Basic Background Readings:
Wikipedia -- History of Paris
You Tube -- A Complete History of Paris
Wikipedia -- Louisiana (New France)
General Tourist Tips:
Jay Swanson, Essential French Phrases for Visiting Paris
Wolters World, 12 French Phrases Every Tourist to France Needs to Know
Jay Swanson, Don't Be That Tourist - How to Blend In In Paris
Wolters World, How Tourists Annoy Parisians
Lucile, The 10 Best Foods You Need to Try in Paris (by a Local)!Jay Swanson, Essential French Phrases for Visiting Paris
Miscellaneous:
Some Favorite Places in Paris Related to American Writers, Artists, and Musicians:
Americans in Paris, 1860-1900 [American artists]
Americans in Paris [American 19th c. artists]
Hemingway's Paris: In The Footsteps of History -- Insider Paris
Some of Hemingway's Most Famous Lines from A Moveable Feast, his memoir of his youth in Paris
Writers in Paris in the 1920s - Wikipedia
Writers in Paris - The British Library
A Tour in the Footsteps of Famous African Americans in Paris
Black Visions of France: The Other Expat Writers You Should Be Reading
Sites in The Latin Quarter (and Beyond)
*** After checking out the outside of Hemingway's apartment at 74 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine, near the Pantheon, hang out at one of the cafes on the Place Contrescarpe and take a walk along the Rue Mouffetard, one of the best walking streets in Paris.
*** Shakespeare and Company (not the original site Hemingway visited, but very famous since the 1950s as THE English-language bookstore in Paris); lines to get in are very long these days
*** Luxembourg Gardens (Hemingway, and almost all writers in Paris, spent a lot of time in these gardens, enjoying the peace and quiet) - be sure to check out the Medici Fountain next to the Palace
Some Favorite Restaurants/Cafes/:
Chez Gladines -- 44 Rue St. Germain, 75005 near Place Maubert - for basic, but good, Basque food from Southwest France
L'Invitée -- 8 Rue Thénard, 75005
La Palette - 43 Rue de Seine, 75006 Paris, France - near the Rue de Buci - a good cafe to chill with a glass of wine
Paris Poems:
Willa Cather -- Paris
Sara Teasdale -- Paris in Spring
Ezra Pound -- In a Station of the Metro
Alan Seeger -- Paris
E. E. Cummings -- Paris;This April Sunset Completely Utters
Gertrude Stein -- If I Told Him, A Completed Portrait of Picasso
Jay Swanson - "Essential French Phrases for Visiting Paris" [you tube video]
Wolters World - "12 French Phrases Every Tourist to France Needs to Know"
Jay Swanson - "Don't Be THAT Tourist - How to Blend in In Paris" [you tube video]
Subtle Giveaways That Show You're An American Tourist Abroad -- Eliza Dumais, Thrillist
Les Frenchies - "10 Things to Know About Cultural Differences in Paris" [you tube video]
Les Frenchies - "10 Things to Know About Ordering Food in a French Restaurant" [you tube video]
Les Frenchies - "10 Biggest Tourist Scams in Paris" [you tube video]
Napoleon's Tomb (The Dome at Les Invalides)
Le Palais Garnier (Paris Opera)
Henri Cole, The New Yorker - Paris Diaries
How Fire Hit Notre Dame - A 3D Look at the Tragedy -- ABC News Australia
Subtle Giveaways That Show You're An American Tourist Abroad -- Eliza Dumais, Thrillist
David McCullough on Americans in Paris (You Tube video; an hour long lecture, but very thorough by one of the best American historians)
Jim Morrison - A Poet in Paris (You Tube video)
Lutetia - Wikipedia
Paris in the Middle Ages - Wikipedia
French Revolution - Wikipedia
Paris in the Belle Époque - Wikipedia
Rhapsody in Bleu: A History of Jazz in Paris -- Catherine Nevez, Lonely Planet
Henri Cole, The New Yorker - Paris Diaries
How Fire Hit Notre Dame - A 3D Look at the Tragedy -- ABC News Australia
In the Notre Dame District on The Île de la Cité
Notre Dame Cathedral (under reconstruction)
The Conciergerie (old Medieval castle that housed Marie Antoinette's cell before she was beheaded in the Revolution)
Saint Chapelle (best stained glass room in the world)
Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation (powerful holocaust memorial behind Notre Dame)
On the right bank in and near the 4th - the Marais
a good restaurant just over the Louis-Phillippe bridge from the Isle St. Louis to the 4th is the Cafe Louis-Phillippe
the Rue de Rosiers - part of the old Jewish quarter of the Marais - is a good street to stop for a falafel - one well-known place is L 'As du Fallafel
"The Secret Seat of the Knights Templar" - BBC online
On the right bank, near the Louvre is both the Palais-Royal and a bit further away, Palais Garnier (the Paris Opera) - which I believe is the most beautiful building in Paris.
