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On your next visit to Paris, I suggest you this walk with Ann Jeanne in Paris (me, native Parisian !) in an area, where you’ll have a real feel of a Paris’ neighborhood. An area where you’ll really experienced what Paris’ life is, in a both lively and quiet part of Paris. I suggest you this walk especially if you’ve already visited the main landmarks, such as Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower…etc It’s one of the place where I would love to stay if I were visiting Paris … and actually it’s the area where I was born, where I grew up, where I went to the elementary school. A place where all the inhabitants could tell you how pleasant it is to live there…. I don’t know even one person here who would like to live anywhere else in Paris… All right, maybe, they would accept to live in Saint Germain des Prés, Montparnasse, or the Ile Saint Louis… Maybe…. !! But not sure…. ! I know the history of this part of Paris, how it changed, the little details which makes it how it is…etc…  You can click here to see the list of My tours      (This tour is called “From Daguerre to Montsouris“)

Oh yes !… on this tour, you’ll see some ducks and swans too !!!

If you feel like having another experience of Paris… I should say… an even more parisian experience… a more insider experience, don’t hesitate to contact me. It would be a great pleasure to show you one of the best cheesemonger of Paris (I don’t think it’s in touristic guides but it’s in Parisian’s heart and mind !), a market so many parisian affectionate so much, the houses of many painters who used to live there in the 30s, a wonderful park, winding cobblestone streets with charming semi detached houses…………..and tell you so many things I know about this so parisian neighborhood… Don’t hesitate to contact me if you feel like experiencing “this Paris”. Contact

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A quiet time at the terrace of a cafe with a fur baby !

If you open markets, cobblestone streets, parks, the architecture and the artists of the 30s …

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You’ll like strolling in this neighborhood !

You’ve maybe never heard of Montsouris neighborhood before… Sometimes, it’s not even mentioned in Paris travel guides. Located in the South of Paris, up till the end of the 19th century and the huge transformation of the city by Napoleon III and the Baron Haussmann, this area was outside Paris.

P6120172-2It’s a  charming and cosy part of Paris, where you get the feeling of an authentic Paris

Carte Quartier Montsouris

Discover the Paris of the Parisians ! (Paris is not just about the Eiffel Tower and NotreDame ! )  IMG_6777

 

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A pedestrian market street with its shops alike an open market,  

  • One of the most beautiful and largest Paris’s parks
  • Cobblestones pedestrian streets with semi-detached houses,
  • the houses where George Braque, André Derain, Foujita, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Salvador Dali, Chaim Soutine, Amédée Ozenfant, Antonin Artaud, André Derain, Chana Orloff (sculptor)... used to live, create and gather. I’ll show you their houses.
  • houses built by some of the most renowned architects of the 30s : Le Corbusier, Jean Lurçat, Auguste Perret.

When you book a tour with Ann Jeanne in Paris, I share with you my Paris, a real Paris so much appreciated by Parisians ! 

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Cobblestone alleyways

You’ll probably enjoy walking in the charming cobblestones narrow alleyways, where you feel like faraway from the city. A real provincial atmosphere.

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A pedestrian market street : a street so much liked by locals

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A “fromager” (cheese shop)

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Here some more images of this charming provincial atmosphere : 

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Famous artists of the 30s used to live in this neighborhood


Where they used to live, work and gather.

Buildings by renown architects

You’ll see buildings designed by Le Corbusier, Auguste Perret, Jean Lurçat… Several Art Deco style (not Art Nouveau) buildings, built between WWI and WWII. Some are listed as Historic Monuments.

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Some remains of the Roman timeRoman aqueduc

You’ll also see a piece of an acqueduc from the roman time. 

My advice :

  • If you like architecture and especially the Art Deco architecture (30s architecture), if you’d like to see where Fujita , Miller, Braque, Dali,Anaïs Nin, Derain,Soutine… and other renown artists used to live, you’ll enjoy a tour with Ann Jeanne in Paris in this area
  • You’ll  enjoy an open market, a walk in a park, you’ll see where artists of the 30s used to live and see a remain of the Roman time when Paris was still called Lutèce (2000 thousands years ago).

