A Parisian Soirée ~ Simply Irresistible

The lovely Anita from Castles, Crowns and Cottages is once again hosting a Parisian soirée to the City of Light.  One of my favourite things about Paris is the literary side.

It’s a city full of culture and history with so much to explore.  For centuries, Paris was the destination of some of the world’s finest writers, poets and artists.  No city has attracted such literary talent, from the likes of F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, as Paris. 

photo via me

With 900 bookstores, 240 secondhand booksellers and 69 public libraries, the city has a string of celebrated café littéraires.  You will find tattered books in Shakespeare and Co bookstore, located only a stone’s throw from the l’Ile Saint-Louis.  The original Shakespeare and Co, opening it’s doors on rue de l’Odéon in 1919, was forced to close its doors when owner, Silvia Beach, refused to sell the last copy of James Joyce’s book, Finnegans Wake, to a Nazi officer.  Moving to its present location in 1951, the bookstore initially published Joyce’s book Ulysses in 1922.  While books such as Ulysses and Lady Chatterley’s Lover was banned around the world, readers can buy and borrow these books from the bookstore.  

Each book purchased here is stamped with the insignia of Shakespeare & Co with the caption “Kilometre Zero, Paris” underneath {street numbers in Paris begin at the Notre Dame, also known as Kilometre Zero}.

photo via Fox News

The left bank, the most steeped in literary history, is where some of the world’s finest writers walked the streets along the River Seine, stared at the La Tour Eiffel under the stars and ate at the same cafe’s as you and I.  On St-Germain-des-Pres, next to the popular Café de Flore, you can sit a table that may have hosted discussions between Fitzgerald and Hemingway. They walked the neighbourhoods of Quartier Latin, St-Germain-des-Prés and Montparnasse, where literary walking tours are offered today.

Ernest and Hadley Hemingway at a cafe with Lady Duff Twysden and others

“If you’re 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 movable feast.” ~

opening to Hemmingway’s A Movable Feast.  A soft memoir of the years he spent as a expatriate in Paris during the 1920s.

source unknown

Cafe de Flore, 172 Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés ~ the favourite rendezvous of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Brasserie Lipp,  151 Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés ~ A favourite brasserie of Hemingway, as wells as other authors, artists, philosophers and politicians of Paris.

Les Deux Magots, 6 Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés ~ was the place to be, and not only Hemingway sat here for hours to write and to chat with the likes of Simone de Beauvoir.  It’s other notable patrons include Pablo Picasso, Oscar Wilde, Andre Malraux and Antoine de Saint Exupéry.

Panthéon, ~ originally a church, the Panthéon is full of history, mainly dedicated to the French Revolution. In the Crypt you can find many of French’s great heroes from the French Revolution as well as some of France’s greatest writers including Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.

I’m just starting to read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.  Have you read it?  It’s a story about Hemingway and his wife, Hadley.  With school, this book sat on a shelf waiting to be picked up.

A few other books ~

Jessica Powell’s book Literary Paris: A Guide ~ Powell has paired legendary authors with the addresses and monuments in Paris which figured largely in their lives and writings.

Literary Paris by Jeffrey F Kraft ~ a charming book of photographs and quotes from famous authors.

Literary Cafes of Paris by Noel Riley Fitch ~ a gem of a guide to literary cafes and famous authors who frequented them.

What I wouldn’t give to live in Paris during this time, just for a short while, just like Owen Wilson’s character in Woody Allen’s nostalgic film, Midnight in Paris.  Wilson’s character wistfully yearns for a distant past, specifically Paris during the 1920’s with Hemingway, Picasso and the Fitzgeralds.

Other books to consider ~ “Everybody Was So Young,” the book about Gerald and Sara Murphy by Amanda Vail.   Fitzgerald was quoted as saying that the Murphys were the inspiration for Dick and Nicole Diver in “Tender is the Night”.

I could go on and on…  What are some of your favourites books on Paris?

Wishing you a most beautiful weekend!  xoxo, B