Hanging out with de Beauvoir, Hemingway, and other Dead Literary Figures

Hello again from a grey and rainy Paris! Apparently this is what it will be like for the next few months. I'll probably have to buy some Vitamin D. I've already gotten into the habit of bringing an umbrella wherever I go. Case in point. The other day I went to Berthillon, an amazing gelato place on St. Louis Island in the Seine (the Honey Nougat is delicious, by the way). From my departure point, the Latin Quarter, it was warm and sunny (which was why I decided to get ice cream). But when I exited the Metro 15 minutes letter by Hotel de Ville/Notre Dame, it was cold and drizzling. Ah, Paris. So fickle. A small example of the importance of flexibility in the study abroad process. More to follow.

Anyway, thought I'd do a "quick" recap of the week. 

Monday, September 24th

Since I don't have classes on Monday (score!), I went to go see a French film that came out at Cannes, called "Camille Redouble'' (Camille goes back). Below is the trailer in French, for those who are interested. It's a lot like the American Film "13 Going on 30", but a little more melancholy and without an ending where everything works out nicely, as the French are prone to do. I was proud of myself for seeing something without subtitles though, and even more proud that I could understand almost everything!

Tuesday September 25th and Wednesday September 26th

On Tuesday I visited the Montparnasse Cemetery, and Wednesday (since this week I also didn't have class on Wednesday) I did the walking tour (which I found in my Lonely Planet city guide to Paris). I put all the pictures together though, as a) it's my blog, and b) all the graves I saw were literary figures anyway. Enjoy!

52 rue Jacob

The fashionable residence where Hemingway once stood watching James Joyce and his family dine.

Cafe de Flore

Favorite hangout of post-war intellectuals Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

70bis Notre Dame des Champs

Former residence of poet Ezra Pound

27 rue de Fleurus

Former residence of writer Gertrude Stein, where she entertained other ex-pats and members of the Lost Generation such as Matisse, Picasso, Braque Gauguin and Pound.

Hotel d'Angleterre, 44 rue Jacob

The hotel where Hemingway spent his first night in Paris

La Closerie des Lilas

Hemingway's favorite place to drink.

Les Deux Magots 

Another favorite hangout of de Beauvoir and Sartre. Actually very close to Cafe de Flore.

Montparnasse Cemetery

The grave of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, longtime lovers and companions who are buried together. Their grave is right near the main entrance, and as you can see many fans and admirers leave them notes and flowers each day.

Some interesting graves I saw while meandering through the cemetery. 

Montparnasse Cemetery

The grave of author Marguerite Duras. Coincidentally, I will be taking a literature class on her works starting next Wednesday at the University of Paris III. 

Montparnasse Cemetery

The grave of author Guy de Maupassant (one of my personal favorites). The inscription on his tombstone reads: La vie, voyez-vous, n'est jamais si bon ni si mauvais qu'on croit. (Life, you see, is never as good or as bad as one thinks). 

St. Sulpice

View towards the back of the church. Above the back door is the gigantic organ.This church was on my literary walking tour of the Latin Quarter because it is featured in the Da Vinci Code.... 

St. Sulpice and the square in front of it. 

The front of St. Sulpice

Near St. Sulpice

This is the Parisian equivalent of a public water fountain. I believe they date back to the 19th century. 

12 rue de l'Odéon

The original Shakespeare and Company. This is where bookstore founder Sylvia Beach lent books to Hemingway, and edited, retyped and published Ulysses for James Joyce in 1922. The bookshop was closed   during the Occupation when Beach refused to sell her last copy of Joyce's Finnegan's Wake  to a Nazi officer. There is now another bookshop called Shakespeare and Company near the Place St. Michel, but it is in no way related to the original.

13 rue des Beaux-Arts

Now called L'Hotel but former known as Hotel d'Alsace, this is where Oscar Wilde died of meningitis in 1900. There is a plaque above the door to commemorate this event. 

7 rue des Grands Augustins

This is where Pablo Picasso lived from 1936 to 1955, and where he completed his masterpiece Guernica in 1937. 

56 rue Jacob

This is where Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Hay, and George the III's representative David Hartley met on September 3rd, 1783 to sign the treaty recognizing American Independence. I believe it is now a clothing shop.

Thursday, September 27th

And now back to the present. Just finished dinner, salmon and zucchini, salad and tomatoes from the garden. Discussed the legalization of marijuana, political feuds within families, the U.S. election (again), and stories of people losing their wedding rings (?). Then host father tried to teach me some plumbing (and plumbing vocabulary), as I have gotten the cap to my toothpaste wedged in the sink drain, and every morning at six the pipes start whistling, so he showed me how to shut off the water valve. Now I will attempt to read and retrain some medieval French literature. Bonsoir!