I love Paris, France. It remains the loveliest City in the world, and one of the most historic. But, why do I really adore this place? Don't other cities possess great histories and famous/illustrious past inhabitants? Incredible Architecture? What exactly is Paris' unique appeal?
For well-over a millenium, this big Parisii -Roman-Gaulic-French town has been the Philosophical, Artistic, and Literary Capital of mankind. My interest encompasses all, but especially Literary Paris and Historical paris. If you are ever planning on visiting the French Capital (and you should before you die) you might like to know how to explore this great city's past.
As an American, I tend to gravitate to "Hemingway's Paris" and the places that played a part in this quintessential American writer's lifelong love affair with the city. However, glimpses of dozens (if not hundreds) of other American writers are scattered amid Paris with the numerous other visiting and resident authors from France and across Europe, Africa, and South America.
It is not known to many people but 4 future American Presidents lived on a single Parisian street (Rue du Richelieu), and many more lived or stayed all across the town. It almost seems that everyone that was anyone spent time in the French Capital.
Now, without much explanation, I'm going to get to the point. Below is a Parisian trip agenda I put together over a dozen years ago - just as I compiled it then. In essence, it is an orderly list of names and addresses of people and places and events that most visitors to Paris are clueless about.
You see, many dilapidated old buildings, that 99.9% of people walk past without looking at or thinking twice about, are often places wherte incredibly famous people once lived, worked, died, or did something special - and the world has forgotten! Not me.
Here is a special Paris agenda, exactly as I once wrote and used it. The addresses alone are valuable:
DAY ONE: (Friday)
-Check-in hotel/organize room/refresh
-Buy 5 Day Musee & Monument Passes and carnets of Metro tickets at Metro station.
-Stroll to Cityrama and purchase tickets for various things. (Paris For Less)
-Walk through Palais Royal Gardens (45 minutes)
* Louis XIV almost drowned in the fountain as a child......
*#36 1st floor, Madame Romam (Voted prettiest woman in Paris)
*#156 John H. Payne (“Home Sweet Home”)
*#15 Rue de Beaujolais - Sylvia Beach, sister, & Margaret Anderson (garden side)
-Paristoric (1 hour)(Paris For Less)
-Cafe de la Paix/Garnier Opera
-Grands Boulevards (shopping)/ rue de Richelieu ( rdr) - homes of 4 U.S. Presidents & several patriots/ Morton book) & Hard Rock Cafe/ rue Meslay area/ Republic Area
*#29 Blvd. Poissonniere Thomas Wolfe came to this cafe early in the mornings, in the dark......
*#2 rdr FDR, R.W. Emerson, & Caroline Kirkland (travel writer)
*#17 rdr John Adams
*#30 rdr Thomas Jefferson
*#40 rdr Moliere died here
*#58 rdr Edmund Wilson
*#63 rdr Governeur Morris
(#69) rdr Washington Irving
(#89) rdr J. H. Payne (“Home Sweet Home“) & Washington Irving, again....
*#90 rdr J. Q. Adams
*#95 rdr James Monroe & Thomas Paine
-Place des Victoires
*#164 rdRivoli Mark Twain, W. Dean Howells, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, & others...
*#218 rdRivoli Mark Twain stayed here frequently
*#222 rdRivoli (Many famous people)
*#224 & 228 rdr - bookstores
*#7 rue de L'Echelle - Mark Twain lived here a while.
*#29 rue Cambon - Henry James, 3rd floor
- Place Vendome - #12, Chopin died here in 1849, Ritz at #15, famous Americans literally in every building here.......
*#23 Blvd.Capucines - Hemingway bar site
*#1 Blvd. Italians - site of G. Trust Co of NY/ expatriates' bank
*#49 Ave de l'Opera - NY Herald Tribune location
*#9 rue d' Antin - Lady of the Camillas, Camille, etc....
