paris by arrondisement

Paris is divided into 20 districts or arrondisements. The hotel Left Bank St.Gemain is located in the 6e, just where the the Left Bank or Rive Gauche (5e) is located. Both districts are south of the Seine River. The a

reas are the familiar haunts of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein - the lost generation of the post World War I years. The Latin Quarter is also home to the Sorbonne and hence, the name Latin from the students who spoke the language.

The Louvre which is directly north across the Seine, is the first or 1er district. Again, going north is the 2e district, the Borse, France's financial market.

Going west from the Louvre across the Tuilleres, one enters the Champs Elysees, the 8e and the premier shopping district of Paris. Here one finds Niketown, Addidas, Louis Vouton, Renault, and other famous names. The Champs-Elysees ends at the Arc de Triomphe.

Crossing back across the Seine from 8e to the south one enters the 7e where the Eiffel Tower is located. The 7e is also home to the Hotel Invalides and Napolean's tomb.

Back north of the river and north of 2e is 9e, the Opera where many of the famous Parisian department stores, including Printemps, are located. The 9e is also home to Pigalle, a less attractive area.

Further north is 18e, the Montmarte, once famous for its Bohemean atmosphere, not as much today. Still, on weekends it is a good place to wander and find an artist who will do your portrait.

Far to the east is the 11e where the Bastille once stood. The area is blue collar chic and graffiti strewn. Artistes walk the street of rue Oberkampf.

hotel left bank st.germain

Will and I arrived in Paris on June 9, 2009, and after a train ride from the Charles DeGaulle Airport, encamped in the Hotel Left Bank St.Germain on Rue Ancienne Commedie, just off Boulevard St.Germain.

As we walk in to the hotel, we overhear two American tourists staying at the hotel tell the clerk that a pickpocket had just lifted the gentleman's wallet. This is not a good start to a vacation.

The room is small by anyone's standards, but this is Paris and one must remember that the buildings were built for people much smaller than modern man. The room measures no more than 10 feet by 14 feet. Within that space are two twin beds, side by side, a cabinet for clothes, a TV (CNN is the American channel), and a bathroom with tub and the traditional Europ[ean shower, a detachable wand. A window opens out on the street below. The lobby is wood paneled, the clerk helpful, and the location convenient to the Left Bank, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Metro (Odeon).

Jack Hemingway

Reading Earnest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast - the story of Hemingway's post World War I years in Paris, France - we learn that Hemingway and his wife Hadley had, at the time, an infant son named Bumby. Bumby was a nickname of course; his real name was John or Jack, as he was called throughout his life. Jack was the father of Margaux and Muriel Hemingway, and himself an interesting individual.

There are at least two great stories of Jack. One was his experience as an OSS officer who was captured by the Germans behind enemy lines near Vosges in September of 1944. You can read of his father's attempts to free him in Hemingway's Final Years, by John Reynolds. I would like to find Jack's own story somewhere, but haven't so far.


The other interesting story is Jack's later year reminesence of life in Paris with his father before the divorce of Hadley and Ernest. You can read this in Hemingway in Sun Valley. We learn from Jack that the years recounted in Hemingway's book were abridged. In a Moveable Feast, Bumby appears as an infant in a crib, but according to Jack's own recollections, he lived in Paris at least until kindergarten. Jack remembers accompanying his father to Shakespeare & Company where Ernest, too poor at the time to purchase books, rented books to read from Sylvia Beach.

"I’d get to go with him to Shakespeare & Company on the rue de l’ Odeon," Jack recalled. "The store had a little semi-attic that was at a level just above the ground floor. There were some children’s books up there that I’d look at while Papa was down below talking to Sylvia Beach or James Joyce. I’d give anything to have had the perspicacity or to have been a child savant to remember everything that went on."

Memories are inexact. That his father remembers Bumby as an infant, while Jack remembers life in Paris from the kindergarten years is not surprising. Jack could not, in any event, remember life as an infant, and Ernest is more likely to remember the first years when his impressions of Paris, and the writers who lived there, were new and fresh. Later, when Hemingway had an affair with Pauline is, after all, the beginning of the end, when the grandeur of the Paris years was to fade.

If you would like to see photos of the years in Paris visit the John F. Kennedy Library.

Parisian Foodies

Will loves to cook. So, a visit to the best open air food markets is a must.

The Marche Buci, rue de Buci, 6e, a traditional French food market, is in the Latin Quarter and close to our hotel. Anytime but Monday.

Next, march over to Christian Constant, 37 rue d'Assas, 6e, for delicious chocolates.

Cheese shops (fromageries) are everywhere. A list of the best in central Paris is at DiscoverFrance. Since it's close by the Latin Quarter where Will and I are staying, check out Androuet sur le Pouce, 134 Rue Mouffetard, 5e (Pantheon, just south of the Latin Quarter) for a cheese bar, where you can have a selection of cheeses, starting at five and a price of eleven euros. If your hungry, have a larger plate. Remember they are closed from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., so plan accordingly.

For upscale gourmet products, visit Fauchon at 26 place de la Madeline, 8e. Then visit Hediard, at 21 place de la Madeline. They are close to the Champs d'Lycee so work it in with a visit to the department stores Au Printemps and Galeries Layfayette. A complete list of food markets can be found at DiscoverFrance.

The old Forum des Halles is not what it used to be, and not worth a visit.

Shopping in Paris

Shopping in Paris is one of the great free activities, that is unless you buy. Flea markets, fashion, books, artists, and more; a great outline of all the shopping you could possibly dream of, and more, can be found in the Frommer's Guide, either the Paris or France edition.

Another great website is Discover France, where you will find individual directories to booksellers (librairies), covered markets (march couvert), outdoor markets (marche en plein-air), and department stores (magasins), or specialty shops, including cheese shops (fromageries), chocolate (chocolatiers), and the famous Paris bakery (boulangeries).

Kaboodle shows Paris by District and Arrondiesment. It also gives some links to activities to do while in Paris.

The best way to figure out where to shop is to go to Frommer's Guide on Shopping. Then check out the map to find which arronidement the shopping is in.

Will and I are staying in the Latin Quarter, 6. On the Rue du Bac behind the wealthy residential area is shopping for the very rich. The Galerie Adrien Maeght with posters starting at 4.6 euros, is at 42 Rue du Bac. The left Bank is also famous for its booksellers. Choices include: Tea and Tattered Pages, 24 rue Mayer; The Village Voice, 6 rue Princesse; and, just over the line in arrondisement 5 is Shakespeare and Company, rue de l'Odeon (home to Sylvia Beach, "mother of the lost generation").

Much of the great shopping is located in and around the Avenue De Champs d'Lycee in arrondisement 8 (8e). Anna Lowe, 104 rue du Faubourg Ste Honore, for women's fashions. Slightly further away in 9e, along Boulevard Haussmann, Pigalle, are the large department stores of Au Printemps and Galeries Layfayette.

Antiques, check out Village St-Paul, 23-27 rue St-Paul in 4e. You are close to the Marche aux Fleurs, place Louis-Lepine on the Ile de la Cite.

The Paris Art Market is at the foot of the Montparnasse Tower in 14e.

The best flea market is Marche aux Puces de Clingancourt, avenue de la Porte de Cligancourt, in a suburb north of 18e. So, make it a day trip with a visit to the famous area of Montmarte where Toulouse Latrec wandered about.

There is so much more, but isn't this good enough for starters?