Restaurant · Madeleine — the rue Royale, between the Concorde and the Madeleine · 8e arrondissement

Maxim's

The buildingStill standing

Getting inIn, as a customer

What's there nowStill the same

Still trading at the same address, and still carrying the Art Nouveau interior it became famous for. Open to diners.

The Belle Époque restaurant on the rue Royale, opened in 1893 and still trading behind the same Art Nouveau interior. The City of Paris names it among the places Marcel Proust went out to with friends — a rare Proust address that is still doing exactly what it did.

Address: 3 rue Royale, 75008 Paris
Years: The Belle Époque restaurant of Proust's Paris

The place, briefly

Maxim's opened on the rue Royale in 1893 and became, within a few years, the restaurant that meant the Belle Époque. Its interior was fitted out in full Art Nouveau — mirrors, carved woodwork, painted glass, curved lines everywhere — and its clientele was the mixture that defines the period in retrospect: aristocracy, money, actresses, foreign princes, and the people who wanted to be seen near them.

That mixture is Marcel Proust's subject. In Search of Lost Time is an anatomy of exactly this society at exactly this moment — who is admitted, who is tolerated, who is quietly excluded, and how fast the rules change. The City of Paris names Maxim's among the places he went out to with friends.

It belongs on his map alongside the Ritz, which became his headquarters later. The Ritz was where the reclusive, ill, late Proust went to eat and watch; Maxim's is the earlier register — the sociable years of the rue de Courcelles, when he was out most nights and gathering the material.

It is still there, still on the rue Royale, still carrying the interior. Among Proust's Paris addresses that is unusual: the residences are private, the school is a school, the boulevard Haussmann flat is a bank. Maxim's is a restaurant you can book a table at, in a room he knew.

Key facts

Opened: 1893, on the rue Royale
What it was: The Belle Époque restaurant — aristocracy, money, actresses, and the people who wanted to be near them
The interior: Full Art Nouveau, and still there
Proust: Named by the City of Paris among the places he went out to with friends
Where it sits on his map: The sociable years, alongside the Ritz of his later ones
Today: Still trading at 3 rue Royale; open to diners

Timeline

1893
Maxim's opens on the rue Royale.
1890s–1900s
It becomes the defining Belle Époque restaurant; Proust dines out here with friends.
2026
Still operating at the same address, with its Art Nouveau interior intact.

On the map

Questions before you go

What is Maxim's?

A restaurant at 3 rue Royale, opened in 1893, which became the defining restaurant of the Belle Époque. Its Art Nouveau interior — mirrors, carved wood, painted glass — is intact, and it still operates at the same address.

Did Proust go to Maxim's?

Yes — the City of Paris names it among the places he went out to with friends. It belongs to the sociable stretch of his life, the years at 45 rue de Courcelles, rather than to the later reclusive period when the Ritz became his headquarters.

Can you still eat at Maxim's?

Yes. It is still a working restaurant on the rue Royale with its historic interior, which makes it one of the very few Proust locations you can actually sit down inside. Most of the others are private residences or institutions.

Writers who knew this place

Marcel Proust

French · French novelist of the seven-volume In Search of Lost Time, written at night in a cork-lined room — the book that made memory itself the story.

Frequented by

The City of Paris names Maxim's among the places Proust went out to with friends. It belongs to his sociable years rather than the later reclusive ones, when the Ritz became his headquarters instead.

— Balade du côté de chez Proust

Within walking distance

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Hôtel de Crillon

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Park · Champs-Élysées (8th)

Jardins des Champs-Élysées

The gardens along the lower Champs-Élysées, between the Rond-Point and the Concorde — where the young Marcel Proust played, and where in July 1886 he met Marie de Bénardaky, his first love and a source for Gilberte in In Search of Lost Time. One of the paths is now officially the Allée Marcel-Proust.

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9 boulevard Malesherbes

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The Friday Letter

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The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.