Microsoft Windows Café

Before you start to think that this was purely an Apple Fan Boy tour, here’s something from the other side. I happened to be in Paris when the Microsoft Windows Café was open.

The cafe was opened by Microsoft to promote Windows 7, which was launched two days before I got there.

It generated a little bit of press, since Microsoft was also opening its first retail store in the USA at the same time, but I’m not sure if many people outside Paris knew about it.

From the outside it looks pretty ordinary.

Inside was a cafe counter on one side of the ground level, with laptops and computers scattered throughout groundlevel and upstairs. The laptops had touch screens to promote that feature of Windows 7.

It was worth visiting because I got to play with a Microsoft Surface. It is like a big table with a touch screen surface. I had a nice chat with a Microsoft developer, who beat me at a game of checkers on it. Of course he won: he was playing on his home turf!

The Windows Cafe was at 47 Boulevard Sebastopol, Paris. But it is probably closed by now. It was only created as a temporary promotion.