*#19 rue d' Antin - Caves Murae site
*#28 rue Boissy d' Anglas - site of Boeuf sur le Toit
-Walk Tuileries Gardens/ outdoor cafe beside the lake
-Free time to walk rue St-Honore/ rue de Rivoli/ Place Vendome area/ shop
*#145 rsth John F. Cooper/ Napoleon gave the ok for the place to be Protestant
*#211 rsth Sinclair Lewis
*#239 rsth FDR & wife (honeymoon) and many others through the years
*#229-235 rsth Thomas Jefferson visited famous people here
*#374 rsth Madame Geoffrins famous salon, Voltaire, etc....
-Faubourg-St-Honore - Fashion houses at lower-numbered end:
*Gucci - #2
*Hermes - #24
*Lagerfield - #19
*Yves St-Laurent - #38
*Chloe - #60
*Christian Lacroix - #73
*Pierre Cardin - #82
-Evening meal on the St-Honore du March Square/ quiet outdoor cafe
(A' la Grille Saint-Honore' at #15)
-plan next day/week.......
(If videoing, we may visit the Louvre (R. Steves book) & Napoleon's Tomb (RSB), etc for video tape.....as well as other places not mentioned....This goes for all days of the trip.)
DAY TWO: (Saturday)
-Breakfast at local tabac (Rallye's)
-Musee d' Orsay ( 1 1/2 hours, use RSB)
-Rodin Museum ( 1 1/4 hours, use RSB)
-Historical locations of Americans in Paris
*#23 rue Las-Cases - Archibald MacLeish
*#53 rue Varenne - Edith Wharton
*#58 rue Varenne - Edith Wharton
*#69 rue Varenne - John Turnball visited Comte d'Orsay here (paintings)
*#78 rue Varenne - Jefferson visited people here, Lafayette's people
(#8) Blvd. Grenelle - site of old Velodrome/ Hemingway & Rev. Billy Graham
*#105 rue de Grenelle - J.Q.Adams, Lafayette, and others visited....
*#104-06 rdg - Jefferson's daughter went to school here
*#73 rdg - Tallygrand & Napoleon & Josephine
*#13 rue Monsieur - Cole Porter's Home
*#83 Quai d' Orsay - Art Buchwald's home 1952-56
*#59 rue des St-Peres - Ezra Pound's
*#64 rue des St-Peres - Whistler's
*#65 rue des St-Peres - Edna St-Vincent Millay's
-St-Germain des Pres area/ Aux Deux Magot
*#7 rue de Beaune - Henry James visited James R. Lowell & Emerson here
*#9 rue de Beaune - Ezra Pound lived here
*#17 rue Visconti - Balzac & Delacroix's
*#20-24 rv - Racine's (artist wrapped this street with barrels one year)...
*#2-4 rue de L' Universite - Ben Franklin's one-time home
*#9 rue de L' Universite - James Joyce and T. S. Elliot lived here
*#56 rue Jacob - Franklin, Adams, and Jay signed treaty with the British here
*#52 rue Jacob - Franklin stayed here with his grandsons
*#44 rue Jacob - Hotel Angleterre......Expatriate writers & “Hem” all stayed here first.
*#22 rue Jacob - Thomas Paine was arrested and brought here to a friend's place
*#20 rue Jacob - Natalie Barney's (Writers all came here in the 20's...)
-Rue Jacob/ shopping
*#17 rue Bonaparte - John Jay and Thomas Jefferson lived here
*#24 rue Bonaparte - Henry Miller and wife June stayed here
*#30 rue Bonaparte - Hemingway's favorite restaurant his first year in Paris
*#36 rue Bonaparte - Janet Flanner's & H. Miller's place.....Hem & Fitz were visitors
*#13 rue des Beaux-Arts - Thomas Wolfe lived here & Oscar Wilde died here.
