In the Footsteps of Hemingway in Paris

Ernest Hemingway landed in Paris at the start of les annees folles ("the crazy years") and stayed for seven years. The Paris that greeted him was far more exotic and sophisticated than anything he had experienced in Middle America. Life was a mad blend of concerts, gallery openings, long nights of drinking, dancing and lovemaking; followed by early morning breakfasts amid the bustle of Emile Zola's "ventre de Paris"- the massive central market- Les Halles.

Although Les Halles is gone, the anything goes spirit that defined Paris in the twenties and inspired Hemingway survives. The eternal Seine still flows, the nighttime streets still teem with revelers and the moon still smiles down on lovers as arm in arm they cross the Pont Neuf at 4 AM, accompanied solely by the sounds of their echoing footfalls.

The young Hemingway was at his most compellingly attractive and used his innate sociability to form friendships with the creative personalities depicted in Robert McAlmon's Being Geniuses Together whose works have left a lasting imprint on the world. Among them the painters Pablo Picasso, Man Ray and Jules Pascin; the writers James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound.

And the two women whose influence and friendship were crucial to his literary development: Sylvia Beach, the proprietor of Shakespeare & Co. Books and Gertrude Stein. It was at Stein's art filled apartment at 27 Rue de Fleurus where he met Joyce who would mentor him in his quest to develop his unique literary voice.

As much as the people he cultivated it was Paris herself that influenced his writing. Whether sitting in a café on a cold winter's day crafting short stories set in Michigan while drinking café creme and Rum St.James or drinking his vin odinaire of choice, the black cahors from the Dordogne on the terrace of his favorite Montparnasse cafés-Le Dome or Le Select, he was overcome with la vie parisienne that permeated his being and tumbled out onto the pages of his books.

It's evidence is most vivid in The Sun Also Rises, as Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley hop from one Left Bank café, bal musette or bistro to another. Over thirty years later in A Moveable Feast (Scribners) he reflected that "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you for Paris is a moveable feast."

Luckily for us Paris is a living, breathing museum and virtually all of Hemingway's haunts are available to savor today. With minor cosmetic and plumbing improvements they exist much as they did in the 20's.

A perfect example is the Hotel Jacob et d'Angleterre, now abbreviated to the Hotel d'Angleterre at 44 Rue Jacob where upon arrival in Paris the 21 year old Hemingway and his bride Hadley Richardson checked in on a December night in 1921. Conveniently located in the heart of the Quartier Latin it is a charming petit hotel that is perfectly situated as a base for a perambulatory perusal of Hemingway's Left Bank Paris.

Most non-stop flights from the United States are scheduled to arrive by mid afternoon. Once you are comfortably ensconced in your room and refreshed, it will be time to join the rest of Paris as they have the apero (aperitif) that separates the work-day from the evening. I suggest you step out of the hotel and take a few steps to your left where a quick right turn up the Rue Bonaparte will place you at the terrace of one of Hemingway's favorites, Café Deux Magots. Find a table facing L'Eglise de Saint Germain and have a kir, kir royale or perhaps a rosé from Provence or the Loire. There is no rush- no one is going to sit down to dinner before 8PM.

To minimize the inevitable effects of jet lag I would suggest a light dinner outdoors at any one of the pleasant cafés that beckon as you meander the narrow Left Bank streets between the Boulevard Saint Germain and the Seine. A personal favorite is La Palette at 43 Rue de Seine. You can get a preview of it in the Merchant-Ivory film Quartet, starring Alan Bates, Isabelle Adjani and Pierre Clementi. The tree lined ambience and absence of tourists makes it a favorite of locals. A charcuterie plate and a glass of any one of the house's inexpensive red wines will be just enough to get you through the night and prepare you for a Hemingwayesque tomorrow.

You awaken to sunlight streaming into your room and the sounds of this most human of cities coming to life. Paris has become a remarkably clean big city and the little green vehicles that wash down the streets will have done their job-no danger of stepping into the droppings of a little white 4-legged Fifi, just yet.

Skip the continental breakfast being served in the garden and return to Deux Magots for cafe crème and a corbeille of baguettes, croissants, brioche and confiture. Early in the morning- before 10AM, before the deluge of tourists you will be surrounded by contemporary Hemingways-the modern day authors, journalists and photographers who shape Parisian opinion.

You are in the heart of Hemingway's Paris and just down the street is Café Flore, St. Germain's other world famous café. Today's literary Paris, just as in Hemingway's day, divides into Floristes and Magoistes.

Across the street is the Brasserie Lipp where Hemingway would have a litre sized mug of beer, sausages split in two and covered in a mustard sauce and pommes á l'huile (potatoes marinated in oil) over which he would grind black pepper while dipping his bread.

Continue on St. Germain past the church towards the Metro station L'Odeon, look right and you will see the Theatre de L'Odéon where Beaumarchais debuted The Marriage of Figaro in 1784. Walking towards her you will arrive at #12. Tilt your head skyward and see the brass plaque marking the site of Sylvia Beach's English language bookstore and lending library, Shakespeare & Co. It was here that Hemingway had his true university education as Miss Beach introduced him to the works of Dostoyefski, Turgenev, Stendahl and Flaubert- a radical departure for a mid-westerner raised on a diet of O'Henry, Kipling and Twain. They gave him a solid foundation in literature but it was fellow bookstore patron James Joyce whose Ulysses, Beach had courageously published when no publisher would touch it, who became his literary mentor.

Across the street at #7 was La Maison de les Amis des Livres, the French language bookstore owned by Adrienne Monnier. She and Beach shared an apartment at # 18 where they often cooked chicken dinners for Joyce, Hemingway and Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

By now it is time to stop for lunch at La Mediterranée. Located at #2 Place de L'Odéon it's menus feature a drawing and text by Jean Cocteau and its frescoes were painted by Marcel Vertès and Christian Bérard. Ask for a table facing the theater and you will enjoy the view of the voituriers opening car doors for some typically elegant parisiennes.

In a restaurant whose name evokes the sights and aromas of the Cote d' Azur I recently started with the soupe de poisson to which I added grated gruyere and toast rounds topped with garlic laden rouille . This was followed by filet de rouget and finished with a disc of St Marcellin, all of which was washed down by a bottle of Cote de Brouilly.

Delightfully fortified you should now follow the Rue de Medicis and turn into the Jardin Luxembourg at the Medici fountain, stroll across the gardens and take a seat in one of the green cafe chairs that are liberally placed throughout the gardens. There to hold hands, watch children at play and smile at your good fortune- you are in Paris and in love!

As you walk back to the d'Angleterre perhaps the voice of Charles Aznavour is singing in your head:

"Paris is at her best in May.
When spring and youth possess her.
And gentle winds caress her.
A million blossoms on display!"

J'Aime Paris au Mois de Mai- (Lees-Aznavour-Roche)