This Europe: Brasserie diner is quite a draw

La Coupole is one of the big, celebrated Parisian brasseries, which has been living for years on its reputation as a haunt of artists and intellectuals.

But unlike others, the Coupole, in Montparnasse, has added a chapter to its own legend; or at least a footnote.

In an attempt to create a link to its past as a favourite watering-hole of artists (including Modigliani and Giacometti), the brasserie invited art students from the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts to create a mural 120ft long, composed of sketches of its customers.

Sinead Lucey, a young Irish student, was working on it this month when a tall, elderly man with white hair and spectacles approached her.

"I thought he was annoyed I was sketching him," she told the newspaper Le Monde. "But he said gently, 'I'm an artist too'. He said he had been a student at the Beaux-Arts in 1948 and he had just had an exhibition at the Centre [Georges] Pompidou with Matisse."

Ms Lucey asked shyly if he was Ellsworth Kelly. He was. The 79-year-old American, among the most successful living post-war artists, is preparing a retrospective exhibition, in Basle this month.

The brasserie's diners are also encouraged to attempt drawings. The best entries win a bottle of champagne.

Mr Kelly drew a sketch of his plate, a bottle of wine and two glasses. Then he signed the drawing and gave it to Ms Lucey. Ellsworth Kelly paintings sell for £600,000 each. His sketches go for a little less.