ars
later, Pascal, an Armenian, opened his coffee-drinking booth at the fair
of St.-Germain, and this event marked the beginning of the Parisian
coffee houses. The story is told in detail in chapter XI.

The custom of drinking coffee having become general in the capital, as
well as in Marseilles and Lyons, the example was followed in all the
provinces. Every city soon had its coffee houses, and the beverage was
largely consumed in private homes. La Roque writes: "None, from the
meanest citizen to the persons of the highest quality, failed to use it
every morning or at least soon after dinner, it being the custom
likewise to offer it in all visits."

"The persons of highest quality" encouraged the fashion of having
_cabarets a caffe_; and soon it was said that there could be seen in
France all that the East could furnish of magnificence in coffee houses,
"the china jars and other Indian furniture being richer and more
valuable than the gold and silver with which they were lavishly
adorned."

In 1671 there appeared in Lyons a book entitled _The Most Excellent
Virtues of the Mulberry, Called Coffee_, showing the need for an
authoritative work on the subject--a need that was ably filled that same
year and in Lyons by the publication of Philippe Sylvestre Dufour's
admirable treatise, _Concerning the Use of Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate_.
Again at Lyons, Dufour published (1684) his more complete work on _The
Manner of Making Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate_. This was followed (1715)
by the publication in Paris of Jean La Roque's _Voyage de l'Arabie
Heureuse_, containing the story of the author's journey to the court of
the king of Yemen in 1711, a description of the coffee tree and its
fruit, and a critical and historical treatise on its first use and
introduction to France.

La Roque's description of his visit to the king's gardens is interesting
because it shows the Arabs still held to the belief that coffee grew
only in Arabia. Here it is:

There was nothing remarkable in the King's Gardens, except the
great pains taken to furnish it with all the kinds of trees that
are common in the country; amongst which there were the coffee
trees, the finest that could be had. When the deputies represented
to the King how much that was contrary to the custom of the Princes
of Europe (who endeavor to stock their gardens chiefly with the
rarest and most uncommon plants that can be found) the King
re