A LITTLE LIGHT RELIEF?

AMIDST ALL THIS GLOOM AND DOOM, how about some frivolity…

The other week, Uma and I went off to Paris (France) for four days. Of course, we wish it could have been longer but what with the demands of running a business and the exchange rate, four days looked enough for us to get to do all the things we wanted to do.

Paris is a wonderful place to visit, both old and new and full of wonderful history. It was Uma’s first visit it (she wanted to visit The Louvre and to see the Mona Lisa above all else) and the third time for me (twice in 1985) not counting a brief transit on my way to Aix-en-Provence in 2006. We had perfect autumn weather, the sun shining every day and hardly a cloud in the sky. Our hotel, the Holiday Inn pres St. Germain, was in the Left Bank area and just a minute or so from the Metro, served a sumptuous breakfast each day giving us a good start for all the walking ahead (part of a great deal I discovered on the Virtual Tourist website).

Don’t believe those stories you hear about the French being rude or disinterested; it maybe that this perception is more a function one’s own personality. In any event, we found, with perhaps one exception, everyone friendly and helpful. And we got it all done: the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, Notre Dame Cathedral, Musee Carnavalet, and the Eiffel Tower (at night all lit up). We walked a lot, drank coffee and ate patisseries in sidewalk cafes, rode around and around on the Metro, ate at cheap bistros, sunned ourselves in the Luxembourg Gardens, and happily observed the relaxed life of Parisiennes.

One highlight was taking a guided walk around the Mouffetard area, based on the life of Ernest Hemingway in the years he was first in Paris (1921-26).

At left is the location of his apartment, his second after coming to Paris.This is the Latin Quarter (so named because of the concentration of scholars and schools where, in the early days, all spoke Latin). In this area you find rue Mouffetard, a narrow sloping street filled with vendors of all kinds of good, including food and wine.

The sights, sounds, and smells are wonderful. It is filled with tourists many of whom may have been unaware of the connection with Hemingway. On the right, you see some of them, typically eating outside a bistro in this street. No matter, Paris is fascinating from any standpoint.

Our guide was fantastic, animated and knowledgeable.This tour got me all worked up about Hemingway’s life and writing.

So, now I am back, I am reading as much of his work as I can lay my eyes upon. As I read 'A Moveable Feast', I could see the young EH walking the streets from his apartment (the first was just down the road from our hotel and the second was near the most interesting Gothic church, St Etienne du Mont) so he would have walked quite often by the building that was briefly our base , on his way to the Luxembourg Gardens or to Gertrude Stein's apartment nearby.