Hey, I met Hemingway.

Okay, so perhaps I didn't exactly meet Hemingway. But close enough. Instead, we completed our Hemingway Hunt, which involved visiting various destinations in Paris mentioned in Ernest Hemingway's memoir A Moveable Feast. In essence, we were attempting to walk in the footsteps of Hemingway.

Stop #1: First, we visited the site of Cafe des Amateurs, which was once located on modern day Place de la Contrescarpe. Today the square is filled with various shops, cafes, and, of course, a bunch of people. Like many other squares in Paris, one couldn't help but pause to marvel at the wonderful smell of fresh bread or a cooked meal. We were also instructed to take a picture of where we believed the Cafe des Amateur once stood. I photographed the following because I thought it looked rather old. It also seemed to go along with Hemingway's description of being located in the cesspool of Rue Mouffetard.

Stop #2: Next to the place where Hemingway once lived: 74 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine.

Stop #3: Right around the corner from Hemingway's old apartment was the former hotel where Hemingway once rented a rooftop room to write. We were asked to photograph the window we thought that perhaps housed Hemingway, but I sadly failed to pick a rooftop one. But it's fine.

The Walk A: The walk to our next stop included beautiful sites mentioned in Hemingway's book such as the Lycee Henri Quatre, the church of Sainte-Etienne-du-Mont, the Place du Pantheon, the Boulevard St. Michel, the Boulevard St. Germain, and the Place St. Michel.

Stop #4: Our next stop involved the book stalls, also known as bouquinistes, located along the Seine. Hemingway mentioned some American books that he had purchased cheaply from the book stalls that ran along the river.

Stop #5: After the book stalls, we visited a book shop, otherwise known as Shakespeare & Company. While Lexington, Ky. features a restaurant by the same name, Paris's Shakespeare & Company hosts shelves and shelves of books (many in English), as well as Tumbleweeds, who are people who stay above the shop and who must read a book a day, work for two hours a day, and must be writing their own works. While this bookstore was established back in the 1960's, we also visited the original owned by Hemingway's friend Sylvia Beach to get the full effect.

The site of the original Shakespeare & Company. 

Stop #6: This next stop is in fact many stops. The site where Hemingway's friends Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas used to live. The path that led from the Place de l'Observatoire to the the Musee du Luxembourg to the Rue de Vaugirard to Rue Ferou to Place St. Sulpice to St. Sulpice's square and chapel and fountain. It was all a truly beautiful walk.

The residence of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

Musee du Luxembourg.

Place de l'Observatoire.

Place St. Sulpice's fountain with four statues of bishops.

Place St. Sulpice's church.

Stop #7: Brasserie Lipp. According to Hemingway in his memoir, he ordered a big glass of beer, potato salad, and sausage with a special mustard sauce while eating here. He of course had bread with his meal, as we have had multiple times during our stay here.

Stops #8 and 9: Cafe de Flore and Deux Magots: two cafes that Hemingway frequented to eat and to write.

Stop #10: Michaud's, one of Hemingway's favorite restaurants. Although this restaurant is now known as Les Comptoir des Saints Peres, it still maintains its charm. The writer once visited the old restaurant with his wife, Hadley, according to the book.

Stop #11: Next we moved along to the Hotel d'Angleterre, where Hemingway and his wife stayed when they first arrived in Paris. We also stepped inside to take a look at the courtyard, which was quite beautiful.

Stop #12: 22 Rue Jacob, where Natalie Barney, a woman who held "salons" for writers and artists, once lived.

Conclusion: While I didn't much understand this book before visiting Paris, I look back through it now and see the Paris that I have seen over the past few weeks come to life. The streets. The cafes. The river. It's a vivid picture. The entire book reminisces on Hemingway's line in the first chapter, "You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil." All of these streets and people, they are memories that are now ours to keep and share. As we walk down the street near our dorm, that is our street, that is our little bit of Paris that we hope to one day share with our friends and our family. And the pen and pencil, any means of documenting our own piece of Paris, those means own us.

Besides utter nostalgia, one can't help but find a little humor in the book. Such as Hemingway's trip to Lyons with F. Scott Fitzgerald. By using humor, Hemingway portrays a deeper friendship and also makes up for whatever faults he happens to be portraying in others throughout A Moveable Feast.

What does A Moveable Feast mean, anyway? I think this goes back to the quote I mentioned above. Paris itself, life itself, is a moveable feast, constantly taking in new ideas and new memories.  That's the perfect description of what we have experienced thus far on our trip. A moveable feast.