Pierre Loti Cafe

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The present day Pierre Loti Café, overlooking the Bahariye Islands and the Golden Horn was built over the site of the original coffee house where French novelist Pierre Loti used to come to admire the view. Loti, real name Louis Marie-Julien Viaud, was a French naval officer and novelist born in 1850. He wrote tales set in Tahiti and Senegal, as well as stories about naval life in France and Brittany. However Ayizade, a romance set in Constantinople and believed by many to be semi-autobiographical, is the one that resonates most with visitors to Istanbul.

Today the Pierre Loti café is popular with tourists and locals alike for the view, but for readers of Loti’s work going there is something of a pilgrimage. Loti actually lived in nine different addresses in Istanbul. One of them was in Haskoy, also on the Golden Horn but unfortunately the exact spot is no longer on record. Over on Divan Yolu, the road that runs through Sultanahmet and down to Aksaray there’s an apartment block with a plaque mentioning him by name, but so far I haven’t been able to find out more than that.

Loti left Istanbul and continued to travel the world with the French navy. He was a serious collector and having a wealthy wife meant he could indulge in his passions. His house in Rochefort, consisting of two adjacent bourgeois row houses, has been converted into a museum. Many of the rooms are gloriously exotic. There’s an ostentatiously tiled room decked out like an Orientalist fantasy mosque, complete with a small fountain and five coffins draped in cloth. Other rooms are equally elaborate yet Loti’s own bedroom is fairly monastic and features Christian and Muslim religious artefacts.

Although Loti’s name is most commonly associated with the café, if you look closely at the photos on display inside, you’ll see this one dedicated to Sabiha Tansuğ’s.

Born in Greece in 1933, Sabiha Tansuğ’s family migrated to Turkey in 1941. They moved around a lot but Tansuğ came to Istanbul in 1953 where she started studying painting. In 1963 she visited Europe and was greatly impressed by the regional costumes she saw displayed in various museums there. Back in Istanbul she came across a café on Pierre Loti hill and decided to fix it up to look like a traditional Turkish house. The Piyer Loti Cafe opened for business in 1964. In the same period she started writing for a tourism magazine and made research trips to the Aegean region. There she bought a women’s headdress, the first item in what was to become a 2700 piece collection of women’s traditional clothing and accoutrements. Tansuğ went on to write numerous articles, catalogues and brochures on the subject.

I suspect that if it hadn’t been for Sabiha Tansuğ, the Pierre Loti Café likely wouldn’t exist today. Often overlooked these days, her profile was on the Turkish 50 kuruş piece from 1971 to 1989. She’s definitely a woman worth remembering.

An enjoyable way to get to the Pierre Loti café is to catch the cable car from Eyüp up to the top of hill. After visiting the café for a tea or two while taking in the view, walk back down to Eyüp through the Eyüp Sultan cemetery. The well-tended path meanders through groves of trees, past Ottoman tombs and gravestones. Men’s tombstones were topped with stone fez and the women’s carved with roses & carnations. Everything you see in a Turkish graveyard has a hidden meaning, even the trees. Find out more in my post Turkish symbolism – meanings found in trees, graveyards and flowers.

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Planning to come to Istanbul or Turkey? Here are my helpful tips for planning your trip.

For FLIGHTS I like to use Kiwi.com.

Don’t pay extra for an E-VISA. Here’s my post on everything to know before you take off.

However E-SIM are the way to go to stay connected with a local phone number and mobile data on the go. Airalo is easy to use and affordable.

Even if I never claim on it, I always take out TRAVEL INSURANCE. I recommend Visitors Coverage.

I’m a big advocate of public transport, but know it’s not suitable for everyone all the time. When I need to be picked up from or get to Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gokcen Airport, I use one of these GetYourGuide website AIRPORT TRANSFERS.

ACCOMMODATION: When I want to find a place to stay I use Booking.com.

CITY TOURS & DAY TRIPS: Let me guide you around Kadikoy with my audio walking tour Stepping back through Chalcedon or venture further afield with my bespoke guidebook Istanbul 50 Unsung Places. I know you’ll love visiting the lesser-known sites I’ve included. It’s based on using public transport as much as possible so you won’t be adding too much to your carbon footprint. Then read about what you’ve seen and experienced in my three essay collections and memoir about moving to Istanbul permanently.

Browse the GetYourGuide website or Viator to find even more ways to experience Istanbul and Turkey with food tours, visits to the old city, evening Bosphorus cruises and more!

However you travel, stay safe and have fun! Iyi yolculuklar.