Visit Paris, with Ann Jeanne in Paris, native Parisian : 

  • You’d like to feel like a local and having a tour in a Paris neighborhood, but you don’t feel having a tour with a group ?
  • You’d like to discover Paris off the beaten path, get a real feel of an authentic Paris, and full of tips from a native ?
  • You’d like to see Paris in another perspective and to know more about Paris and Parisians?

Anne à Montsouris - Format original-2637WELCOME !

  • I’d be delighted to welcome you and share with you “my” Paris. And Paris will be “your” city too 🙂
  • The tours are private (with you only or you and the person you choose), at your pace. 
  • For more details : Ann Jeanne in Paris” tours,  Booking and Pricing

 


And in you’d fancy a photo session to bring back home amazing photos of yourself :

[For a photo session [Bring back pictures of yourself in Paris ) : click here]

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Les personalités (grille) de Montsouris-2

David McCullough - The Greater Journey (Americans in Paris)

The Lost Generation in the spotlight

(More details and photos about the books, below)

 

The LOST GENERATION

Literally, the Lost Generation is a group of Americans writers born between 1883 and 1900 and  disillusioned by World War I. They were displeased with social values, sexual and aesthetic conventions and established morality. They were all pioneered new ways of writing, rebelling against the traditional Victorian literary style. 

PARIS –  American writers of the Lost Generation first fled to cities such as Chicago and San Francisco, then to Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona and Rome. But Paris was the prime city in which the “bohemian” Lost Generation chose to wander. Between 1921 and 1924, the number of Americans in Paris, grew from 6,000 to 30,000.

Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein

GERTRUDE STEIN and THE LOST GENERATION :  The phrase was created by Gertrude Stein (spoken to Hemingway): “You are all a lost generation.”.The Lost Generation included writers such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos and T.S. Eliot.  

Hemingway and Fitzgerald

Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald

It included several painters as well such as Waldo Peirce. ( reference : https://mstalreja.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/ppt-the-lost-generation.pdf) 

MONTPARNASSE – Montparnasse was the gathering place of the Lost Generation. There were many cheap studios, apartments, and it was also an area filled with important cafes (Le Dôme, La Closerie des Lilas, La Rotonde and Le Select to name a few).  “Poverty is a luxury when living in Montparnasse. (Jean Cocteau)

THE LOST GENERATION IN MY BOOKSHOP

Here are the books, in the bookshop where I use to go (see the shop window above and below too) . They are all in French. But I’ve posted the English versions of these books too. Found on Amazon.fr

  • 41xVQWriQyL._SX363_BO1,204,203,200_Kiki de Montparnasse : Catel et José-Louis Bocquet (a comic – 2011)  In English as well :  Kiki de Montparnasse  In the bohemian and brilliant
    Montparnasse of the 1920s, Kiki managed to escape poverty to become one of the most charismatic figures of the avant-garde years between the wars. Partner to Man Ray – whose most legendary photos she inspired – she would be immortalised by Kisling, Foujita, Per Krohg, Calder, Utrillo and Leger. Kiki is the muse of a generation that seeks to escape the hangover of the Great War, but she is above all one of the first emancipated women of the 20th century.©Amazon
  • Ezra Pound (American poet) : Les Cantos In English : The cantos of Ezra Pound‘s 800 page Cantos, written over a period of more than fifty years (1917–1969), invites the reader to join the poet on a journey from darkness and despair towards light and positive activity. In this book, George Kearns addresses the reader approaching The Cantos for the first time. He examines the poem’s aesthetic and political-ethical-didactic dimensions and shows that despite its complexity and the many objections which can be raised to its poetics and politics, its study can be greatly rewarding.”©Amazon

  • Gertrude Stein : Autobiography d’Alice B. Tokias – In English :  The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas was written in 1933 by Gertrude Stein in the guise of an autobiography authored by Alice B. Toklas, who was her lover. It is a fascinating insight into the art scene in Paris as the couple were friends with Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. They begin the war years in England but return to France, volunteering for the American Fund for the French Wounded, driving around France, helping the wounded and homeless. After the war Gertrude has an argument with T. S. Eliot after he finds one of her writings inappropriate. They become friends with Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway. It was written to make money and was indeed a commercial success. However, it attracted criticism, especially from those who appeared in the book and didn’t like the way they were depicted.©Amazon

