Givral Bakery JSC last week reopened its historic cafe in a new shopping mall at the corner of Le Loi and Dong Khoi Streets in District 1. It is one of the historic locations of the city formerly called Sai Gon, besides the Post Office, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Opera House, Continental Hotel, and Ben Thanh Market.

Founded in 1950 by Frenchman Alain Poitier who spent eight months turning the city's first pharmacy into a bakery shop, the coffee shop welcomed diplomats, university lecturers, artists, tourists, and domestic and international journalists as a place for get-together before 1975.

Among its regular visitors were Tim Page, a war photographer working for UPI, AP, and Paris Match; Horst Faas, a photographer who won two Pulitzer prizes; Graham Greene, the author of the anti-war novel The Quiet American, iconic music composer Trinh Cong Son, and the legendary spy Pham Xuan An.-VNS