Why I love France - Cafes - Chez Felix (Carcassonne).. its nothing special and that's it - it's just that!

Chez Felix There is a quintessential French bar in every town in France and it is uniquely ‘French’. It serves the same purpose as a pub in Ireland or a tea shop in England - it is a social center where news is exchanged, sport is watched and the world is put right. It is a café, open early serving coffees and croissants to those heading off to work, a brasserie, with the plats du jour chalked up on a blackboard outside just before midday and a bar, serving wine and pression to locals and tourists alike until whatever time in the evening they decide to close (never a fixed time). It is of another time, another century. It feels out of place and yet is so certain of it’s place. It is shabby and unchanged which somehow gives it more a sense of permanence. Newer bars and cafés come and go around it whilst it remains unmoved