 

  • James Joyce : Ulysses – In English : Ulysses – Ulysses is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach in February 1922, in Paris. It is considered to be one of the most important works of Modernist literature, and has been called “a demonstration and summation of the entire movement”. Ulysses chronicles the peripatetic appointments and encounters of Leopold Bloom in Dublin in the course of an ordinary day, 16 June 1904.©Amazon

 

  • Zelda Fitgerald : Accordez moi cette valse – In English : Save me the Waltz
    One of the great literary curios of the twentieth century Save Me the Waltz is the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the years when Fitzgerald was working on Tender is the Night, Zelda Fitzgerald was preparing her own story, which strangely parallels the narrative of her husband, throwing a fascinating light on Scott Fitzgerald’s life and work. In its own right, it is a vivid and moving story: the confessional of a famous glamour girl of the affluent 1920s and an aspiring ballerina which captures the spirit of an era.©Amazon

  • Jim Fergus : Souvenir de l’amour Chrysis  – In English : The Memory of Love : The new novel by the author of the international bestseller, ONE THOUSAND WHITE WOMEN. After recovering from grave wounds suffered in The Great War, Bogey Lambert, a young cowboy from Colorado, makes his way to 1920s Paris, where he encounters the beautiful painter, Chrysis Jungbluth. Precocious, passionate, talented, the free-spirited Chrysis rebels against a society and an art world in which men have all the privilege and women none. By day, a serious student at the prestigious l’École des Beaux-Arts, at night Chrysis loses herself to the sensual pleasures of the Montparnasse nightlife, where all seems permissible. There, she and the American cowboy will live the love of a lifetime.©Amazon

  • Montparnasse : les lieux de légende – Olivier Renault – Not found in English on Amazon
  • Francis Scott Fitzgerald : Beaux et damnés – In English : The beautiful and damned Anthony Patch and Gloria Gibson are the golden children of the Jazz Age. They marry and embark on a life of glittering parties, lavish expenditure and scandalous revelry. When the money dries up their marriage founders. In this wistful novel Fitzgerald portrays the decline of youthful promise with devastating clarity.©Amazon.fr

 

 

  • Francis Scott Fitzgerald : Tendre est la nuit – In English :  Tender is the night  Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant young psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not his own, and whose growing strength highlights Dick’s harrowing demise.©Amazon.fr
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  • F. Scott Fitzgerald : Gatsby le Magnifique /// In English : The Great Gatsby – The story focuses on the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his obsession for the enigmatic and beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. Following a colourful cast of characters who live in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. This is a classic that has been loved by many for generations.©Amazon.fr
  • D’Ernest Hemingway à Henry Miller : Mythes et réalités des écrivains américains à Paris (1919 – 1939) – de Daniel Gallagher – Not found in English on Amazon.fr
  • Hemingway : Paris est une fête Nouvelles complètes /// In English : A Moveable feast – Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway’s most beloved works…Featuring a personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest’s sole surviving son, and an introduction by the editor and grandson of the author, Seán Hemingway, this new edition also includes a number of unfinished, never-before-published Paris sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son Jack and his first wife, Hadley. Also included are irreverent portraits of other luminaries, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ford Madox Ford, and insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft. The restored edition of A Moveable Feast brilliantly evokes the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the unbridled creativity and enthusiasm that Hemingway himself experienced. ©Amazon.fr

  • Hemingway : Le Jardin d’Eden  – Hemingway ///  In English  The Garden of Eden is the last uncompleted novel of Ernest Hemingway, which he worked on intermittently from 1946 until his death in 1961. Set on the Côte d’Azur in the 1920s, it is the story of a young American writer, David Bourne, his glamorous wife, Catherine, and the dangerous, erotic game they play when they fall in love with the same woman.©Amazon

  • John Dos Passos : L’initiation d’un homme : 1917 /// In English : John Dos Passos : One Man’s Initiation – 1917 – “One Man’s Initiation:1917” was the first novel of the American writer John Dos Passos (1896 — 1970) and offers a semi-autobiographical account of the writer’s experience as an ambulance driver in France as a young man.©Amazon.fr

