Le Metropole, 24 Place Rihour, Lille

Le Metropole, Lille.

I was really looking forward to finding a cosy café in which to settle down with a book for half an hour or so, but despite wandering around a grey and rain-soaked Lille looking for an ideal spot, I couldn't find anything and settled for Le Metropole.

Le Metropole doesn't really fit the bill, but it had to do. There was an old man sitting under an awning outside and behind him the darkened interior and the diner-style seating made me feel that it was the closest I'd get to luxury – although I was disappointed on so many levels. It just wasn't cosy enough. There were banknotes stuck to the walls and it was licensed, which means it doesn't strictly follow TeaShopandCaff guidelines.

I was in for breakfast – or rather a pre-breakfast as my official breakfast at the hotel beckoned. Having said that, had Le Metropole offered a decent breakfast, I might have settled in for half an hour or so before making tracks to work.

A teapot without a proper lid containing hot water – it just isn't cricket!

The French, I've discovered, just don't understand tea. If you order tea, they never provide milk and you have to ask for it, which is a bit of nuisance. And this time, I ordered my tea and a croissant too. The teapot didn't have a lid, but instead a small plate. There was hot water, not tea, in the pot and I was provided with a tea bag in a sachet, a wrapped biscuit that one normally gets with after-dinner coffee and the croissant, served as is, with no butter. I had to ask for milk and was given a small jug so I poured in a little dash of milk and returned the jug to the bar.

There were two other customers inside and they didn't seem very happy. One, in fact, seemed positively irritated with me for ordering tea and then having the audacity to ask for milk.

I drank my tea, finished my croissant and left having paid the EUR5.10 bill.

Not an ideal place, I thought, wondering if I would ever find the perfect cosy café. Later, I found a bar and enjoyed a medium-sized Chimay prior to catching the EuroStar to London. The Moulin D'or (31-33 Place du Theatre, 59000 Lille) was the perfect place and, if the truth be known, I probably could have ordered a pot of tea there, but it was early evening and a beer fitted the bill nicely.

Rosi's Sit Down Café, near The Moor, Sheffield City Centre

Ignore the graffiti, this is a great caff and worth a visit

The sun was shining and I had a little time to kill based on the fact that I'd risen early and was ready for a bit of fresh air at 7.30am. My hotel was in the city centre so I headed out for walk through Sheffield, following the tram lines as I was told by the hotel receptionist.

It goes without saying that I was on the look-out for an independent café, but all I could see was the well-known brands: Costa, Café Nero, Starbucks and Gregg's. I walked for what seemed like a fair bit of time, but was only 15 minutes, when I reached a sign saying The Moor. Looking ahead, it was a dead end, but I walked towards a strange-looking sculpture and had no option other than to turn left.

My journey had taken in plenty of closed down shops, which was depressing, but even more depressing was the lack of a decent 'caff'. But then I spotted Rosi's. It was open and I peered through the window to see what it looked like on the inside. It looked great: linoleum floorings, tubular steel chairs, tables covered with plastic tablecloths – tasteful ones.

Food was frying on the griddle and there was a friendly woman in charge, although she wasn't Rosi. Or was it Rosie? She told me that everybody calls it Rosie's, meaning that a letter 'e' might be missing from the name (although no space for it must mean that it's Rosi's).

The bright and cheery interior of Rosi's

I was the only customer, but then it was only 0745hrs. After a short while two young girls, probably on their way to school, came in and ordered something, bringing the total number of customers to three.

I liked the name of Rosi's Sit Down Café. It was the 'sit-down' bit I liked, something you don't hear 'down south'. Aren't all cafés 'sit-down'?

I ordered two slices of toast and a mug of tea and took a seat at the back of the restaurant where I perused the laminated menu. This was my sort of place: roast dinners, omelettes, snacks, they did everything here, even home-made pies (with gravy and fresh vegetables).

My mug of tea and two slices of toast – lovely!

In fact, let's take a look at some of Rosi's fine fayre: the aforementioned roast dinners are £5.00 (£4.50 for pensioners); the home-made pies range from £4.10 to £5.10 and there's one option with free tea or coffee. There's home-made quiche (from £3.10 to £4.10) a wide range of omelettes, jacket potatoes and pasta dishes. I mean, this is a caff's caff. If you live in Sheffield, go there today.

