A Literary/Historical Walk through Saint Germain des Près

This walk will take about 2 hours-but with lèche­vitrine and apéritif, count 2 ½-say 10 a.m. to 12:30 and lunch. It's a personal odyssey, so you'll probably add and subtract your own favorite landmarks as you go. Bon courage!
From the corner of Boulevard St. Michel and Boulevard Saint Germain, walking west, turn right up rue Hautefeuille, then left on rue des Poitevins to the rue Danton-just on the left

1. 5, rue Danton is Isadora Duncan's home (she's buried in Père Lachaise) cross the rue Danton and turning right go up to the Place St. André des Arts and turn left into the rue St. André des Arts where you will see on the right at 26 the boulanger/patissier Les Arts Gourmands, just next door to

2. 28, rue St. André des Arts where Jack Kerouac lived stop and have a breakfast bread or cake with a coffee at Les Arts Gourmands, and perhaps pick up a small bottle of water across the street for rehydration during your walk-then go on along to

3. 46, rue St André des Arts where e. e. cummings lived. Continue and turn right into

4. 7, rue des Grands Augustins where the plaque informs you that here Picasso painted «Guernica» and Balzac set Le Chef d'Oeuvre Inconnu. Retrace your steps and turn right into

5. 5, rue Christine where Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas lived (Gertrude is buried in Père Lachaise but her family kept Alice from joining her). At the end of the rue Christine you meet the rue Dauphine and you may want to cross it and step into the Passage Dauphine and its Garden of Sculptures-exiting where you came in, turn right into the rue Dauphine and walk up to the

6. Carrefour Buci and its market-formerly royal tennis courts. Dog-leg left back up St. André des Arts and quick right into the courtyard­like entrance to

7. cour du Commerce St. André where Dr. Guillotin lived at #9­­now a bar announces a «cocktail Guillotine». At the backside of the Café Procope you can turn left through the gate to explore the Cour de Rohan (15th century set of three cloistered courtyards of the hotel of the archbishops of Rouen; note the «mounting block» for the ladies in the middle courtyard ; Diane de Poitiers, mistress to Henri II lived here, too). Return to the backside of the Café Procope and continue along the cour du Commerce St. André to the small connecting street on the right, turn right, then right into

8. rue de l'Ancien Comédie where you'll see the Café Procope on the right- the oldest cafe in Paris-after a good look, back to blvd. St. Germain, glance at an angle to the left across the boulevard where, at 14, rue Monsieur le Prince, Richard Wright lived for 14 years in the ornate brick and stone building now empty with its windows broken. There is a plaque for Wright in addition to the older one for Saint­Saëns Now turn right on the Boulevard St. Germain, go a block and turn right into the next street

9. rue Grégoire de Tours and see on the right the discount clothing store Mouton à Cinq Pattes-super bargains. Continue up rue de Grégoire de Tours to Buci, turn left and walk a block through the markets, dog-leg left on rue de Buci and right into

10. rue Bourbon le Chateau (the shortest street in Paris?) where Chester Himes lived in a lovely seventh­floor walk­up-he wrote A Rage in Harlem, which was made into a movie, and If He Hollers Let Him Go; Malcolm X visited Himes here. Continue, cross the rue l'Echaude and turn right into the rue Cardinale, follow it around to

11. Place Furstenburg on the left, with Delacroix' studio at #6. End of movie The Age of Innocence filmed here; Henry Miller wrote des belles pages about the square. facing Delacroix' studio, look left to the 16th-century Palais Abbatial built by Cardinal Charles de Bourbon at 1-5 rue de l'Abbaye, then continue right up to the rue Jacob and turn left to see

12. 7, rue Jacob where Racine lived and 20, rue Jacob-Natalie Clifford Barney's home and salon. #28 was Colette's home. Continue to the end of the street where you'll see Le Pré aux Clercs brasserie on the corner, Hemingway's first cafe in Paris. Turn right on the rue Bonaparte and right into

13. rue Visconti where you'll see Balzac's printing shop at #17 (look up to read the plaque). left on the rue de Seine where George Sand lived at #31; look right to see the Café Palette where the black surrealist poet Ted Joans met Man Ray and where black writers gathered. Turn left and walk a block past the rue des Beaux Arts til you see the park where the rue Mazarine ends and on the left (still on the rue de Seine!) is a wonderful old photograph shop. Retrace your steps and turn right into the rue des Beaux Arts where you will find