  • 41UCj7i0VjL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_John Dos Passos : Lettres à germaine Lucas Championnière – Written in French by John Dos Passos – Not found in English. 
  • Miller – Grandeur nature – Brassai /// In English : Henry Miller, The Paris Years – This book is a must-read for Henry Miller devotees who want to understand the genesis of this great writer. Written by his close friend Brassai a fascinating story is told about Miller’s down and out days in Paris during the 1930’s and how his vision of writing developed. It is replete with personal anecdotes about Miller’s views of Paris, his hatred (ambivalent as it was) of his homeland and his relations with the women in his life. It more than anything shows Miller as the writer refusing to sell-out by having the essence of his writing edited away by the censorius literary status quo of his day. (Review read on ©Amazon.fr)
  • Henry Miller Printemps noir /// In English : Black SpringWritten during the same period as “Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn”, and banned in the English-speaking world upon its publication in Paris in 1936, “Black Spring” is one of Miller’s finest achievements, and arguably his most distinguished book from a stylistic point of view. It consists of a number of linked episodes describing some of the crucial years in his personal saga, from recollections of his childhood in Brooklyn to his time in Paris.Imbued with the spirit of Miller’s life experience, “Black Spring” is a linguistic tour de force which brings together the American author’s greatest merits.©Amazon.fr

  • Henry Miller Jours tranquilles à Clichy /// In English : Quiet days in Clichy‘Here, even if I had a thousand dollar in my pocket, I know of no sight which could arouse in me the feeling of ecstasy’Looking back to Henry Miller’s bohemian life in 1930s Paris, when he was an obscure, penniless writer, Quiet Days in Clichy is a love letter to a city. As he describes nocturnal wanderings through shabby Montmartre streets, cafés and bars, sexual liaisons and volatile love affairs, Miller brilliantly evokes a period that would shape his entire life and oeuvre. . ‘His writing is flamboyant, torrential, chaotic, treacherous, and dangerous’ Anaïs Nin ©Amazon.fr

  • Henry Miller : Tropique du Cancer – Tropique du Capricorne // in English : Tropic of Cancer  ...Henry Miller’s first novel Tropic of Cancer …Set in Paris in the 1930s, it features a starving American writer who lives a bohemian life among prostitutes, pimps, and artists. Banned in the US and the UK for more than thirty years because it was considered pornographic, Tropic of Cancer continued to be distributed in France and smuggled into other countries. When it was first published in the US in 1961, it led to more than 60 obscenity trials until a historic ruling by the Supreme Court defined it as a work of literature. … Tropic of Capricorn – A cult modern classic, Tropic of Capricorn is … a story of sexual and spiritual awakening, Tropic of Capricorn shocked readers when it was published in 1939. A mixture of fiction and autobiography …Tropic of Capricorn paints a dazzling picture of the life of the writer and of New York City between the wars. Henry Miller is widely recognised as an irreverent, risk-taking writer who redefined the novel and made the link between the European avant-garde and the American Beat generation.©Amazon.fr

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  • William Faulkner : Pylône. In English : Pylon : Pylon, first published in 1935, takes place at an air show in a thinly disguised New Orleans named New Valois. An unnamed reporter for a local newspaper tries to understand a very modern ménage a trois of flyers on the brainstorming circuit.©Amazon.fr
  • William Faulkner : Le Bruit et la fureur. In English : The sound and the fury : Ever since the first furore was created on its publication in 1929, The Sound and the Furyhas been considered one of the key novels of this century. Depicting the gradual disintegration of the Compson family through four fractured narratives, The Sound and the Fury explores intense, passionate family relationships where there is no love, only self-centredness. At its heart this is a novel about lovelessness. ©Amazon.fr
  • 51DtbCRRugL._SX404_BO1,204,203,200_La génération perdue des américains à Paris 1917 – 1939 – Vincent Bouvet has written a few books translated into English on the Roaring Twenties. This book has just been published and apparently hasn’t been translated in English yet. The title in English should be : “The Lost Generation of the Americans in Paris – 1917-1939”

 

