A little bit of gaiety.

After a meal, a drink… at one of the famous establishments on Boulevard de Montparnasse, La Coupole, Le Select, La Rotonde, Le Dôme (about all of which already a lot is to be said)…, 

... may I suggest a walk along Rue Delambre, and after crossing Boulevard Quinet, also along Rue de la Gaîté, the “gaiety street”?

Rue Delambres looks very “normal”. What is special and what can give you a specific feeling is what the street represents as memory of the artistic life in Paris, especially during the 1920’s and 30’s. You should know that this is where a lot of (later) world famous artists lived and worked during more or less longer periods, in hotels, which may have changed names, flats….

One, now Italian, restaurant used to be known as the “Dingo Bar”. This is where Ernest Hemingway and Francis Scott Fitzgerald (who had just published “The Great Gatsby”) met – by chance – for the first time in 1925. Here you can see what the place looks like today and compare with a photo with Hemingway and Zelda Fitzgerald at the entrance. Hemingway talks about this in his “A Moveable Feast”.

I once did a post about “Ernest Hemingway in Paris – A Moveable Feast”, but forgot to mention this place.

When crossing  Boulevard Quinet, you will see (top picture) a mural painting (from 1991, by Loren Munk), which illustrates for what the next street, Rue de la Gaîté, is famous. But first, it’s time to remember “The Wall of the Farmers General”, which stood on this boulevard until 1860 and  separated Paris from the suburbs until they were incorporated in 1860 … and where taxes had to be paid. (If you go to this post, you will also find links to other posts about this wall.) As all around Paris, this meant that just outside the wall you could eat and especially drink “tax free”. This is a reason why Rue de la Gaîté has a long history for different types of “entertainment”.

Even if Rue de la Gaîté also at first looks quite “normal”…

… you will soon realize that it’s still a street full of bars, restaurants, theatres…. 

This is also where you since 1873 can find the music hall “Bobino”, with a today very modest entrance hidden by a hotel. “All” French artists have performed here, also some international ones.

Some of you may remember that I recently made a post about my meeting with the bestselling author Cara Black. As all the above has been about Montparnasse, I thought it was opportune to mention that her new book “Murder Below Montparnasse” will be published very soon. If you are interested, you can go here, possibly order a book (I have no commission) and, perhaps even more possibly, win a trip to Paris.      

Ernest Hemingway in Paris - "A Moveable Feast"

This is a try to follow the trace of Ernest Hemingway in Paris.

Ernest made a short visit to Paris during WWI, but he really arrived here in December 1921, together with his then wife, Hadley, as a reporter for "Toronto Star", but with the ambition to become a real author. They stayed for a short while at "Hôtel d'Angleterre", 44 rue Jacob...

... and immediately discovered a favourite restaurant, the close by "Le Pré-aux-Clercs", 30 rue Bonaparte.

They soon settled down in a simple flat on the third floor of 74 rue Cardinal Lemoine, close to rue Mouffetard, just behind the Pantheon. They stayed here for a couple of months.

It seems that Ernest also rented a room to be able to write in peace, 39 rue Descartes, just round the corner. (This is also the building where the French poet Verlaine died.)

The couple later moved to 113 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs...

... very close to "La Closerie-des-Lilas", which also became a bar and restaurant to which he often returned. Ezra Pound was a neighbour and friend.

Ernest ("Hem") managed quickly to get introduced to some of the leading writers and artists who then worked in Paris. He visited regularly "Shakespeare & Co", the famous library, at its preceding address, 12 rue d'Odéon, close to the Odeon Theatre, then owned by Sylvia Beach, who published "Ulysses" by James Joyce in 1922. Joyce became also a very good friend of Ernest, like other frequent visitors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald. ("Shakespeare & Co" run by Sylvia Beach was closed in 1941 as she refused to sell a book - by Joyce - to a German officer. The business was taken over after the War by George Whitman, who opened the "Shakespeare & Co" we know today, rue de la Bûcherie.)

The same and other authors also met at Gertrude Stein's flat, 27 rue de Fleurus.

These were the days when these friends also discovered "Le Select", "Le Dôme", "La Rotonde", "La Coupole"... not too far from "La Closerie-des-Lilas", all on Boulevard Montparnasse...

... and "Les Deux-Magots", at Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

The couple moved to Toronto for a a while (the son John -"Bumby" - was born) and came back to Paris a few months later... divorced in 1927. Toghether with a new wife, Pauline, he settled down at 69 rue Frodevaux, just behind the Montparnasse cemetery...

... and then at 6 rue Férou, just between the Luxembourg Palace and the Saint Sulpice Church... before leaving Paris and moving to Key West.

Ernest later never really lived in Paris, but he was in and out frequently during the 30's, obviously mostly staying in hotels, one of which was "Hôtel-du-Mont-Blanc", 28 rue de la Huchette.

He was of course present during the liberation of Paris in 1944 and then back again and again...

Although it seems that his working and living habits were concentrated on the left bank, his drinking habits seem to have spread also to the right bank. When we think about Hemingway and Paris, we automatically think of "Harry's Bar", 5 rue Daunou - also formerly regularly visited by Coco Chanel, Rita Hayworth and Aly Khan, Humphrey Bogart, the Duke of Windsor..., where George Gerhswin composed "An American in Paris" and where the "Bloody Mary" was invented...

...and the bar which later even got his name at the very fashionable "Hôtel Ritz", Place Vendome.

During his Paris years, Ernest quit his job as a reporter for the "Toronto Star" and started "real writing", like "In Our Time", "The Torrents of Spring", "The Sun Also Rises", "Men Without Women"...

To conclude this "study", I thought it would be nice to have a drink at the "Bar Hemingway" at the "Ritz", so a couple of days ago, together with some friends, including Karen, we went there. The bar is supposed to have some of the world's best drinks ... and bartenders; you can see one on the top picture.