My Left Bank: The Paris I Love

My Left Bank is the Paris of the past, the Paris I love, a now non-existent place that is nonetheless a very tangible abstract reality or vision to incurable Romantics like myself. 

The Latin Quarter, Montparnasse, St. Sulpice, the Quais, Place Contrescarpe, the Boulevards Saint Michel & Saint Germain, and the Luxembourg Gardens of the early 20th Century are my playground. I love it all. But why?

Expatriate Paris fills a void I never specifically knew was there for decades. Sure, Paris somehow mesmerized me from a distance (my late mother was a French teacher), but until I finally went there for the first time I had no clue I loved the place like a desirable woman. It's captivating.

Being in Paris is being alive, walking the same steps as historical greats from the past, seeing what they saw, and pretending to breath the air they breathed. One hopes that what they had is highly infectious and contagious. It's all about atmosphere and supreme ambiance. I stumbled upon the REAL Left Bank one evening, and the rest is...

I am always keenly aware that "this" happened here, and "that" happened there, while he or she or they were elsewhere or nearby. Timelines and relativity are a constant with me. It is all about old and new, past and present. The Left Bank, to a great extent, is the Old Paris.

Hemingway read right there. Napoleon stood over yonder. Jefferson walked with  a lovely lady in this garden. Sartre and de Beuvoir drank at that table. Henry Miller strolled this square. Abelard and Heloise loved and studied on that Quai. Voltaire thought in this apartment. Anais Ninn wrote in that room. Joyce ate at this joint. Sylvia Beach's bookshop was behind that wall. Stein walked her dog in this park, as the Fitzgeralds did their child! On and on and on and on and on.... And, there is more - I know and appreciate everything.

Although thousands of historic-specific sites, places, Seine riverbanks and waterways, rues/boulevards, bridges, gardens, attractions, cafes, museums, monuments, churches/cathedrals, homes, ruins, nostalgic hotels/apartments, restaurants, squares, and walkways exist - each is a part of a greater whole to me that is infinitely more wonderous than its parts.

Indeed, I love Paris, France and consider it "my town," although I no longer get there often. I adore the Left Bank. The truth is, wherever I am, my heart is in Paris - so to a great extent I am there, and hope to always be...

~ Jimmy Hall, MS/BBA (404-580-1501) is a professional Business Writer and Lit Writer from Atlanta, specializing in preparing business plans, resumes, website content, letters, expert articles, papers, and blog pieces. His website is Jimmy Hall Writing Services.