*#5 rue Christine - Gertrude Stein & A . B. Toklas' second home
*#7 rue des Grands Augustins - Picasso's Home & workplace
-St-Sulpice
-Cafe de la Mairie
*#2 rue Ferou - Man Ray's
*#6 rue Ferou - Ernest Hemingway's (started “A Farewell To Arms” here...)
*#13 rue Ferou - Whistler often came here to a painter friend's, once painted him here.
-E. Delacroix Musee/ Place Furst...
-Cafe Procope (historical artifacts & drink) All historical figures came here; see Voltaire's desk......
*#10 rue de L' Ancien Comedy - 24 hour Boulangerie
*Cour du Commerce- Gigi's Balcony
*#28 rue St-Andre des Arts - Jack Kerouac's temporary residence
*#46 rue St-Andre des Arts - E. E. Cummings' home
*#5 rue Danton - Isadora Duncan's home and school
-#2 Place L' Odeon - Desmoulins, from the revolution
TOUR daily except Wednesdays from Place de L' Odeon at 14:30 and 19:00....0148078072 or 0603277352 60F Paris Lit Promenades
FOOD: Chope d' Alsace at #4, Carrefour de L' Odeon or Au Bon Pomme
-Rue L' Odeon (expatriate writers' sites up & down it, in my guide books)
*#2 rlo - Thomas Paine's
*#10 rlo - Thomas Paine's
*#8 rlo - Robert McAlmon's Contact Editions was here
*#12 rlo - Original Shakespeare and Company (Sylvia Beach's) Adrienne Monnier's book shop was directly across the street at #7.......
*#18 rlo - Sylvia Beach & Adrienne Monnier's apartment
*#25 rlo - Former site of Charles Sumner's apartment (Crime Against Kansas speech)
*#19 rue Tournon - John Paul Jones' home
*#27 rue Tournon - Ex-Pat cafe for Plimpton and others
-Rue Racine/ Rue Monsieur Le Prince/ Rue Dup.....
*#3 rue Racine - George Sand's
*#5 rue Racine - Longfellow's
*#22 rue Racine - Whistler's
*#12 rue Monsieur Le Prince - a good restaurant!
*#14 rue Monsieur Le Prince - Richard Wright's (MLK came here to visit.)
*#22 rue Monsieur Le Prince - Whistler's
*#49 rue Monsieur Le Prince - Longfellow's
*#55 rue Monsieur Le Prince - Oliver Wendell Holmes apartment
*#8 rue Dupuytren - 1st location of Beach's Shakespeare and Company
-Luxembourg Gardens....
*#27 rue des Fleurus - Gertrude Stein/ A.B. Toklas' apartment......
*#58 rue Madame - Mike & Sara Stein's home
*#33 rue Vaugirard - site of the American Club where Hemingway boxed
*#50 rue Vaugirard - Robert Fulton‘s, via gates
*#58 rue Vaugirard - F.S.Fitzgerald's
*#42 rue Vaugirard - William Faulkner's
*#4 rue Vaugirard - William Shirer's
*#1 rue Vaugirard - Richard Wright's 1st home in Paris
-#9 rue Git-le-Coer - Beat Hotel - Ginsberg, Burroughs, etc
-#37 rue de la Bucherie - Shakespeare and Company
-Pantheon (45 minutes)
-Cluny (1 hour) Tours at 3:30 Sat/ Sun/ Wed.....Use RSB
-Brasserie Balzar - 49, rue des Ecoles
-Rue Rollin: #14 was Descartes'Home; #4 home of Zola
-Arena Lutece, entrance at #49 rue Monge
-Place Contrescarpe & all Hemingway/ literary sites around....from Fitch, etc)
*#1 Place de la Contrescarpe - 1530's hangout of Raelais & Ronsard, etc....