  • 41IkUIVVrQL._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_Anaïs Nin : Journal de l’amour et Henry et June  /// In English : Henry and June: From “A Journal of Love” – The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1931-1932) – 
    Anais Nin (1903-1977) was a French-born author of Catalan, Cuban and Danish descent. She became famous for her erotica, as well as for her published diaries, which span more than sixty years, beginning when she was eleven years old and ending shortly before her death. This bestseller covers a single momentous year during Nin’s life in Paris, when she met Henry Miller and his wife, June. “Closer to what many sexually adventuresome women experience than almost anything I’ve ever read….I found it a very erotic book and profoundly liberating” (Alice Walker). ©Amazon.fr
  • David McCullough : Le Voyage à Paris Les Américains à l’école de la France /// In English :  The greater Journey – Americans in Paris – The bestseller that tells the remarkable story of the generations of American artists, writers, and doctors who traveled to Paris, the intellectual, scientific, and artistic capital of the western world, fell in love with the city and its people, and changed America through what they learned, told by America’s master historian, David McCullough.©Amazon.fr

  • Adrienne Monnier – “Les Gazettes”  and “Rue de l’Odéon” /// Not found in English version on ©Amazon.fr

  • 41tV7bLbjiL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Sinclair LewisBabbit, first published in 1922, is a novel by Sinclair Lewis. Largely a satire of American culture, society, and behavior, it critiques the vacuity of middle-class American life and its pressure toward conformity. An immediate and controversial bestseller, Babbitt was influential in the decision to award Lewis the Nobel Prize in literature in 1930. The word “Babbitt” entered the English language as a “person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards”.©Amazon.fr
  • 51AF62PJG1L._SX283_BO1,204,203,200_Laure Murat : Passage de l’Odéon(not found in English on Amazon)
  • Susan Sontag : Le Faucon Pelerin  Susan Sontag was born in Manhattan in 1933 and studied at the universities of Chicago, Harvard and Oxford. She is the author of four novels, a collection of stories, several plays, and six books of essays, among them Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors. Her books are translated into thirty-two languages. In 2001 she was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the body of her work, and in 2003 she received the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. She died in December 2004. (not found in English on Amazon)

51TDR5QY9AL._SX315_BO1,204,203,200_Des Américains à Paris – René Maurice – Not found in English on Amazon.fr

  • 31AVA-UtX-L._SX263_BO1,204,203,200_Gilles Leroy : Alabama song (Goncourt Prize in 2007) Not found in English on ©Amazon.fr

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Your Private Walk with Ann Jeanne in Paris :

in Montparnasse, the gathering neighborhood of the Lost Generation, 

You’d like to feel like a local and having a tour in a Paris neighborhood, but you don’t feel having a tour with a group ?

  • You’d like to discover Paris off the beaten path ?
  • You’d like to see Paris in another perspective and to know more about Paris lifestyle ?

WELCOME !

CONTACT me for a private walking tour and EXPERIENCE PARIS as a local

  • You only, or you and the person you choose.
  • Duration of the tour : from 2 hours.  It includes a coffee in an authentic cafe 
  • The tour can be customized according to your preferences and interests 

For more details :  The tours  and Practical details and fees 

Don’t hesitate to contact me

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… A few days later: the BEAT GENERATION in another bookshop located in the Latin Quarter : 

About the Beat Generation

About the Beat Generation

 

 

Saint Germain des Prés

Café Le Flore

The “grand classic” private walking tour in Saint Germain des Prés with Ann Jeanne in Paris

On the left bank, Saint Germain des prés is renowned for its famous cafes, its narrow streets and antique shops.. After World War II, Saint Germain des Pres became synonymous of intellectual life, centered around bars and cafes.

Saint Germain des Prés reached its heyday in the 50s

Philosophers, writers, actors and musicians used to meet and stay in cafes, clubs… : Hemingway, Miller, Picasso, Jim Morrison, Sartre; Beauvoir… Literature, poetry, and Jazz perfumed all the lifestyle in the area.

