On Saturday we let ourselves be inspired by Lonely Planets walking tour suggestion in the Latin Quarter, with lots of detours of course. I have always had a biased relationship with guide books. On the one hand I totally love them because I love to dream about other places and on the other hand I loathe them because they remind me of tourism. Just the other day I read an article on souvenir-shopping which argued that there a two ways of shopping for items in another country. One is to buy the obvious tourist crap and the other way is not to. I pride myself with mainly buying items that are “Paris” or “Berlin” or “Barcelona” or whereever to me but don’t scream souvenirs. I don’t want to be a tourist because that’s not the way you really experience anything true or authentic. I guess that’s why I tend to stay longer abroad instead. I am more curious and I am not truly satisfied by the tourist experience. I want to be a traveller, not a tourist.
As you can see I have a biased relationsship to tourism and guide books, however I have improved my relation to the suggested walking trips in some of them and hence we set of to the Latin Quarter inspired by Lonely Planet. What I like about using the guide books this way is that you actually get some useful information on the places you pass by on your walk.
Now I know for example where Hemmingway lived from January 1922 to August 1923 with his wife, where he wrote “Farewell to Arms” and where he hung out. I also know where Sylvia Beach edited and published James Joyce’s Ulysses and later denied selling a copy to a Nazi officer in the original Shakespeare and Co bookstore which was then closed. We missed out on the hotel where Oscar Wilde died of meningitis but we will find that next time. After many hours and half of the walk in the book and a lot of detours we went window licking in Rue Mouffetard (window shopping in French is called leche vitrine and litterally means window licking, cute isn’t it?). Lots of lovely food and clothes shops and nice looking restaurants. Afterwards we went towards Place St. Michel and bought great crêpes on the way and walked home over Ile de la Cité and Ile St. Louis.
In the evening we went walking in the Marais and ate a great Italian Restaurant called Jardin du Marais. Afterwards we went to the Hôtel de Ville and recreated our own version of Robert Doisneau’s famous photograph “The Kiss” and I must say we succeeded pretty well but this blog is only a censured account of life in Paris so I’ll leave it out ;-) Afterwards we walked home along the other bank of the Seine and did some more censured pictures!
As you can see I have a biased relationsship to tourism and guide books, however I have improved my relation to the suggested walking trips in some of them and hence we set of to the Latin Quarter inspired by Lonely Planet. What I like about using the guide books this way is that you actually get some useful information on the places you pass by on your walk.
Now I know for example where Hemmingway lived from January 1922 to August 1923 with his wife, where he wrote “Farewell to Arms” and where he hung out. I also know where Sylvia Beach edited and published James Joyce’s Ulysses and later denied selling a copy to a Nazi officer in the original Shakespeare and Co bookstore which was then closed. We missed out on the hotel where Oscar Wilde died of meningitis but we will find that next time. After many hours and half of the walk in the book and a lot of detours we went window licking in Rue Mouffetard (window shopping in French is called leche vitrine and litterally means window licking, cute isn’t it?). Lots of lovely food and clothes shops and nice looking restaurants. Afterwards we went towards Place St. Michel and bought great crêpes on the way and walked home over Ile de la Cité and Ile St. Louis.
In the evening we went walking in the Marais and ate a great Italian Restaurant called Jardin du Marais. Afterwards we went to the Hôtel de Ville and recreated our own version of Robert Doisneau’s famous photograph “The Kiss” and I must say we succeeded pretty well but this blog is only a censured account of life in Paris so I’ll leave it out ;-) Afterwards we walked home along the other bank of the Seine and did some more censured pictures!
