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here, not only has the café scene grown exponentially in Paris, but it's branched out all across the country. After getting his feet wet in French coffee culture through a barista job at Gloria Montenegro's famous Caféothèque, David went on to start the Frog Fight series (Paris' version of latte art throwdowns); open Telescope Coffee with a friend, which has become one of the city's must-visit third- wave cafés; and now co-owns Belleville Brulerie, a microroaster making big waves with accounts from Marseille to Bordeaux to Lille—which is to say, everywhere in France. Sadly, I wasn't able to stay for a month and tour the country town by coffee town (what a dream). So I made the most of my five days in Paris. I was officially there to watch the championships taking place at the Parc d'Exhibition in conjunction with an enormous bread expo. It was important to me to attend, considering how well France has been doing on the international coffee championship circuit, specifically with Luca Casadei earning seventh place in the 2013 World Barista Championship (by far the best the country has ever done in the his- tory of the WBC), and Victor Delpierre winning the World Coffee In Good Spirits Championship in the summer of 2013. Not only is the larger French specialty-coffee scene on the rise, France's coffee cham- pions are proving to be mighty competitors on the international stage. Our little band of foreigners gathered to judge the competitions included Sonja Grant of Iceland, our reigning expert on the latte art and Good Spirits contests; Jose Arreola of Tropical Moka in Mexico, who judges at more competitions in the world than per- haps anyone else; Valérie Delage of Reneka International; Nora Smahelová who owns Chapter One Coffee in Berlin and presided over the inaugural French Brewers Cup; and Belgium's Bart Deprez, owner of Koffiebranderij Deprez, who was chief organizer and head judge. Each was hand selected by Michael McCauley of Cafés Richard, who had a hand (in many cases, several hands) in everything going on at the event, from organization to execution through his volunteer work with the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe's French chapter. Sonja, Jose, Bart, Nora, and I—as well as Anastasia Chovan of Unic espresso machines, who flew in from Seattle for the event, as it's near and dear to her and her French company's heart—spent our first morning traipsing through Paris, seeing the sights, and of course visiting some of the new cafés. We arrived at the Parc d'Exhibition in the afternoon for judges calibration for them; me, I just wanted to get the lay of the land, hug my barista friends, and get to know all the newcomers. I reunited On our way to the first day of the French Coffee Championships this past March, Nora Smahelová and I met this delightful Frenchman and his two cats on our way to the Metro. You can see how the unseasonably warm and sunny weather delighted him. 34 barista magazine B o o k 1 - 4 6 . i n d d 3 4 Book 1-46.indd 34 5 / 1 5 / 1 4 1 0 : 3 0 P M 5/15/14 10:30 PM