The toast was good and so was the tea, but I decided not to have a big fried breakfast and instead, after about fifteen minutes, I left and walked back to my hotel, past the branded coffee shops and bakeries, the shuttered shops and the Peace Gardens where water cascaded and fountains forced frothy water out of the ground.

I'm so glad I found Rosi's. The bill, incidentally, for two toasts and a mug of tea was a respectable £2.10p. What more could you ask for, I thought, picking up a newspaper and reading how Ken Barlow had been charged over 1960s rape allegations. What, I wondered, is the world coming to? I later read that veteran broadcaster Stuart Hall played his joker and owned up to various distressing crimes. He gets sentenced in June and is now branded a 'sexual predator'. Whatever next! Well, there's plenty more 'veteran broadcasters' coming up in front of the courts...

Chez Sophinette, 184 rue Cardinet, Paris

Chez Sophinette, Paris, 19 April 2013.

This small little café adjacent to my hotel, the Abrial, on the Rue Cardinet, Paris, looked a bit like a snack bar when I first passed by. There were 'meal deal' posters on the window, which is always a bad sign in my books. So, I weaved my way towards the Rue Brochant where, the night before, I had spotted a nice little café, but, alas, it was closed, so I walked around the block and went back to the Chez Sophinette.

It was a small place with tables by the window and a servery, behind which a rather attractive French woman was busying herself with whatever people who work in cafés busy themselves with.

"Bonjours!" I said with a smile, adding that it was the only word in French that I knew, but then, as I sat down to await my breakfast, I realised that I was mistaken: there were loads of words, especially if you took into account all those French words that have made their way into the English language, like 'entrepreneuer'.

I ordered tea, fresh orange juice and bread and jam, having turned down the traditional croissant, which, incidentally, the girl behind the counter DIDN'T pronounce in that awfully pretentious way that English people do: 'cwass-orr'. I hate that and found it refreshing that the French don't pronounce it that way, just poncy English people. I might be wrong, of course, and would only know the truth if I conducted some kind of survey by asking random Parisiens to say 'croissant'. Needless to say, I couldn't be bothered.

Petit Dejeuner – a small breakfast on a small tray, but then came the bread!

The breakfast was pleasant (see photo). A pot of hot water, a trendy tea bag (English breakfast), a can of fresh orange juice – rare to see these in the UK and, I have to admit, I thought she'd handed me a fizzy drink, like Fanta, but no, it was genuinely fresh, 100% orange juice with no added sugar. The bread was amazing. Not a slice of bread but a kind of crusty baguette thing smothered in strawberry jam. Oddly, I'd asked for marmalade and she told me I could have apricot or strawberry, not understanding, perhaps, that in England marmalade is predominantly made from oranges. Later, as she prepared my baguette she confirmed that I wanted 'red fruit'. Why didn't she say strawberry? The breakfast arrived on a small melamine tray and was nicely presented.

Within seconds of my arrival, others turned up and made similar orders as I gazed out of the window hoping that my toothache wouldn't return. The previous evening I'd gone out for dinner in a local Italian restaurant, not far from Chez Sophinette, and was in unbearable, jaw-breaking pain. So bad that I got the bill and left and, as I write this from my hotel room (room 406) I can still see the half bottle of Valpolicella with a cork stuck in the top. It's wasted and I should have left it in the restaurant. I had the choice: painkiller or wine? In the end I opted for the former.

The view from Chez Sophinette's window was not good: building sites, cranes, that sort of thing, and a busy road in front of it all, but that was the only down side and I'm guessing that once the building work is completed, the view will be much better. This was, effectively, a snack bar, not the sort of place to get cosy while reading a book, in my case, Cycling Home from Siberia by Rob Lilwall, which I finished on the Eurostar home.

The bill for my petit dejeuner was EUR4.50 – very reasonable. Downside? Not many, but it could have been a little cosier in my opinion.

The Quality Café, Merstham, Surrey

A nice caff. Opens early and closes early too.

Here's a caff with some tough competition from local competitor Hunger's End on Merstham High Street. In fact, there's a big difference between the two establishments: one is on the main high street (which doubles as the busy A23) and the other is on a road leading down to the railway station.