*#74 rue du Cardinal Lemoine - Hemingway's first apartment
*#71 rue du Cardinal Lemoine - Larbaud & James Joyce lived here
*#39 rue Descartes - Hemingway's writing room & Verlaine died here
*#50 rueDescartes - plaque below 3rd floor marks gate of Phillipe-Auguste wall
*#17 rue Thouin - Andre Chamson's (not the original buiilding)
-Rue de L' Abbe de L' Epee
-Closerie des Lilas
-FREE TIME
-Cafe six-huit at Quais Malaquais and Montebello
DAY THREE: (Up & Out Early, Sunday)
-Montmartre Area
-There is a tour that meets at 10:30am at the Abbesses metro station, 60F
a.use Rick Steve's guide (3 1/2 hours) & petite train tour.....(Paris For Less)
b.look for scissor profiler at Place du Tertre, etc....Cafe: Au Clairon des Chausseurs (Hem site & others)
c.Musee Montmartre (30 minutes)
d.Sacre-Coeur area (30 minutes)
e.Clichy & Henry Miller sites (maybe)
#6 Blvd. Clichy - Degas
# 128 Blvd. Clichy - site of Cafe Hippo.....Picasso's best friend killed himself here...Basis of his “blue period.” (Casagemas)
#128 bis - writers came here
f. Place Pigalle
#9 - artists cafe - Manet, Degas, Pissaro, etc....
#11 - L' Absinithe was set here
#18 - Whistler's studio
#22 - a good place to eat and drink!
g. Place Blanche - photo & video ops/ return to Moulin Rouge...Little train starts here also.
Eat, possibly, at La Galerie at 16, rue Tholoze 75018...right on rue des Abesses from metro, take 3rd right.
SITES:
#39 rue Andre-Ant. - Seurat died here
#54 rue Lepic - Van Gogh & brother lived here 1886-88
#75 rue Lepic - Moulin de la Galette
#11 Ave Junot - Utrillo's 1926-37
#15 Ave Junot - Tristan Tzara site
#23 Ave Junot - Stairway to rue Lepic
#2 rue de L' Aben....- Utrillo's “Pink House...” Now a good cafe.
#12 rue Cortot - site of Montmartre Musee
See Au Lapin Agile
See rue Norvins (Link to Paris)
Rue Gabrielle - site of Picasso's 1st studio - 1900
#120 Blvd. de Roch....- Chevalier/ Mist......La Cigal
Les Halles & Grands Boulevards Stroll (2 1/2hours)/Place de la Republic
-rue de la Ferronie - Henry 4 killed by Ravaillac on this street
-#21 rue St-Honore' - Moliere's residence
-Snack at Paris Halles Cafe
-Fountain of the Innocents, near Les Halles
-stroll toward hotel, seeing sights along the way as we choose....
-Harry's N Y Bar
*#6 rue Daunou - Oliver W. Holmes stayed here on a 50th anniversary sentimental trip.
-Cityrama Seine Cruise/ MOULIN ROUGE combo (Paris For Less)
DAY FOUR: (Monday)
-Ile de la Cite & Isle St-Louis
-Walking tour meets at cite metro at 10:30am, 60F
a.Notre Dame/crypt (1 1/4 hours)
*#6 rue de la Colombe - traces of 3rd century Gallo-Roman wall.....
*#4 rue de la Colombe - Medieval door, 2 doves, St-Nicolas Cavern in the 13th century
*#6 rue Chanoinesse - 3rd century wall
*#4 rue Chanoinesse - Medieval tavern from the 13th century
*#10 rue Chanoinesse - Heloise's Uncle's home, where she met Abelard, etc.....
*#22-24 - Cathedral Cannons'
*#7 rue des Ursins - Racine's
*#19 rue des Ursins - medieval courtyard of ND Cloister
Possibly eat at Le Vieux Bistro at 14, rue de Cloiture Notre Dame, NE side of Notre Dame
b.St-Chapelle (40 minutes)
c.Palais of Justice, without Conciergerie (30 minutes)
d.Pont Neuf & Place Dauphine/ Henri IV Tavern at #13 place du Pont-Neuf
e.Top of S Dept Store, 2, Quai du Louvre restaurant/ view/shopping at 19 rue de la Monnie
f.Brasserie St-Louis
g.Walk all the quays (especially Anjou & Orleans for literary sites, etc...)