Among this neighborhood’s regulars (random list) : Hemingway, Picasso, Miller, Sartre, Beauvoir, Ellington, Hampton, Miles Davis, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Delacroix, Gertrude Stein, Boris Vian, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Cocteau, Duras, Prévert, Johnny Depp, F F Coppola, Camus, James Joyce…

The leading figures of the time have now gone, but you still feel the special atmosphere of this quarter of Paris. In Saint Germain des Pres  : lots of restaurants, cinemas, antique shops, galeries… Though today, you’ll find haute-couture, and fashion shops too (Vuitton, Armani, Dior…)

Saint Germain des Prés : the Kingdom of iconic cafés : 

The most famous cafes of the area are : Le cafe de Flore, les Deux Magots, Le Bonaparte, La Palette, the café Procope (the oldest Paris’ café, actually a restaurant nowadays) the Brasserie Lipp

Nice XVIII century buildings, cobblestone streets…And  the Saint Germain des Pres Church which is one of the oldest church of Paris.

Today, a very classic, elegant and trendy area.

My advice : 

  • No specific monuments except Saint Germain des Prés church, but in my opinion a great area to feel what Paris life is. Very liked by Parisians, and great cafés for cafés lovers. A neighborhood to stroll in. In Saint Germain des Prés, everything is a classic. And so much History.
  • Don’t miss “Le Flore” or its sister “Les 2 Magots” nearby the church, two classics. And if you’ve some time left, either carry on to the river Seine (northern Saint Germain des Prés), or to Saint Sulpice church (southern StGermain des Prés) and Pierre Hermé for a gorgeous pastry (nearby Saint Sulpice – Rue Bonaparte).

 

Some addresses :

  • Capture d’écran 2016-05-17 à 03.03.56Laduré (pastry very well know for its macarons) : pastry shop and tea room : rue Jacob (100 meters from Saint Germain church)
  • Pierre Hermé (pastry – maybe the best in France) : rue Bonaparte – Métro Saint Sulpice or Odeon (both line 4)
  • Gerard Mulot (pastry) : 76 rue de Seine (on your way to Saint Sulpice) www.gerardmulot.com
  • Le Flore and Les 2 Magots (iconic Paris cafés)  : boulevard Saint Germain des Prés – Métro Saint Germain des prés (line 4)
  • L’Avant Comptoir : place de l’Odeon – Metro stop Odeon – for a snack, a crêpe or a gaufre. Métro Odéon (line 4)

profil-paris-avec-oiseaux

 

The Saint Germain des Prés private walking tour with Ann Jeanne in Paris. 

l1008109A private  tour in one of the most classic and elegant part of Paris. Saint Germain des Prés is synonymous with chic and Parisian culture. 

Along our way : 

One of oldest church in Paris, Hemingways favorite restaurant, where Sartre used to live, one of the oldest church in Paris, a chocolate shop which opened more than 250 years ago, a strange art gallery which exhibits only one work of art at a time, the favorite café where Fine art students still use to meet, the café where Sartre and Beauvoir used to philosophize and write , you’ll taste among the best macarons in the city of light, and if you choose to, some beautiful cream puffs too from a shop specialized in this pastry. You’ll see (and visit if you’d like to) the studio where Delacroix used to live and paint, the oldest café in Paris, the exact place where the guillotine was first tried, you’ll walk in a charming cobblestone alleywayetc 

A tour with Ann Jeanne in Paris is also a way to meet a Parisian and to know more about Paris culture and everyday life, and to experience Paris as a true Parisian. And I will answer your questions to help you to get the most of your stay in Paris (tips, informations…)

Half day or whole day private tour to experience Paris and Saint Germain des Prés as a true Parisian contact me

Henri Leroux - Saint Germain des Prés

The oldest café in Paris

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Eugène Delacroix used to live in Saint Germain des Prés

Ernest-Hemingway-quote

01 - Photo Hemingway - a moveable feast

Ernest HEMINGWAY :

1918 – La Madeleine (Metro : Madeleine)

First place for Hemingway in Paris : in 1918, Hemingway, a U.S. Red Cross volunteer at the time, found himself in front of the damaged façade of the church.

