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One of the most photographed terraces in the world sits its guests on hand-woven rattan chairs. Who makes them, why they work, and what any project can take from them. The chairs on the terrace of Café de Flore are hand-woven French bistro chairs made by Maison Louis Drucker, a French house founded in Paris in 1885. The house also furnishes Les Deux Magots in Saint-Germain-des-Prés — and many other terraces in Paris, across France and in more than 80 countries worldwide. Its chairs have been a staple of Parisian bistros since 1895. For a hospitality project, this terrace is more than a famous name. It is the longest-running field test a café chair can have — and a lesson in how seating builds a venue's identity. This case study looks at what this address actually uses, who makes it, and what a restaurant, hotel or design studio can take from it. It is part of our guide to rattan seating for hospitality and contract projects. What Chairs Does Café de Flore Use? Café de Flore uses hand-woven French bistro chairs: a frame of natural rattan with a seat and back woven by hand in colored fibers. They are not bentwood chairs, and they are not machine-made copies. They are the genuine woven chair that has furnished Parisian terraces since the late 1800s — recognizable at the Flore by its bordeaux and fir green palette. Their character comes from two decisions. First, the weaving pattern: the atelier works with more than fifty, including the checkerboards seen across the city. Second, the colors of the fibers, which each establishment chooses. That is why the Flore and Les Deux Magots each feel distinct, even though they share the same craft. Le Fouquet's: The Chair Named After the Brasserie On the Champs-Élysées, the landmark brasserie gave its name to one of the house's most recognizable models: Le Fouquet's — a catalog model since the late 19th century. Its specification reads like a summary of what a terrace chair should be: SpecificationLe Fouquet's Weave« 20 Checkerboard 2/2 », woven by hand FiberRaucord® satin, dyed in the mass FrameLight Manila rattan Weight5 kg (11 lb) Height85 cm (33.5 in) ServiceStackable · semi-outdoor Light enough to carry for the nightly clear-down — stackable, four chairs can be moved at a time — and woven in fibers whose color is indelible: the Le Fouquet's chair has been in the collection since the late 19th century, in any palette a project chooses. Who Makes Them — and How Every chair is made entirely by hand. Design and maintenance are carried out in France; fabrication takes place in France or in Indonesia — the birthplace of rattan and its craft — with identical components and methods everywhere: European fiber, French nails, Italian varnish. Three crafts work in sequence: the rotinier builds the rattan frame from steam-bent poles, the ébéniste makes any wooden parts, and the weavers — canneuses, most often women — weave the seat and back, stapling each strand by hand, one by one. Depending on the pattern, weaving a single chair takes 3 to 30 hours. The house still keeps more than 100 molds from its early days. Nothing in this sequence is industrial. It is also why a worn chair from a historic café is not discarded: it goes back to the atelier that made it, is re-woven by hand, and returns to service. Why These Chairs Hold Up in Daily Service The Flore runs its terrace every day, in all seasons. Its chairs are seated on through two or three services a day, moved constantly, cleared at close. Three qualities carry that load: the low weight, the fibers — dyed in the mass, indifferent to sun and rain — and the fact that the weave can be repaired rather than the chair replaced. The full durability evidence — the lifecycle year by year, restoration after 30 to 50 years, and the venues running on these chairs from Los Angeles to Tokyo — is set out in Are Rattan Chairs Durable Enough for Restaurants? What Designers Can Take From These Terraces The case-study lesson is not « buy what the Flore bought ». It is the opposite: neither address bought a standard chair. Each chose its colors and its weave, and let the chair carry the identity of the house — for decades, without redesign. That option is open to any project. The palette runs to around fifty fiber colors, the patterns to more than fifty weaves, and a venue can go further and compose an exclusive jacquard reserved for it alone — the process, the models and the samples are covered in Custom Colours & Weaves for Hospitality Projects. Bring the Same Chairs to Your Project The chairs of the great Parisian terraces are not reserved for them. They are woven by hand in the same ateliers, to order, for restaurants, hotels and homes. Choose a model, a weave and your colors — on a natural rattan frame for interiors and covered terraces, or an aluminum frame, with fibers hand-knotted in invisible knots, for furniture that stays outside year-round. Explore the bistro chair collection, or start from the references: the venues running on Drucker chairs, filterable by type and country, are on our client references page. The Genuine Parisian Café Chair Hand-woven in our ateliers since 1885 — the same chairs that furnish the great terraces of Paris, in the colors you choose. Talk to the Trade Team