*#29 Quai Anjou - Hemingway, Ford M. Ford, Bill Bird, Ezra Pound, etc......
*#33 Quai Anjou - Restaurant expatriates like Hemingway went to....
*#37 Quai Anjou - John Dos Passos'
*#18 Quai Orleans - Walter Lippman's
*#10 Quai d'Orleans - James Jones' (Famous people congregated here...)
*#12 Quai d'Orleans - Harry & Caresse Crosby's
*#45 Quai Tournelle - John Dos Passos'
*#1 Quai Bourbon - Sailor's hangout in ages past
*#25 Quai Bourbon - Leon Blum's (Socialist)
*#24 Quai Bethune - Helena Rubenstein's
*#22 Quai Bethune - Bauldaire's
*#2 rue St-Louis en Lille - Hotel Lambert, Voltaire's..Owned by Roth..'s
h.Berthillion (ice Cream)
i.Stroll.......
Marais:
-Hotel de Ville (exhibits on east side, inside, rue de Lobau)
-SHOP in Marias district (1 1/2 hours or more)
-Place Vosges:
-Victor Hugo Musee, #6 (45 minutes max)
*#8 - Gautier's
*#21 - Cardinal Richelieu's
*#1 bis - Madame Sevigne's birthplace
-Jim Morrison's Apartment (at #17/19 rue Beautr./ well in front of Place Vosges)
-Musee Carnovalet (quick, 45 minutes)
*#62 rue St-Antoine - Voltaire was beaten up under the portal
-REFRESH at hotel/ eat at Cote de Seine at #45 Quais des Grands Augustins (Fred's deal)
-Stroll Champs-Elysees (Arc de Triomphe, if still open)
a. rue Boccador/Buchwald apartment
b. rue de Berri/ Buchwald's newspaper, etc....HT
-Thomas Jefferson, #92 Champs-Elysees......
-Snack somewhere
DAY FIVE: (Tuesday)
-Out early
-Eiffel Tower AT OPENING (1 1/2 hours)
-Trocadero
-Port Alma Restaurant at 10, avenue de New York 75116 - 0147237511
-Paris Sewers (maybe)
-Ben Franklins home was at the corner of rue Raynourd and rue Singer from 1777-1785 (Passy)
-Maison de Balzac, @ 47 rue Raynourd
-John Adams stayed here from 1784-5.....#42-47 rue d' Auteuil....(Michel Ange-Auteuil)
- Canal Cruise/St-Martin
* POSSIBLY THE LAST DAY OF MUSEE & MONUMENT PASS, catch-all of anything not seen that is desirable, etc......*
-Arc de Triomphe (if not already done)
-Pere LeChaise Cemetary
FREE AFTERNOON and EVENING TO STROLL/ Cafe sit/ and SHOP
*Use Fred's site (www.anamericaninparis.com ) to pick eating places, etc......from printout.
DAY SIX: (Wednesday)
Montparnasse & the Latin Quarter (Using MWIP & Fitch books as a guide)(8 hours total)
* Have a meal at Le Select
* Have a drink at the Dome & old Dingo site (same bar)
* Stroll rue Delambre/ Montparnasse area
#70 rue Notre Dame des Champs - Ezra Pound's & Katherine A.Porter's
#75 rue Notre Dame des Champs - A. B. Toklas'
#113 rue Notre Dame des Champs - site of Hemingway's “sawmill” home......
#28 rue Vavin - Site of the College Inn & Perelli's (now La Dolce Vita)
#68-70 Blvd.Montparnasse - Hemingway restaurant
#151 bis Blvd.Montparnasse - The bakery Hemingway always cut through...