The Quality Café is the underdog as it closes early, at 3.30pm, and its side street location means it's not the first choice for the impulse buyer – unless it catches people coming off the train. Although in this case, Merstham residents would probably want something a little more upmarket, like the new art gallery on the corner of the same road with one foot on the high street.

A big breakfast: mushroom omelette and chips.

Merstham has three caffs: Hunger's End, the Quality Café and the new (ish) art gallery caff, but the two big players are Hunger's End and the Quality Café, which I'm guessing picks up the early birds on their way to work in the morning. Why does it close at 3.30pm? Probably because it's not worth staying open unless you're sitting pretty on the A23.

Big, gaudy menu and small servery, but this ain't a bad caff.

The caff itself is a bit gaudy in decor terms. Unlike Hunger's End, which has gone for that more rustic, local look (even though it is a proper 'caff') the Quality Café adopts a fast food stance, with a gaudy menu situated over a small servery and a bright easyJet orange decor. The green chairs are plastic and secured to the floor.

But in caff fayre terms, it's all you would expect to find: bacon and sausage rolls, chips, beans, omelettes and Full English breakfasts. They pile on the chips too. I ordered a mushroom omelette and was given mountains of chips and a decent-sized pile of baked beans. Just what the doctor ordered after strenuous exercise, but in others, just a bit over-the-top. I felt I needed more strenuous exercise to work it off.

A mug of tea is 90p, which ain't bad considering it costs £1.75 in a Costa Coffee.

All-in-all, a good caff, but remember to get there before it closes mid-afternoon. It should get rid of its fast food appearance, ie ditch the furniture screwed to the floor, and possibly consider getting rid of the gaudy orange paint job too.

On the prices front it was fine. My big breakfast and a mug of tea was under a fiver.

Coffee & Chocolate, Knoxville, Tennessee

Outside Coffee & Chocolate facing Market Square.

This excellent little coffee shop on Union Avenue, near Market Square, is well worth a visit if you fancy tea or coffee and perhaps a cookie or some kind of delicious cake. It's all to be found at Coffee & Chocolate.

I sat there on a Friday afternoon reading The Knoxville Journal while discovering how to kill a bit of time.

A medium-sized tea in a paper cup and a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie cost me $4.96.

The place followed the Starbucks model in terms of there being a jug of milk adjacent to the counter along with everything else, ie sugar sachets and plastic spoons.

Confiserie Tea Room Fredy's, Montreux, Switzerland

Confiserie Tea Room Fredy's, possibly named after Freddie Mercury
who lived here and has a statue to his memory in Montreux.

No more than a stone's throw from the shores of Lake Geneva, this excellent caff offers everything a caff aficionado is looking for: good value, high quality food, pleasant, efficient service and a decent atmosphere.

I'd walked from central Montreux for about one hour, following the pathway that hugged Lake Geneva until it ran out and I was forced to hit the road. The road follows the route of the 201 heading towards Vevey (in the direction I was travelling). After about an hour of walking I left behind suburban Montreux with it's old and seemingly empty mansions, some overlooking the lake, others overlooking the road. I was in a small town not that far from Vevey. I think it was called Vaud and the only reason I've worked that out (if I have) is that I've gone on to Google Maps and retraced my walk from central Montreux.

My soup and tea – lovely!

The address, according to Google, is 19 Grand-Rue, La Tour-de-Pielz, Vaud, Switzerland so I'm saying that's where this excellent little café is located.

It's fantastic as it sells everything from high quality cakes, pastries and bread to chocolates and has a small but cosy little restaurant area out back.

I chose a bowl of soup and bread (I can't remember the variety of soup, possibly leek and potato) plus a cup of tea, all for about seven Swiss Francs. The place was busy and, to be honest, I could have stayed there all day, but I only had enough money for the soup and tea so I savoured the moment, paid up and took the 201 bus back into Montreux.

If ever you find yourself in Montreux, there are a lot of places like this and they are truly magical places. I just wish I'd had a newspaper or my book with me as that would have been true bliss.

TV star beats Starbucks to buy coffee chain

Patrick Dempsey

A report on Yahoo! Finance today states that Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey, better known as McDreamy, has won a bankruptcy auction to buy a small US coffee chain.

For more details, click here.