In August, Paris is uncharacteristically quiet as hordes of residents scatter to the nation’s seashores and coasts for a yearly month of trip. Companies shut and town practically grinds to a halt. Amongst those that stay, there may be an everlasting, quintessentially Parisian quest: attempting to find a balmy terrasse bathed in daylight for a night apéritif.
Discovering the proper seat on the pavement outdoors a restaurant could also be a matter of an opportunity stroll or a well timed textual content from a buddy. This summer time, although, a digital resolution has gained recognition in a particularly French occasion of the previous Apple slogan “there’s an app for that”: Jveuxdusoleil, an app that tracks the solar’s motion by town’s maze of buildings to pinpoint precisely the place you’ll be able to declare a sunny spot on a terrace to your espresso. It arrives at a precarious second for this notably Parisian pursuit.
Jean-Charles Levenne created Jveuxdusoleil (“I need solar”) in 2020 as a aspect undertaking in an effort to show himself app growth and clear up a private downside: discovering shade throughout scorching days in addition to sunny spots for the Parisian ritual of post-work drinks.
Utilizing sun-positioning algorithms and building-height knowledge from the open-source map platform OpenStreetMap, Levenne’s app shows sunny terraces, whereas darkened ones disappear. Customers also can request new spots by the app or observe when it’s not correct (a tree casting a previously-unaccounted-for shadow, for instance), making it a always evolving, community-driven instrument. Whereas the expertise is working in different cities, many of the terraces on the app are positioned in Paris, the place Levenne says it’s notably helpful.
“This app is working worldwide but it surely has initially been targeted on Paris as a result of there may be extra want than in different French cities,” he stated. “With slim streets and tall buildings, it’s not at all times simple to discover a sunny spot.”
Terraces operate as statement posts from which to view Paris – chairs are sometimes positioned on both aspect of the small bistrot tables, going through the road slightly than one another and permitting diners to watch the world passing by. With France’s lack of tipping tradition, there may be much less strain to rapidly flip over tables to make extra revenue. One might order a single cup of espresso for lower than 2€ and keep for hours – making the terrace one thing of a second front room for Parisians.
Pierrick Bourgault, a photographer and journalist who has written about 20 books and launched a documentary about bistro tradition in France, stated terraces in Paris provide one of the vital genuine home windows into town.
“The terrace is emblematic of a sure artwork de vivre (artwork of residing), as we are saying in France – a spot the place all types of individuals meet,” Bourgault stated. “You’re not alone in an enclosed house. It’s a bit like [being in] the road, with one foot inside and one foot outdoors. You’re immersed within the metropolis, and the spectacle of life.”
In the hunt for solar after the darkest winter in a long time
Jveuxdusoleil’s person base has climbed steadily within the years since its launch – with greater than 1,300 energetic customers within the week previous my interview with Levenne, who has departed the tech world and known as me from a yacht he now captains within the Balearic islands off the coast of Spain. App utilization spikes within the Spring, when Parisians are determined for daylight after the notoriously dreary winter months.
This yr, Jveuxdusoleil noticed a peak of virtually 20,000 guests in only one week in early March after France skilled the darkest year in 30 years in 2024. Paris particularly endured multiple stretches of practically every week at a time with out a single ray of sunshine through the winter months. Jveuxdusoleil is solely a ardour undertaking, and Levenne makes no revenue from it. “In reality, it prices me cash to host the servers,” he stated.
A Paris-based photographer I spoke with, who makes use of the app each to seek out sunny streets for taking pictures and terraces to get pleasure from drinks with buddies, stated the uncomplicated nature of Jveuxdusoleil is a part of its attraction. Its options are minimal: with only one slider that determines time and daylight, it positions itself as a form of anti-everything app.
Can an app revive declining terrasse tradition?
Whereas usership of Jveuxdusoleil will not be essentially widespread – many younger French folks I spoke with on the terraces of Paris had by no means heard of the app – its existence signifies a technological embrace of bistrot tradition in France at a vital time.
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The variety of bistrots in France has declined from 500,000 in 1900 to fewer than 40,000 at this time, based on an official French heritage stock doc submitted in Might 2024. The doc additionally said that in Paris the variety of bistrots has declined from 5,000-6,000 within the Seventies-80s to only over 1,000 at this time. A coalition of French bistrot homeowners successfully secured nationwide recognition in September 2024. They’ve equally been campaigning since 2018 for Unesco World Heritage standing for his or her institutions.
Bourgault attributes this “bloodbath”, which has decreased the density of bistrots in France over the past century from one café per 100 inhabitants to 1 per 2,000, to a barrage of constant threats. The rise of vehicles and highways has diverted site visitors from such institutions throughout the nation, whereas tv, smartphones, and digital communication have changed the necessity to meet buddies on the native terrace. The report by bistrot homeowners likewise cites globalization and altering client preferences as dangers to bistrot tradition.
A 1941 regulation prohibits new café creation and solely permits takeovers of current licenses, making the variety of bistrots comparatively stagnant whereas hovering actual property costs, notably in Paris, have made each operating and patronizing these institutions much less financially viable. French commentators have lengthy lamented the “Americanisation of Paris”, with some noting that, as extra conventional bistrots shut, McDonalds is spreading rapidly throughout France and turning into a de facto assembly place for a lot of younger folks.
Pierrick stated the rise of expertise has contributed to the decline of bistrots; folks can order supply on their telephones, and after they do exit they typically keep glued to their units as a substitute of chatting with strangers on the comptoir. It’s ironic then, he famous, that an app might in truth strengthen the bistrot tradition of Paris.
“With its geographical visualization, the app situates you within the concrete world – it reminds us that we’re on earth, it reminds us that there’s a solar that strikes, the earth that turns,” he stated.
“Once we meet buddies at a bistrot for a drink, we aren’t assembly within the cloud – we’re assembly in a restaurant with distinct character, characters, and decor,” he added. “We all know we aren’t two synthetic intelligences [in the process] of exchanging digital protocols. We discuss to one another, and with out a shadow of a doubt, we all know it’s actual.”