#157-159 Blvd. Montparnasse - Negre de Toulouse/Lavignes - Hemingway site & Hotel Venetia
#166 Blvd.Montparnasse - Katherine A. Porter's
#127 Blvd. Montparnasse - Original Jockey Club, Le Jockey Cabaret
#9 rue de la Grande Chaumiere - Beckett, Nate West, George Seldes, etc lived here
#5 rue de la Grande Chaumiere - Jack Hemingway was baptized here as a baby with several people in attendance......
#4 & #8 rue Delambre - Edward Titus & Samuel Putnam's
#9 rue Delambre - Isadora Duncan's & Lady Duff's
#10 rue Delambre - site of original Dingo
#15 rue Delambre - Man Ray & Tristan Tzara lived here...Kiki visited.....
#39 rue Delambre - Jo Davidson's
#42 rue du Montparnasse - Le Falstaff (Jimmy Charter's place)
#69 rue Froidevaux - Hemingway stayed here compliments of the Murphy's, 5th floor....Worked on “The Sun Also Rises” proofs here......
* See the Montparnasse Cemetery & revisit Closerie des Lilas
#63 Blvd.Argo - Tennis courts of Hemingway and friends
* Henry Miller/Brassai/A. Nin sites south of Montparnasse/ Alesia
a.Villa Seurat - off rue de la Tombe-Issoire - Henry Miller & Anais Nin's #18
b.Cafes at Place Alesia - Miller favorites
-China Town, south of rue de Tolbiac/ and Ave d' Ivry and de Choisy
-Montparnasse Tower (33 avenue du Maine, restaurant on 57th floor - Ciel de Paris
01-40-64-77-64)
-FREE TIME
DAY SEVEN: (Thursday)
-DAYTRIP to Fountainbleau (optional at present)
Evening:
-Nightlife in Bastille Area or eat at La Sourdiere at 4, rue de la Sourdiere off of rue St-Honore
DAY EIGHT: (Friday)
-A walking tour meets at the Cardinal Lemoine metro stop at 10:30am, 60F
-FREE to roam aimlessly and SHOP/another possible Daytrip
-Garnier Opera House
-Pick another nice place from Fred's Guide to have a farewell dinner
-MAKE ARRANGEMENTS FOR A TAXI TO THE AIRPORT TOMORROW.......
-PACK!
EATING PLACES APART:
La Villa Creole at 19, rue d' Antin - Carribean food - 01-47-42-64-92
Saint-Amour at 8, rue Port-Mahon 75002 - Edith Piaf's debut location - 01-47-42-63-82
Le Pied de Cochon at 6, rue Coquilliere 75001
Cafe Marly at the Louvre......93, rue de Rivoli.......01-49-26-06-60
Le Relais Louis 13 at 8, rue des Grands-Augusttins 75006.....01-43-26-75-96
* Le Web Bar* at 32, rue de Picardie 75003.....01-42-72-57-47
La Sourdie at 4, rue de la Sourdiere
CHEAP BUT GOOD EATS!
Le P' tit Gavrouche at 15, rue Ste-Croix-de-la-Bretonnaire (Hotel De Ville stop)
Chez Max at 47, rue Honore'(Chatelet stop)
Polidor at 41, rue Monsieur le Prince
L' Ami Leon at 11, rue Jean Jacques Rousseau (Louvre stop)
*Francky at 35, rue Dauphine 75006 (Susanna*)
*Pizza Sarno (Chez Carlo) at 31, rue de la Harpe...75005
Chez Clement on Blvd Capucines across from the Garnier Opera...others around Paris.
*Ile St-Louis at 39, rue St Louis-en-Isle
*Leon de Bruxelles at 31, Blvd. St-Germain...seafood and meat
Oh! ...Poivrier (Paris For Less...everywhere...)
Poul d' Or (Paris For Less....everywhere...)
*******
Jimmy Hall is a professional writer, and lover of Paris, France. His company, Jimmy Hall Writing Services (404-580-1501) prepares business plans, resumes, web content, blog content, and numerous other writing services...
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