Wood panelling from the Café militaire (rue Saint-Honoré)
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736–1806)
Coffee became increasingly fashionable in the late 17th century, and starting in the 18th century the famous “coffee houses” began to develop in Paris. It was the place to enjoy a new kind of freedom outside a well-defined social or family circle—for men at least. Installed in 1762 on the ground floor of a building on Rue Saint-Honoré, the military café was for officers only. Its interior decoration was one of the first Paris commissions for the young architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. He designed a war-themed setting inspired by Antiquity, featuring trophies of arms, banners, shields with grimacing Medusa heads and laurel wreaths. On the ceiling we see the motto, Hic virtus bellica gaudet (“Here, warlike virtue takes delight”). From the moment the café opened, Ledoux’s decoration was greatly admired and the place was highly successful. A century later, the café and the home that housed it were destroyed when work was carried out to create Rue de Rivoli.