Hemingway in Saint Germain des Prés :

  • In 1921, Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, arrived in Paris and stayed in the “Hôtel d’Angleterre” ( room 14 – 44 rue Jacob – Paris 6) – Metro Saint Germain des Prés), recommended by the American writer, Sherwood Anderson, who also gave him letters of introduction to Gerturde Stein, James Joyce, and to the publisher Sylvia Beach.
    Hemingway often enjoyed coming to “Le Pré aux Clercs”, a cafe located nearby the Hôtel d’Angleterre, (30, rue Bonaparte – Paris 6 – Opening hours : 7/7 8am – 2am)
  • Brasserie Lipp (151 boulevard Saint Germain – Paris 6 – Metro Mabillon)  Hemingway was very fond of this place.
  • Michaud (= now called : “Le Comptoir des Saints-Pères”) in Saint Germain des Prés (corner of rue Jacob and rue des   Saints-Pères) – A restaurant
  • Cafe de Flore, 172 boulevard Saint Germain Metro Saint Germain des Prés: After the war, Hemingway used to come to the Coupole regularly.
  • Les Deux Magots, 6 place Saint Germain des Prés – Metro Saint Germain des Prés : One of the oldest cafes in Paris. Among its regulars : Verlaine, Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Picasso, Oscar Wilde, André Malraux and Antoine de Saint Exupéry.

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Hemingway in Montparnasse :

  • 1924 – Hemingway moves in a flat near the Luxembourg Gardens (113, rue Notre-Dame-des -Champs – Metro Vavin)
  • La Rotonde (105, boulevard Montparnasse – Paris 14 – Metro Vavin) : That’s where he sometimes meets Henry Miller, Scott Fitzgerald and George Gershwin
  • Les Blés d’Ange (boulangerie) – 151 boulevard du Montparnasse – Metro Vavin : That’s where Hemingway was buying his pastries. It was easy for him to get there as it was opposite his house by Notre Dame des Champs.
  • La Closerie des Lilas**   Article about the Luxembourg Gardens : coming next°°° (171, boulevard Montparnasse – RER : Port Royal or Metro : Vavin) He wrote that it was “one of the best cafes in Paris” and it became his “home cafe”. Others writers used to come at the Closerie des Lilas such as Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Oscar Wilde, Verlaine, Gide, Aragon, Fitzgerald, Sartre, Beckett. Earlier, other famous regulars used to come in this cafe such as : Zola, Gautier, Baudelaire, Honoré de Balzac… That’s where Hemingway wrote his short stories. That’s also where he used to come after splitting up with this first wife, Hadley.
  • Le Select°°°° (99 boulevard Montparnasse – Metro Vavin) – Ernest Hemingway often start his day with breakfast at the Select. He also set several scenes in his novel “The Sun also Rises” (1926) here
  • The Dôme ( 108, boulevard Montparnasse – Paris 14 – Metro Vavin) : Hemingway loved this cafe because often frequented by writers, painters, and artists’ models, such as Gauguin, Modigliani, Kandinsky, Picasso, Miller, Nin and Man Ray.
  • La Coupole, 102 boulevard Montparnasse Paris 14 – Metro Vavin
  • The Dingo Bar ( = today : “Auberge de Venise” – 10 rue Delambre – Paris 14 – Metro Vavin) : That’s where Hemingway met Scott Fitzgerald for the first time. Where Picasso, and Jean Cocteau used to go as well
  • Hotel Venitia (no longer exists. Now, t’s a travel bookshop) 159 boulevard Montparnasse – Paris 14– Metro Port Royal, Vavin or Raspail
  • Ernest-Hemingway-quote
  • Hemingway and the Luxembourg Gardens** and museum (Metro : Luxembourg or Vavin)

    • This was Hemingway’s favorite place to walk. That’s where he would  often meet Gertrude Stein (The American writer, poetess and feminist) who was walking her dog there.
    • He also enjoyed admiring the impressionist paintings in the Luxembourg museum.  In “A moveable feast” he wrote : “I was learning something from the paintings of Cezanne that made writing simple true sentences far from enough to make the stories have the dimensions that I was trying to put in them. I was learning very much from him…”

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Hemingway in the Latin quarter :

This neighborhood inspired ‘s greatest early works.

  • 1922-1923 : Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Hadley rented a very modest 2 rooms flat on the 3rd floor at 74, rue Cardinal Lemoine (Paris 5 – Metro Cardinal Lemoine). Hemingway described this place in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”.
  • Then he rented a studio, (39, rue Descartes – Paris 5 – Metro Cardinal Lemoine) in the attic in a four-story house. There was a small restaurant Chez Verlaine, on the ground floor.

