A Literary Tour Of Paris....

Over Easter this year, I was lucky enough to go on a literary tour through the streets of Paris with Paris tour guide company Localers. 

We turned back a few pages in history and revisited some of the literary VIPs who left their mark on Paris: The Romantics of the 19th century, The Lost Generation between the wars, and The Beat Generation of the 1950s and 60s. 
Here are some of the highlights...

We started from the Passage Richelieu at the Louvre, where Hemingway & Fitzgerald went to check the penis sizes of statues. True story. It's in "The Moveable Feast" ...  "Go over to the Louvre and look at the people in the statues and then go home and look at yourself in the mirror in profile".. Seriously.

Image credit: http://medias.photodeck.com/50ab13b2-0b69-11e1-abad-ebb4c6f90b2c/TS011431_xlarge.jpg

Climbing over the Pont des Arts, we stopped for a while at the Institut de France. Only the French can be SO passionate about their language and culture ... 5 académies including the Académie française founded in 1635 - the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language... Les immortels include Victor Hugo, Rousseau, Balzac, Descartes, Marcel Proust and Jules Verne. France did produce a huge number of literary greats, didn't they?!!

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We then walked along the historic Rue de Seine, past its galleries and antiques into Rue des Beaux Arts and stopped at L'Hotel. Nestled in the heart of the Left Bank, amidst the cultural riches, bohemian soul and high fashion of St Germain-des-Prés, this was Oscar Wilde's last home and later the heart of Parisian society in the swinging sixties. It is now a 5 star hotel and restaurant. Once the world of the La bohème, this area is now home to Bobo's - the bourgeois bohemian...

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At the end of this road is the Ecole des Beaux Arts, one of the most influential art schools in Paris. On the entrance wall is a long standing graffiti of a cat. Apparently they could not quite decide to remove it since it was created by a famous street artist!! Our lovely guide Marie, treated us to some Ladurée melt-in-your-mouth macarons on Rue Bonaparte. 

Image credit: http://newsweek-paris-france.tumblr.com/image/22183966881

A Hemingway and 1920s Paris fan would never walk past Hotel d’Angleterre... This is where Hemingway and his first wife, Elizabeth Hadley Richardson, stayed when they first arrived in the city. 

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The Café de Flore on Boulevard Saint-Germain is not too far from here... Opened in 1885, its classic Art Deco interior of all red seating, mahogany and mirrors has changed little since World War II. 

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Like its main rival, Les Deux Magots, it hosted many of the French intellectuals during the post-war years... 

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Nearby also is Café Procope, opened in 1686 and the oldest restaurant of Paris in continuous operation. Regulars here included Voltaire, Napoleon, Balzac, Hugo and Benjamin Franklin. 

Image credit: http://www.procope.com/wp-content/uploads/slideshow-procope5.jpg

We had our best lunch in Paris at Le Comptoir at carrefour de l'Odéon nearby. 

Image credit: https://www.kiwicollection.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/le-comptoir-du-relais.jpg

Between Le Comptoir and Les Editeurs opposite, there is a tree that had books hanging off it as street art! How cool is that?!! 

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The rue de l'Odéon is where Sylvia Beach opened the original Shakespeare & Co and published James Joyce's Ulysses. 

Image credit: http://www.johnnydepp-zone.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=41971

We then strolled through the university town - past the Sorbonne & Collège de France. 

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In the middle of all these colleges and schools, there is also the magnificent Panthéon - originally a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, now a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens. Hugo, Dumas, Voltaire, Rousseau, Braille and the Curies all rest here. Restoration work is ongoing to clean it up and apparently they use apricot scrub to clean the stones!!

Image credit: http://expressoparis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Le-Panthéon1.jpg

For Harry Potter fans, the Musée de Cluny has the Tapestry of the Lady and the Unicorn series - shown hanging on the walls of the Gryffindor Common Room in the films. 

Image credit: http://www.historyofpainters.com/unicorn.JPG

This medieval museum also includes the ruins of Gallo-Roman thermal baths, believed to have been built in the 3rd century. The layers of history in Paris are simply fascinating!

