Ernest Hemingway
As the plaque shown below notes, Ernest Hemingway lived at 74, rue Cardinal Lemoine:
It says, roughly,
with Hadley, his wife, the American writer
Ernest HEMINGWAY
1899-1961
The
neighborhood, which he loved above all, was the
birthplace of
his work and the straightforward style which characterized it.
This American in Paris kept friendly relations with
his
neighbors, notably the proprietor of the adjoining accordian hall.
... "Such was the Paris of our youth, when we were very poor and very
happy."
Ernest Hemingway (Paris is a feast2)
1This would be the fourth floor to an American
2A moveable feast, that is.
In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway described it like this:
"Home in the rue Cardinal Lemoine was a two-room flat that had no hot water and no inside toilet facilities except an antiseptic container, not uncomfortable to anyone who was used to a Michigan outhouse. With a fine view and a good mattres and springs for a comfortable bed on the floor, and pictures we liked on the walls, it was a cheerful, gay flat."
and later describes a conversation with Ford Madox Ford after he had moved. Ford begins:
"'I stopped by to ask you to the little evenings we're giving in that amusing Bal Musette near the Place Contrescarpe on the rue Cardinal Lemoine.'
"'I lived above it for two years before you came to Paris this last time.'
"'How odd. Are you sure?'
"'Yes,' I said. 'I'm sure.' The man who owned it had a taxi and when I had to get a plane he'd take me out to the field, and we'd stop at the zinc bar of the Bal and drink a glass of white wine in the dark before we'd start for the airfield.'"
Just around the corner (by way of Place Contrescarpe), Hemingway kept a studio at 39, rue Descartes:
While the plaque says that Hemingway lived here, I think this was actually his writing studio. In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway writes
"All of the sadness of the city came suddenly with the first cold rains of winter, and there were no more tops to the high white houses as you walked but only the wet blackness of the street and the closed doors of the small shops, the herb sellers, the stationary and the newspaper shops, the midwife - second class - and the hotel where Verlaine had died, where I had a room on the top floor where I worked."
See also: Sylvia Beach
Hemingway is, of course, known to have haunted the bars and cafes of Paris.