About that time, Hemingway wrote : “I was always hungry with the walking and the cold and the working”.

  • Café des Amateurs (today “Café Delmas”, 2 place de la Contrescarpe – Paris 5 – Metro Cardinal Lemoine).  Hemingway wasn’t very fond of the place because regularly frequented by drunks from the neighboring houses, but started “A moveable feast” with the description of the Amateurs : “The Cafe des Amateurs was the cesspool of the rue Mouffetard, that wonderful narrow crowded market street which led into the Place Contrescarpe.”

(Nearby, the Rue Mouffetard”, one of the Paris’s oldest and liveliest streets, with a number of cafes, restaurants and a famous open market.)

  • Shakespeare and Company :  Sylvia Beach, the owner, gave him a borrowing card allowing him to take as many books as he wanted. In “A moveable Feast” Hemingway writes : “She had pretty legs and she was kind, cheerful and interested, and loved to make jokes and gossip. No one that I ever knew was nicer to me.”hemingway_bookshop devant Shakespeare

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Other Hemingway’s locations 

Hotel Ritz 15 place Vendôme – Paris 1 – Metro Tuileries : The bar at the Ritz was one of Hemingway’s favorite place. He spent  many evenings there with Scott Fitzgerald. To commemorate its guest, the bar was named after Hemingway.

69 rue Froidevaux – Paris 14 – Metro Gaité or Denfert Rochereau : The second apartment where he lived with his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer.

A-Moveable-Feast-e1354045713964

 

AND…… : Do you REMEMBER HEMINGWAY in “MIDNIGHT IN PARIS”  ?

ernesthemingway

 

 Article about La Closerie des Lilas 

**   Article about the Luxembourg Gardens : coming next

°°°° Article about Le Select coming next

 

Henry Miller in Paris

“When Spring comes to Paris, the humblest mortal alive must feel that he dwells in paradise” Henry Miller.

Miller au Dôme - pariscover

Henry Miller use to live in Paris from 1930 to 1939.

That’s where he wrote his first book “Tropic of Cancer” (then “Tropic of Capricorn), which are based on his experiences in New York and Paris.  Tropic of Cancer was published in Paris in 1934 (but banned from publication in all English-speaking countries).

During the first year in Paris, Miller had little or no money, but was determined to succeed. Then he met Anaïs Nin, who supported him both financially and encouraged his writing aspirations.

Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller

Miller poses in the doorway of the hotel Princess in 1969 50d74d4ef7f4e1c5923f57dbc086be74

They both lived a few years in  the Paris ‘s 14th district, Villa Seurat (n°18), located in Montsouris neighborhood.

This period in Paris was highly creative for Miller and during this time he established a significant and influential network of authors circulating around the Villa Seurat. He was influenced by the French surrealists, and by Georges Orwell.

villa-seurat-18

Villa Seurat – Paris 14

Miller loved his new life : “I have no money, no ressources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive”. He later wrote that his happiest moments in Paris were those in the Villa Seurat.  

Inn 1939, with the coming of the WWII, Henry Miller went back to America and moved to California.

A few other Paris locations where Henry Miller lived :

  • In 1930, 2, rue Auguste Bartholdi, Paris 15;
  • 5, rue Saint Louis en L’ïle (Paris 4),
  • 135, boulevard Montparnasse (Paris 14th)

Henry Miller in Paris

 

  • Villa Seurat – a private cul-de-sac about 100 yards long on the east side of the Tombe Issoire street near n°100 – Metro stop : Denfert Rochereau or Alésia in Montsouris neighborhood

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Your Private Walk with Ann Jeanne in Paris, a native Parisian :

You’d like to feel like a local and having a tour in a Paris neighborhood, but you don’t feel having a tour with a group ?

  • You’d like to discover Paris off the beaten path ?
  • You’d like to see Paris in another perspective and to know more about Paris lifestyle ?

WELCOME !

 CONTACT me for a private walking tour and EXPERIENCE PARIS as a local

  • You only, or you and the person you choose.
  • Duration of the tour : from 2 hours.  It includes a coffee in an authentic cafe 
  • The tour can be customized according to your preferences and interests 

For more details :  The tours  and Booking and Pricing

Don’t hesitate to contact me