Off to Paris

[Peter Krynicki]

I'm leaving on 4/10 at 6:15 on the over-nighter to Paris. There is a terminal in the lobby of the Hotel Millesime so I'll check in once inna while to see how things are going. The hotel is on the rue Jacob about two blocks from the Seine at the Pont des Arts in one direction, and two blocks from the Blvd St Germain in the other. Right at the Blvd St Germain is les Deux Magots which becomes the base of operations. The next bridge over the Seine after the Pont des Arts is the Pont Neuf which crosses right over to the Ile de la Cite where Notre Dame is. Staying on the Left Bank here is an ideal location.

One or two afternoons we will walk up to Montparnasse and the Place Contrescarpe and have a drink. Just off the Place is the rue Cardinal Lemoine where Hemingway and Hadley lived when they first visited Paris. There is a plaque on the side of the building.

It snowed in Paris yesterday. 8-(

Pjk

[James H. Meredith]

Have a great trip, Peter. Keep us posted. Jim

[Peter Krynicki]

Arrived yesterday at 10:00 a.m. and the weather is cool but sunny. We sat out a short sunshower at the Brasserie D'ile St Louis with a vin chaud which they are serving in hornor of the weather.

And had our traditional first dinner at l'Insulaire on the rue Gregoire de Tours - tarte a la onion, entrecot of beef, white fish, cheese plate for desert, and the house (Italian) red €34.00.

Off to the rue Saxe food market for grilled pistachios and a bottle of red for a picnic.

Pjk

[James H. Meredith]

It sounds as if you are off to a great start in Paris, Peter. I especially like grilled pistachios myself. jhm

[Peter Krynicki]

We met some friends who come over from London and went up to the Place Contrescarpe for dinner, and I swear that we got better service and an additonal carafe of wine because she speaks great French and kids with the waitress.

Pjk

[James H. Meredith]

I have always had good service in Paris, even when I tried to speak my horrible French. I am sure that someone speaking good French will always get good service. I haven't been to that part of France in quite sometime, and I hear the anti-American sentiment is palpable. I am glad that you got a bonus.
Jim

[Peter Krynicki]

The tip of the Ile de la Cite is the Parc Vert Galant where, in A Moveable Feast, Hemingway said that he used to go to talk to the poor fishermen.

[Paul Hammersten]

Thanks for the postcard! It arrived today.

Whenever I think of Paris, I think of Joni Mitchell's song FREE MAN IN PARIS. It is one of my favorites from the ' old days '.

Think I will play it now!

Snow!

Paul

[Peter Krynicki]

For me it is probably George Gershwin's An American in Paris, one of my favorites.

One more full day here and then back to America. We saw an amazing exhibit of Goya's etchings at the Petit Palais. They had, among $other things, a complete series of the Disasters of War and his Touromanquera, both of which Hemingway mentions as influencing his work.

Pjk

[Larry]

A friend of mine emailed me this quote from a Hemingway article written while he was at the Toronto Star. I thought it was amusing and in no way wanted to post it to be insulting. She wrote she thinks it was written in 1923 but isn't sure. She wrote it down sometime ago and recently found it.

"The scum of Greenwich Village, New York, has been skimmed off and deposited in large ladles on that section of Paris adjacent to the Cafe Rotonde. New scum, of course, has risen to take the place of the old, but the oldest scum, the thickest scum and the scummiest scum, has come across the ocean, somehow, and with its afternoon and evening levees has made the Rotonde the leading Latin Quater showcase for tourists in search of atmosphere."

[Peter Krynicki]

This is from someplace in By-line: Ernest Hemingway. I think.

Pjk