Oscar & Friends Life On the Left Bank
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Shakespeare and Co
Rue de l'Odeon once stood the original home of Sylvia Beach's bookstore "Shakespeare and Company" (1919-1941). She is particularly associated with Hemingway who lived 5 minutes away at rue Mouffetard, and especially the publication of James Joyce's "Ulysses". She and her long time companion , Adrienne Monnier, encouraged and helped many American expatriate writers and poets, Ezra Pound, Archibald MacLeish, Thornton Wilder and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
It is now situated on the Quay just east of Place St-Michel. This charming and chaotic bookstore is housed in an old building and run by the charitable octogenarian George Bates Whitman and his daughter Sylvia Beach Whitman, who have made it a meeting place for writers and expatriates.
Pantheon
Constructed by Louis XV in 1744 in gratitude for recovering from gout, this massive temple to the great men of France houses the bodies of Voltaire, Rousseau, Mirabeau, Marat, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, and Jean Moulin (hero of the French Resistance during WWII). At the bottom of rue Sufflot one of the most beautiful gardens in Paris and the imposing Odéon Theatre designed in 1782 where Sarah Bernhardt once trod the boards.
Literary Cafes
On the corner of the square in front of the church of St Germain you will stop at the cafe "Les Deux Magots" and nearby is "Cafe Flore", both of which are literary and artistic shrines associated with many writers and artists such as Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Picasso and American writer James Baldwin.
L'Hotel
In 1900 Oscar Wilde died in a small hotel on the left bank. "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or other of us has got to go," remarked Sebastian Melmoth the name Oscare Wilde had check in to Hotel d'Alsace while hiding from his creditors and those who would pursue him.
The Oscar Wilde suite of the hotel today features a framed copy of his final unpaid bill on the wall - totalling 2643 gold francs, the equivalent of about $25,000 today.
Special:
Evening Elegance
What better way to see Paris than by taking a leisurely gourmet cruise on the Don Juan Yacht passing through the heart of Old Paris. Twenty centuries of history passing before your eyes.
Discover the Left Bank of Oscar Wilde & Friends on a Private Tour
The historic associations in the picturesque 18th and 19th century streets between blvd. St-Germain and the Seine are really amazing. Famous residents include Delacroix, Richard Wagner, Thomas Jefferson when in Paris, Racine, Ingres, Hemingway and wealthy expatriate Natalie Barney who held literary salons for the "beautiful people" at her former residence. In the garden you can see a small Doric temple bearing the inscription "A l'Amitie" - to friendship.
Oscar Wilde lived in a hotel at Quai Voltaire, as did French writer Baudelaire. The area has always attracted the great artists, writers, philosophers, revolutionaries and musicians: Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Robespierre, Danton, Benjamin Franklin, Bonaparte, Victor Hugo, Verlaine, and Musset.
Tour Outline - 2hrs
We'll start our tour at Rue Mouffetard a famous picturesque open market street, which has been here since the 13th century. It leads into Place de la Contrescarpe made famous by Ernest Hemingway in his book "A Moveable Feast" about life in Paris. Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Tokas lived nearby and opened their home to many famous expatriates, writers and artists.
On our tour we will discover why all these great creative people wanted to live on the Rive Gauche and visit some of the places they lived and met. We'll even visit their favorite cafes for a tea or coffee. And of course we'll visit "L'Hotel"-, where Oscar Wilde ended his day, now luxuriously refurbished with "themed rooms".
Available on request in the morning followed by lunch or afternoon followed by a wine tasting.
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