Image credit: http://www.history.com/images/media/slideshow/paris-landmarks/roman-baths.jpg

After talking so much about 1920s Paris, we simply couldn't end it without some jazz! 
Le Caveau des Oubliettes and the La Guillotine pub, tucked away in Rue Galande in the Latin Quarter, are the place to go for jazz and blues. 

Image credit: http://esphoto500x500.mnstatic.com/le-caveau-des-oubliettes-pub-y-club-de-jazz_115151.jpg

If you are in the mood for some classical music instead, head on to the Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre - the oldest church in Paris - which regularly hosts classical concerts. 

Image credit: http://www.oeuvre-orient.fr/wp-content/uploads/eglisedesaintjulienlepauvre.jpg

In the Square René-Viviani–Montebello beside the church is also Paris' oldest tree, planted in the early 1600s!!!

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Finally - there it is! Shakespeare & Company... Nestled in a small stone courtyard just across the Seine from the Notre Dame Cathedral. It could hardly be in a better location. 
Out front, bookstands surround an ornate drinking fountain. Inside, an extensive stock of second-hand books.
 If there's a heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here...   

 Image credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Shakespeare_and_Company_(July_2007).jpg/400px-Shakespeare_and_Company_(July_2007).jpg

Armchair Traveller? 8 Books About.... LONDON...

There's an armchair traveller in all of us, even those who do plenty of the real thing.

So inspired by my co-BLM author's recent trip to Paris, (to soon be documented right here...) I thought I'd put together a list of a few titles which feature my particular favourite world city, Old London Town!

1: LONDON by Edward Rutherfurd
Of course one of my favourite books, by one of my favourite authors, so no surprise to see this gem on the top of the pile. Not only a series of great interconnected stories but a lovely potted history of the great city too. Rutherford has done his magic on a number of world cities but this is, for me, the best.

2: LONDON The Wicked City by Fergus Linnane
Giving us a glimpse through a thousand years of vice in England's capital, this is the tourist's guide to all things debauched, be they Roman legionaries, medieval traders, 18th century rakes or Victorian hypocrites, sex and the city have always gone hand in hand, sometimes open, sometimes hidden, always available!

3: LONDON The Biography by Peter Ackroyd
If London could choose it's biographer then Peter Ackroyd would perhaps be the best choice. From the time of Caesar to the present, he takes his reader through a chronology of her life. Thames-like in breadth and import to the great city, the book meanders on with the irresistible purpose of it's lifeblood river. My favourite London history by a city mile.

4: CITY OF CITIES The Birth Of Modern London by Stephen Inwood
Focusing on the late Victorian period to the pre-Great War years, this book demonstrates the way London coped with a unique period of population explosion and technological development that shaped much of the way we experience life in modern cities today. Mass transportation, mass production and mass marketing, changing London and the world, forever.

5: LONDINIUM London In The Roman Empire by John Morris
Like Rome, London really began with a bridge. Positioned at the lowest crossing place on the Thames, the Romans created a centre of government that, over time grew to be one of Rome's most prosperous regional capitals, but it was to ultimately be abandoned by the mother that gave birth to it, left to fend for itself in a world gone dark.

6: LONDON A Life In Maps by Peter Whitfield
This beautiful British Library publication serves a dual purpose, being both an excellent book in it's own right, but also being a very useful accompaniement to reading other books about London. Surprisingly to our modern sensibilities, nobody thought to map London until 500 years ago! For 1500 years I guess one used local knowledge and good luck to get around! 

7: BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY London Entertained 1830-1950 by Gavin Weightman 
One of the great things about London books is there are always a wealth of titles that deal with very specific, sometimes quirky bits of the city's life. This is one of them. A history of popular entertainment from stage and screen, this is a delightfully English, delightfully London piece of entertainment in itself.

8: LONDON The Illustrated History by Cathy Ross & John Clark
Produced by The Museum of London, this is a great concise presentation of the history of the English capital, wonderfully illustrated with both maps and images. If you can't get to the Museum of London, which you should try to do, this book will serve as an excellent substitute.