Right behind the Paris Opera is the Galeries Lafayette. Go into their main building to see the wonderful Art Deco dome ceiling.
If you're walking back from the Paris Opera towards the Louvre, stop in to Harry's New York Bar, which serves food as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. It's straight out of the Jazz Age and hasn't changed much since 1925; it still looks like a college bar from The Great Gatsby
In the 1st, near the border of the 4th
Les Halles shopping center - Postmodern design for an indoor mall
Centre Georges Pompidou (Modern Art Museum)
On the Left Bank (5th arr.) - near to Notre Dame
Shakespeare and Company Bookstore (the best and most important English language bookstore in Paris)
St. Severin and St. Julien Le Pauvre churches (which are within two minutes of Shakespeare and Company)
the streets between Shakespeare and Company and the Place St. Michel (on the border of the 5th and 6th arrondissements) are remnants of what medieval Paris must have been like: crowded, narrow, and busy. Now it's the super-tourist area that's good for inexpensive food - mostly Greek. Along in here is one of the best jazz clubs in Paris: Le Caveau de la Huchette. It's the inspiration for the jazz club scene in La La Land (if you saw that film). It's small, underground in an old "cave" and the jazz is swing. Many people dance; it's really fun. It's best to get there about 25 minutes before it opens so you can get in and get a good seat next to the dance floor. Highly recommended! Only one minute from Shakespeare and Company.
The Pantheon - up the hill from Notre Dame -- (heading south, away from the river) -- walk to the top, if you're feeling like it, for a great view of Paris. The times for the tour to the top are just inside the entrance at the front of the church
St.-Etienne-du-Mont church next to the Pantheon is quite striking
around the corner from The Pantheon and St.-Etienne is the Rue Descartes which turns into the Rue Mouffetard - this walking area - plus the Place Contrescarpe - are a more intimate and calmer area than some other places in Paris. It still retains its neighborhood ambiance. Well worth wandering around these streets.
and just down the street ..........
In the 6th arr:
Luxembourg Gardens and Palace -- and the Medici Fountain (on the east side of the Palace, towards the Pantheon)
an old-fashioned French restaurant from the 1930s -- The Polidor -- is nearby
from these two places I might walk north, toward the river, down to the Boulevard St. Germain and hang out at either Les Deux Maggots or Le Cafe de Flore (two famous cafes) - for coffee or wine -
not far away I might eat at Brasserie Vagenende or the Brasserie Lipp if I'm feeling dressed up, or if a bit more casual, tho still very fine, Boissoniere Fish. Or just hanging out any time of day on Rue de Buci, between rue de Mazzarine and rue de Seine, around the corner from Fish and drinking a glass of wine and watching the world go by on this short but busy pedestrian street. I sometimes eat at L' Atlas on this street. Walking around in this area of St. Germain is a great delight.
strolling down the Rue de Seine, which Fish is on, north towards the Seine, you can find a great many art galleries. In the afternoon I like to end up at La Palette, a cafe where the waiters are a bit distant, but I always enjoy, especially if it's possible to sit outside -- if it's warm enough.
in the 7th arr.:
if you're heading over to the Eiffel Tower at some point, there's a pretty fine restaurant called La Fontaine de Mars, which is between Napoleon's Tomb and the Eiffel Tower, tho closer to the Eiffel. Quite nice and a bit pricy, but a great experience and worth it.
The Rodin Museum is highly recommended, and don't miss spending some time walking through the gardens behind the Museum. There is also a very decent cafe in the gardens.
Les Invalides - right next to the Rodin Museum - houses both Napoleon's Tomb in the Dome Church and the Museum of the Army, which is one of the best military museums in the world
One of the best department stores in Paris - with a superb, very upscale food market inside - is the Bon Marché department store. You can also buy take-away sandwiches here if you want to eat in the small park nearby at the Sevres-Babylone metro stop.
Other links:
Walking tour/lecture: Hemingway’s first “home” in Paris and the neighborhood as it currently exists (the 5th arrondissement, aka The Latin Quarter), the Place Contrescarpe; Rue Mouffetard
the Musée D'Orsay
Statue of Thomas Jefferson
Cross the Seine to the Jardin des Tuileries
Walk around the Place de la Concorde
Walk up the Champs Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe