ressemblent. Et puis, on ne peut
plus fumer à l'intérieur, c'est vrai !
— Ce sont les habitudes des jeunes qui ont changé : regardez autour de vous… il n'y a plus que des fast-foods,
le tennis et l'arène !
— Mais je vais toujours dans le même café. À côté de chez moi. Tout le monde se connaît, c'est bien. Mais
souvent, dans les autres cafés, les serveurs ne sont pas très sympas.
📖 English translation
— Excuse me, sir, how do you explain so many cafés vanishing in France?
— For me, the problem is TV. In the evening, people would rather stay home with a film or a show… and besides, it's too expensive!
— So… is that a shame?
— Oh, yes! We'd love to go more often to the bars down the road, but we can't afford it — when you add up the price of a drink… well, you just don't go out!
— Yes, way too expensive!
— Me, I love going for a drink at a café — because you bump into friends, you chat, the atmosphere is warm. But it's also true that nowadays many cafés look alike. And you can't smoke inside anymore!
— It's young people's habits that have changed: look around — it's all fast-food joints, gyms, and arenas now!
— I always go to the same café. Right next door. Everyone knows everyone — it's nice. But in lots of other cafés, the waiters aren't very friendly.
💡 Note for English speakers: sympa (short for sympathique) is one of the highest-frequency words in spoken French — and a false friend. It does NOT mean "sympathetic" — it means "nice, friendly, likeable". "Sympathetic" in the English sense is compatissant.
Vocabulary
Words to remember☕ The café and its people
📉 Decline & change
🎨 Themed cafés
🔤 Conjugation · ennuyer "to bore"
| j'ennuie | nous ennuyons |
| tu ennuies | vous ennuyez |
| il / elle ennuie | ils / elles ennuient |
| Passé composé: j'ai ennuyé • Reflexive: s'ennuyer = "to be bored" | |
Grammar — Expressing cause
Why? Because…To explain why something happens, French gives you several connectors — and they are not interchangeable. Some flag the cause as positive (a credit / a help), others as negative (a fault / a blame). English collapses most of these into "because" or "thanks to / due to", but French is choosier.
| Form | Construction | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| à cause de | + noun | negative cause = "because of / due to" used when assigning blame |
Il n'a pas réussi à cause de la négligence. "He didn't succeed because of (his) carelessness." |
| grâce à | + noun | positive cause = "thanks to" used to give credit |
Grâce à votre aide, j'ai achevé ce travail. "Thanks to your help, I finished the work." |
| parce que | + clause | neutral; the natural answer to « pourquoi ? » = English "because" |
— Pourquoi tu aimes ce café ? — Parce qu'on y rencontre des gens. "Why do you like this café?" — "Because you meet people there." |
| comme | + clause (at the start) | neutral; puts the cause first = English "since / as" (sentence-initial only) |
Comme il fait beau, je vais en terrasse. "Since the weather's nice, I'm going out on the terrace." |
| car | + clause | formal / written; never at the start of a sentence ≈ English "for" (literary) — feels more written than spoken |
Je n'y vais plus, car c'est trop cher. "I don't go there anymore, for it's too expensive." |
💡 The classic trap for English speakers
English uses "because" very loosely — it can introduce a clause, give credit, or assign blame. French splits the work across four words:
- Negative cause (= "due to / because of")? → à cause de.
- Positive cause (= "thanks to")? → grâce à.
- Answering « pourquoi ? » with a full clause? → parce que.
- Putting the cause first in the sentence? → comme.
Tip: if you'd write "thanks to X, …" in English with a positive nuance, pick grâce à. If you'd write "because of X (sadly)…", pick à cause de. Mixing them up can sound rude — saying « à cause de toi, je parle français » sounds like a complaint!
Practice
Try it outExercise 2 — Pick the right cause connector Fill in the blanks
Complete with à cause de / grâce à / parce que / comme / car.
- Beaucoup de bistrots ferment la hausse des loyers à Paris.
- Internet, on peut travailler depuis un café.
- — Pourquoi tu aimes ce café ? — on y rencontre des amis.
- il fait moins beau aujourd'hui, on reste à l'intérieur.
- Il ne sort plus le soir, c'est trop cher.
- Le serveur n'était pas content notre table sale.
Exercise 3 — My favourite café ☕ Free writing
Describe your favourite café using at least 3 different cause expressions (60-100 words).
Exercise 4 — Habits are changing Match the sentence halves
Match the beginning to the end of each sentence. Type the letter.
| Beginning | Ending |
|---|---|
| A. À cause des fast-foods… | a. on rencontre moins de gens dans la rue. |
| B. Comme les loyers sont élevés… | b. on peut travailler depuis n'importe où. |
| C. Grâce au télétravail… | c. les jeunes mangent moins au bistro. |
| D. Parce que les gens regardent leur téléphone… | d. beaucoup de petits cafés ferment. |
A → B → C → D →
Exercise 5 — Transform parce que → à cause de / grâce à Pick positive or negative
Rewrite each sentence, replacing parce que + clause with à cause de / grâce à + noun. Choose the right connector based on whether the cause is good or bad.
- Je suis content parce qu'il fait beau. → Je suis content .
- Il est triste parce que sa fiancée est partie. → Il est triste .
- On a réussi parce que tu nous as aidé(e)s. → On a réussi .
- Le café a fermé parce qu'il manque de clients. → Le café a fermé .
Communicate
Your turn🗣️ À vous ! Your turn!
With a partner, answer the following questions:
- Do you go to cafés often? How many times a week?
- Why do you like / not like going to cafés?
- What time of day do you go most often?
- What kind(s) of café do you prefer? (traditional, cat café, bookshop, coworking…)
- Are there any original cafés in your country / city? Describe one.
- If you had to pick one of the 5 cafés in the article, which would you choose? Why?
Pronunciation · How do you find it?
Intonation: positive vs sarcasticIn French, the same sentence can be positive or negative (sarcastic) depending entirely on intonation. This is huge in spoken French. English does this too — think of how "Great. Thanks." can be sincere or biting — but French relies on it even more, because the words themselves don't change.
Example:
- 📈 « Super, ce café ! » with a rising intonation → positive tone 😍 ("Great café!" — sincere)
- 📉 « Super, ce café ! » with a flat or falling intonation → negative / sarcastic tone 🙄 ("Great. Café." — meaning the opposite)
💡 For English speakers: you already do this naturally in English — French sarcasm uses the same trick (flat / falling intonation, sometimes a slight pause). The hard part is producing it in a foreign language without sounding genuinely angry. Listen carefully and copy the melody, not just the words.
The French café · A cultural institution
More than a place to drink coffeeThe French café isn't just somewhere to grab a coffee — it's a social institution. It's where people read the newspaper in the morning, have a drink after work, and put the world to rights with friends in the evening. The closest English-speaking equivalents are the British pub or the American diner — but neither maps perfectly. The café is its own beast.
🕰️ Through the ages
- 18th century — Birth of literary cafés (Le Procope, 1686 — still trading today, near the Odéon). Voltaire and Rousseau argued about philosophy here.
- Belle Époque (1900) — 510 000 cafés in France! Painters (Picasso, Modigliani) thrashed out their ideas in Montparnasse.
- 1950s — Sartre and Beauvoir wrote at the Café de Flore in Saint-Germain — the cradle of existentialism.
- 2020s — Coworking, remote work, specialty coffee, cat cafés, bookshop-cafés — the café is reinventing itself again.
☕ How to order in France
Important: French café "coffee" defaults to an espresso, not the big mug of filter coffee you'd get in the US or UK. Order carefully!
- « Un café, s'il vous plaît. » → a short espresso. (NOT a big mug — beware!)
- « Un café allongé » → an espresso with more water — closer to what Americans call "Americano".
- « Un crème » or « un café crème » → coffee with milk, similar to a latte.
- « Un déca » → a decaf.
- « Une noisette » → an espresso with a dash of milk (literally "a hazelnut", referring to the colour) — closer to a macchiato.
🇫🇷 vs 🇬🇧🇺🇸
In the UK and US, café culture is dominated by chains — Starbucks, Costa (UK), Pret, Dunkin' (US). People typically order at a counter, take their drink to go, or sit for a few hours with a laptop. In France, the bistro stay is usually shorter (10-20 minutes at the bar), more social, and prices are different depending on where you sit: cheaper at the counter (au comptoir) than at a table, and cheaper at a table than on the terrasse — that's right, the same coffee can cost you twice as much depending on where you park yourself!
One more difference: in France, you don't tip the way you do in the US. Service is included (service compris), and rounding up to the nearest euro is generous. No 20% expected.