Hemingway's memoir of his Paris years in the 1920s, when he was young, poor and learning to write: cafés and rented rooms, Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach, Ezra Pound and Scott Fitzgerald, and Left Bank streets that look much the same today.
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The book is two walks on the Left Bank. The first is the Latin Quarter of 1922: Place de la Contrescarpe, his first flat at 74 rue du Cardinal Lemoine and the room where he wrote at 39 rue Descartes, a two-minute walk apart.
The second goes from the Luxembourg gardens to Montparnasse: the salon of the writer Gertrude Stein, his flat over a sawmill and La Closerie des Lilas, the café he used as an office.
Most of these buildings are private homes: look from the street. On screen, Midnight in Paris brings Hemingway back to life, and Emily in Paris lives just around the corner from rue Descartes.
15 places from the book.
The book opens in this small square at the top of rue Mouffetard on a cold, wet day, with the crowded, smoky Café des Amateurs that Hemingway kept away from before walking off to a better café to write. The café stood on the corner at number 2; the square, its fountain and its plane trees are still the heart of the quarter.
Access · Public square; the corner café is open daily
Ernest and Hadley's first Paris home, from January 1922 to August 1923: a two-room flat up a steep staircase, with no hot water and a toilet on the landing. Much of the early book starts and ends here, with walks down to the river and back up the hill. A plaque marks the building.
Access · Private residence, exterior only. People live here: keep your voice down and don't ring the bells.
Needing somewhere to work away from the flat, Hemingway rented a room on the top floor of this building, the old hotel where the poet Paul Verlaine had died in 1896. He climbed up each morning to write, and the short, exact sentences he talks about in the book were worked out here.
Access · Private building, exterior only. People live here: keep your voice down and don't ring the bells.
On days without money for lunch, Hemingway crosses the Luxembourg gardens, where nothing reminds him of food, and goes into the Musée du Luxembourg to look at the Cézannes, which he feels he understands better when hungry. The paintings he studied are now at the Musée d'Orsay; the museum hosts exhibitions and the garden walks are unchanged.
Access · Gardens open daily, dawn to dusk; museum ticketed
Gertrude Stein's studio apartment, hung with Cézanne, Picasso and Matisse, where she and Alice B. Toklas welcomed the young Hemingway with tea and fruit brandies and gave him advice on writing and on buying paintings. The studio is in the courtyard, out of sight; a plaque on the street front remembers Stein.
Access · Private residence, exterior only. People live here: keep your voice down and don't ring the bells.
Sylvia Beach's original Shakespeare and Company, the bookshop and lending library that published Joyce's Ulysses. With no money for books, Hemingway borrowed them here, and Beach told him to take as many as he liked. The shop closed in 1941 and a plaque marks the façade; the Shakespeare and Company by the Seine is a later shop.
Access · Private building, exterior only. People live here: keep your voice down and don't ring the bells.
Walking down to the river, Hemingway browses the bouquinistes' green bookstalls along the quays, sometimes finding English and American books for very little. The stalls still open on the parapet most days, with Notre-Dame upstream.
Access · Public; most stalls open from late morning to dusk, weather permitting
At the downstream tip of the Île de la Cité, below the Pont Neuf, the little park where Hemingway liked to watch the fishermen on the Seine. The chestnut trees and the stone point over the water are still there.
Access · Public garden; the lower level can close when the river is high
The expensive restaurant on this corner where Ernest and Hadley celebrate a win at the races, and where they see James Joyce dining with his family. The corner is still a café-restaurant.
Access · Café-restaurant; check opening hours
After a morning's work and a hungry walk, Hemingway treats himself here to a cold beer, potatoes in oil and a sausage, one of the best-known meals in the book. The brasserie, with its mosaics and waiters in long aprons, has changed very little.
Access · Brasserie open daily; busy at lunch
Ezra Pound's studio, on the same street where the Hemingways later lived. Generous with his time, Pound pushed Hemingway to cut his adjectives, and Hemingway in turn gave him boxing lessons. The studio is in a courtyard, out of sight from the street.
Access · Private, exterior only. People live here: keep your voice down and don't ring the bells.
After their son was born, the Hemingways moved to a flat over a sawmill in the courtyard here (1924–1926), close to the Luxembourg and the Closerie des Lilas. The sawmill is long gone and the courtyard is private.
Access · Private, exterior only. People live here: keep your voice down and don't ring the bells.
The café Hemingway made his office once he lived in Montparnasse: he wrote here in the mornings and met friends at the bar. Small brass plates on the bar mark where writers sat, his among them, and the statue of Marshal Ney stands outside.
Access · Bar and restaurant open daily
Stopping for a drink at the Dôme one evening, Hemingway finds the painter Jules Pascin with two of his models, in one of the book's most vivid scenes. The Dôme, at the Vavin crossroads, is now a seafood restaurant.
Access · Restaurant open daily
The American bar where Hemingway first met F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, the start of the friendship he portrays in the book's closing chapters. The Dingo is gone; the address is now a restaurant.
Access · Now a restaurant: see it from outside, or book a table
No.
A Moveable Feast is Hemingway's memoir of his Paris years in the 1920s, published in 1964.
Every place on this trip comes from the book.
No.
74 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 27 Rue de Fleurus and the other homes are private.
People live there: keep your voice down and don't ring the bells.
They are now at the Musée d'Orsay.
The Musée du Luxembourg hosts exhibitions, and the garden walk is the same.
No.
Sylvia Beach's shop was at 12 Rue de l'Odéon and closed in 1941; a plaque marks it.
The shop by the Seine is a later one.
Tap a number to see the place and get directions in Maps.
Walk ~5 min
Walk ~7 min
Chapter “People of the Seine”
Walk ~6 min
Hemingway's Paris on foot: from the Contrescarpe to the Closerie des Lilas
The book's young years in one walk: the first flat, the writing room, the hungry walk through the Luxembourg, Gertrude Stein and the café that became his office.
Stop for a drink at the Closerie's bar and look for the brass plate with his name.
On a phone, Google Maps opens at most 5 places at a time.
Nearest metro: Place Monge (L7)
Chapter “A Good Café on the Place St.-Michel”, the opening
Walk ~5 min
Walk ~5 min
The early chapters: the rented room where he wrote
Walk ~18 min
Chapter “Hunger Was Good Discipline”
Walk ~5 min
Walk ~6 min
Walk ~11 min
The Montparnasse chapters: home over the sawmill
Walk ~5 min
Chapter “Evan Shipman at the Lilas”
Walk ~8 min
Walk ~9 min
Walk ~5 min
Chapter “A False Spring”
Walk ~5 min
Chapter “Hunger Was Good Discipline”
Walk ~19 min
In 'People of the Seine' Hemingway walks the quays with Notre-Dame and the Île de la Cité opposite.
Walk ~5 min
Estimated return 17:30 · add yours in Trip preferences
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Restaurants and activities near the story's places.
A Moveable Feast: a tour linked to the story
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Hemingway's beer-and-potato-salad stop in A Moveable Feast; a brasserie since 1880
French brasserie€€
151 Boulevard Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris
Hemingway wrote here; in A Moveable Feast he meets the poet Evan Shipman at the Lilas
classic French€€€
171 Boulevard du Montparnasse, 75006 Paris
Seafood brasserie where Hemingway sits with the painter Pascin in A Moveable Feast
seafood€€€
108 Boulevard du Montparnasse, 75014 Paris
Production · film commissions · tourist boards · guides
We always say if it is:
Production · film commissions · tourist boards · guides
We always say if it is:
