Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

Rodney Ram’s Literary Tour of Paris!

As we all know, Rodney Ram is a very artistic sheep who loves writing rustic airs, especially when he’s wearing those dainty flowers. So, being on holiday in Paris with my family as I – and my toy sheep – have been this Easter, what could be more natural than to take my sheep on a literary tour on the Left Bank in Paris?

Paris between the wars (@ 1919 to 1939) saw the flowering of many great artists and writers (especially American writers), who congregated there to live in small, damp rooms where they wrote their stories, and to spend their evenings in warm cafes and bars where they met all manner of European writers, artists and musicians, as well as each other, of course! It was here that Sylvia Beach founded Shakespeare and Company, the first English language bookshop and lending library in Paris, which became a home away from home for her American writer friends. So Rodney Ram and I, and my very forbearing husband and girls, set out yesterday to track down some of their haunts. This is where we went!

(1) ERNEST HEMINGWAY – No. 74, Rue du Cardinal Lemoine – where the great American writer wrote his first famous novels. We found the address, and rang on the door, but nobody opened. So then Rodney decided to wait on the door handle, then on the window sill. We even looked way up to the 3rd floor to see if Hemingway was in…but no one was home 😦 …so we moved on!

(2) JAMES JOYCE – No. 71 Rue de Cardinal Lemoine – the great Irish writer was a close neighbour of the Hemingways for three months whilst finishing his masterpiece Ulysses, before he became rich and lived in more fancy neighbourhoods! We rang the bell…and waited and waited…but nobody came so we moved on again!

(3) GERTRUDE STEIN – No. 27 Rue de Fleurus – another great American writer, who lived in Paris between the wars and there wrote her books and held wonderful literary salons for the writers and artists of the time. How I wish I could have been there (Rodney thinks the same thing :)! ) We rang the bell, and waited – but she must have been out! So we moved on…

(4) WILLIAM FAULKNER – No. 26 Rue Servandoni – William Faulkner was another giant of American literature, who lived briefly in Paris in 1925 and often saw James Joyce sitting in cafes near the Jardin du Luxembourg, but never mustered up the courage to speak to him! Here my shaggy sheep and I pay tribute to the author of “The Sound and the Fury” and other wonderful stories.

But alas, not even Faulkner was home…so after an hour spent sitting under the blossom trees in Jardin du Luxembourg, we high-tailed it down to the Eiffel Tower, before sailing down the Seine for dinner on a Bateau Mouche! Farewell, beautiful Paris in the Springtime! Au revoir and a bientot!