14. 13, rue des Beaux Arts-I'Hôtel where Oscar Wilde died here in 1900 (buried in Père Lachaise; last words "I am dying beyond my means"; you can sleep in the bed) and, reading the plaques, you learn that Jose Luis Borges stayed here, too. The ground floor bar is well worth a visit. L'Hôtel was 18th century Pavilion d'Amour, partly designed by Louis XVI's court architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and renovated into Directory style in the 19th century and called the Hôtel d'Allemagne and Hôtel d'Alsace. In 1968 it was renovated and renamed. At the end of the rue des Beaux Arts you see the Ecole des Beaux Arts-turn left into the rue Bonaparte and see

15. #15 rue Bonaparte where Ralph Waldo Emerson spent the month of May 1848. Continue up to Hemingway's first cafe, Le Pré aux Clercs and turn right into the rue Jacob where you will find

16. #44, Hotel Angleterre where Washington Irving, Sherwood Anderson, Djuna Barnes and Hemingway, among others, stayed. (When you pass rue St. Benoît on the left look down-Marguerite Duras lives here). #52 where Benjamin Franklin lived and #56 where the plaque informs you America's treaty with England was signed by all sorts of famous people. At the end of rue Jacob see, on the right

17. Michaud-now Brassérie l'Escorailles-where James Joyce, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Anderson, etc. ate nightly. If you want to shop for «little black books» in which to keep your «Beaux» or «All I Know about Women» or for Filofax goodies, turn right and go down to the rue Pérronet and the Le Jour et l'Heure. Head back up the rue Saints Pères, check out Sabbia Rosa, luxury lovely lingerie at 71-73, then turn left into

18. 9, rue de l'Université where James Joyce and T. S. Eliot lived at the Hôtel Lénox. Continue and you'll pass ENA on your left and come to the rue Sebastian Bottin (and Gallimard) which you can follow around to see the now-closed Hotel Pont Royal where Jason Bourne stayed in The Bourne Ultimatum. For a great cup of tea, go left along the rue du Bac, cross the Boulevard St. Germain and a quick right into 3, rue Paul-Louis Courrier and the Concertea. You can take the rue du Bac back up towards the Seine and turn right into

19. rue Verneuil where James Baldwin lived; turn left into rue Allent and right into

20. 9, rue de Lille where Richard Wright lived. Continue on to rue des Saints Pères, turn right and return to rue Jacob, turn left and, passing Marguerite Duras' street (St. Benoît) again, turn right at Hemingway's first cafe, the Pré aux Clercs, into rue Bonaparte and

21. 36, rue Bonaparte, the Hotel St. Germain where Janet Flanner, Margaret Anderson, Jean Cocteau, Henry Miller, etc., etc., stayed. Coming to the square you meet

22. Picasso's statue of Apollinaire at the tip of the park. To the left was the great black cabaret, Club de l'Abbaye (run by singer­poet Gordon Heath) and ahead

23. Eglise Saint Germain des Près; oldest church in Paris. Boileau and Descartes are buried here. On the right

24. Cafe Deux Magots (since 1885) --look inside to see the «deux magots»-and Cafe Flore on the right where you can rest your feet and enjoy an apéritif, after which you cross the boulevard, turn right and walk past the famous Brasserie Lipp a block past the rue du Dragon to 173 blvd. St. Germain where Djuna Barnes lived-retrace your steps to rue du Dragon; turn right

25. 30, rue du Dragon where Victor Hugo (now in Père Lachaise) lived-read the plaque and look up at the unusual extension over the top­floor room; note the 17th and 18th century buildings along the street as you continue on to

26. Place Croix Rouge and César's statue of the Centaur (can you find the fly? --thanx Connie Warren!). Continue east around the square and right into

27. rue du four where Anaïs Nin's parents lived on their arrival in Paris before moving to Neuilly where she was born in 1903. Continue along the rue du Four, cross the rue de Rennes and the rue Bonaparte and finally turn right into

28. rue Princesse and the Village Voice bookshop of American books and magazines on the right (books on Paris just inside the door). Back out the door, turn right to rue Guisarde then left-if one of the many restaurants tempts you, go ahead, but it's recommended to turn left into

29. rue Mabillon and the Da Pietro pizza restaurant or the traditional French Aux Charpentiers with its patronne and her charmingly sharp opinions or, more expensive, the stone­cobbled La Petite Cour down the steps. If you're ready for afternoon tea, the Salon de Thé you passed is the ticket; or if you've overshot lunchtime, try a «moules­frites» at Léon's on the Place Acadie at the end of the rue Mabillon right by the metro.

Bon appetit--hope you enjoyed the WALK!

Thanks for the information for this walk to Bill Cloonan, Noel Fitch (Hemingway in Paris), Michel Fabre (Black American Writers in France) and Morton (Americans in Paris).

© Kay Vreeland August 1994 August 1995 August 1996

go back to the door

go back Home