Hemingway’s Paris

As I’ve said before, the best way to discover Paris is on foot. And one of my favorite walks is one based on Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast.

This walk starts at one end of Rue Mouffetard, which is probably the most Parisian street ever. If you go there on a Saturday, the market stands will be open, which adds a lot to the atmosphere. However, when I went there with friends, we were slightly taken aback by the living crabs at one of the fruits de mer stands, instantly revealing that we were tourists to the smiling French lady next to us who was picking up a few of them, trying to decide which to buy.

            So you can slowly make your way up the street, ducking into shops here and there, just mingling with French people and tourists alike, but on the Walking Tour put together by Time Out Paris they also mention the cafés Hemingway used to go to, so if you get tired you can amble into for a “café au lait”. Or maybe even a “café gourmande” (a hot drink plus a dessert) if you need a break.

            Once you’ve made your way up Rue Mouffetard, you can turn into rue des Déscartes, where Hemingway rented a room when he lived in Paris at number 39. Today there’s a plaque that commemorates the writer’s years in the upper floor apartment. After using this for a photo-op, the route takes you down past the Pantheon and the Sorbonne and to some more cafés that Hemingway used to go to along the big Boulevards. A nice point to end this walk is – and if you know anything about Hemingway and Paris – of course Shakespeare and Company. And believe me, not going in there and spending even more money on books I’ll somehow have to drag home when I leave Paris, was pretty hard.