The Latin Qarter

In all our travels around Paris, my favorite was in the 5th and 6th arrondissement, the "Latin Quarter".

The boulevards open out like a fan, the architecture is light in color and at a perfect height, so as not to blot out the sky, and the sidewalks are full of lively bistros and cafes. 

Just before heading back to our hotel for the night, we headed to number 12 rue de l'Odeon, as I had to see the area of the original bookshop by Sylvia Beach, "Shakespeare and Company". 

This was where the American expatriate writers congregated, and read the censored books by D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce, and if too poor to buy the books, were allowed to borrow them (as Hemingway often did), if Sylvia liked you.

In 1921 Beach relocated her bookstore here and it was frequented until 1941, when the Nazis ruined everything, and she had to close. When it was in operation it was the center for literary get together's and "modernism" in Paris.

 Artists from the "Lost Generation", personified by

Fitzgerald, Stein, Man Ray, Pound and of course Hemingway were a few of the Americans that spent a huge       amount of their time here.

We actually found the exact building it was in, but of course it is no
more...

We first came to the Latin Quarter late in the day, and my all time favorite hotel "The Best Western" was right here! Mind you, it was designed to fit in with the flavor of the district, and as my daughter and I entered it was "fantastic"! 

The decor was subdued, dark with a lot of wood, and oriental carpets, and as we wandered to the restrooms, we passed through a communal room made into a library with bookshelves to the ceiling, for the patrons to read.

 The armchairs beckoned, but we had to hurry and I confess I soo wanted to stay here, but we were already booked into another place in the 8th arrondisement. Next time, for sure!

We headed out the door, and into narrow very old streets, around a corner and very soon came to the Sorbonne University (it sort of creeps up on you).

This section of Paris is on the Left Bank of the Seine and to this day is the center of student life, with many places to congregate. Everywhere you look are cafes, along sidewalks, and even in the center of boulevards!

The name of the "Latin Quarter" dates back to the tradition of studying and speaking in Latin, which eventually came to an end by the French Revolution.

In this area the cafes were especially popular with the writers and artists of the 20's who would gather at night after working all day, and drink and philosophize together and make new friends.

Hemingway had lived for a time in several addresses here, and after hearing his good friend Gertrude Stein label the artists of this period after the war, as a "Lost Generation", he used it in his first novel "The Sun Also Rises".

He was to characterize the young generation as living "uncivilized, aimless lives", who were reacting against the useless slaughter of the first world war. I actually read a bio on Zelda Fitzgerald, and wonder if she wasn't the first to coin that term?

The reason so many Americans were settling in Paris at this time, was that it cost so very little to live here and they could associate with other artists, and live rather grand lifestyles, and enjoy the free flowing alcohol (as prohibition was in effect back home).

During this time, the greatest number of artists were living around the boulevard Montparnasse, which Hemingway had written about in "A Movable Feast".

With his first wife Hemingway arrived in this section of Paris in 1921 and while writing his novels, made his income from reporting for newspapers.

It was not just artists that loved this area, but also political refugees, who enjoyed the intellectual community like, Lenin and Trotsky. The cafe life led to making new acquaintances and exchanging ideas about breaking with the past, and starting a whole new modern movement in the arts and political world.

Again this I found to be the area to still meet so many new people, from the universities to the cafes, and next time I have already found my favorite hotel to stay at, The Best Western. 

(you can take the woman out of America, but you can't take the American out of the woman)...