The Left Bank: An Intellectual History
Paris’ Left Bank is one of the most historic neighborhoods in world history. From the Enlightenment philosophers who helped inspired the French Revolution to Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin and Simone de Beauvoir, this tour is a picturesque overview of modern European thought.
Beginning at the Eglise Saint Germain, where James Baldwin first met Richard Wright and Jean-Paul Sartre, we will continue towards the café where Rousseau and Voltaire extolled the virtues of coffee, just a few steps away from where the guillotine was invented. From there, we will discuss the Enlightenment, the modernists, and existentialism, visiting the original Shakespeare & Company where Hemingway got his start as well as the Luxembourg Gardens and the apartment Hemingway never mentions in A Moveable Feast.
2.5 hour tour + drink break at a café
The Nazi Occupation of Paris
We’ll begin our tour in the heart of the Latin Quarter at Saint Sulpice, where we’ll discuss the origins of Hitler’s Third Reich and the Battle of France. From there, we’ll head to the haunted Hotel Lutetia, where the complex question of resistance and collaboration reveals itself in a prominent placard—and what remains unspoken.
From there, we’ll navigate the narrow streets of the Latin Quarter as we discuss the events that led to the liberation of Paris, which began on Ile de la Cité. Our walk will culminate at the deportation memorial on the tip of the island to discuss the legacy of the French Resistance, the Vichy Government, and the politics of memory.
2.5 hour tour + drink break at a café
James Baldwin & Existentialism
Though James Baldwin spent much of his life in France, few people know about the early years in Paris (1948-1957) which inspired one of the greatest Parisian love stories ever written, Giovanni's Room. From his first year by the river and existentialism’s influence on his writing to his challenge of writing about “race'“ and his famous feud with Richard Wright on the Boulevard Saint Germain, this walking tour is as much a story of James Baldwin’s life in Paris as it is a meditation on the enduring importance of James Baldwin’s philosophy.
2.5 hour tour + drink break at a café
Hemingway & The Lost Generation
Beginning in the narrow streets around Place Monge, where a young Ernest first learned what it meant to write "one true sentence,” our walk will descend through the Luxembourg Gardens and the Latin Quarter before culminating at Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare & Company. During our stroll, we will read and discuss various excerpts to better understand Hemingway's early years in Paris (1921-1928) without forgetting the many people who helped him succeed. From Sherwood Anderson to Gertrude Stein to Hadley Richardson and many others, this walk is as much about Hemingway as it is about the literary community that helped pave the way for one of the most iconic writers in American literature.
2.5 hour tour + drink break at a café
Montmartre & The Modernists
For centuries, the hills above Paris have been a haven for artists and intellectuals, but the history of Montmartre stretches back to Roman times. Just as there are stories of masterworks and artistic movements, on the hill above Paris there are also stories of violence and bloodshed.
Careful to avoid the tourist traps as we stroll through quieter village streets above the City of Light, we will learn about the Franco Prussian War and the Paris Commune, as well as the subsequent arrival of revolutionary artists during the Belle Epoque and the modernist aesthetic. We might just end our tour with a drink in the Pigalle district, where American artists like Sidney Bechet, Ada “Bricktop” Smith, and Josephine Baker revolutionized jazz and entertainment in the 1920s and beyond.
2.5 hour tour + drink break at a café