Move over, Jack Kerouac. Five Books by Women to Inspire Your Next Trip

April 9, 2014 Terri Peterson Smith Leave a comment

The most famous travel books have been written by men: Travels with Charley, On the Road, and Blue Highways, to name a few. But women have been “on the road,” too, and not just Route 66.

I love reading books about women’s adventures. I especially like funny stories, with plenty of travel mistakes, misadventures, mix-ups. And, I appreciate most the stories that weren’t inspired by trauma, bad boyfriends, dead or abusive husbands, or the authors’ search for new love. Eat…pray…you know what I’m talking about. Instead, I go for the stories that were simply rooted in a woman’s daring and love of adventure. Here are a few favorites.

A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, Isabella Bird
The amazing Isabella Bird was an Englishwoman who lived a life of continual travel and was, as a result, the first woman to be elected the the Royal Geographic Society. She came to Colorado in 1873, three years before it became a state. She traveled solo through the wilderness and covered more than eight hundred miles during her journey around Colorado, which she described in letters that she wrote to her younger sister in Scotland. The letters were published in 1879 as A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, part travelogue, part memoir, part character study of the people who settled on the frontier, especially “Mountain Jim,” a handsome trapper and desperado with whom she was fascinated. Bird was also one of the first of a genre that we now call “environmental writers.”

By Motor to the Golden Gate, Emily Post
Emily Post was a travel writer. Who knew? This book is a reprint of articles originally published on Colliers Magazine seven years before she became famous for her book on etiquette. In 1915, Post documented her New York-to-San Francisco road trip investigating whether it was possible to drive comfortably across the country an automobile. That was a valid question since few women of her Gilded Age background did such daring things and because she was driving on the Lincoln Highway, this country’s first transcontinental highway.

The Wilder Life, Wendy McClure
Do you travel to visit places where you can pursue hobbies or a particular interest? Wendy McClure sets the bar high for anyone who travels in pursuit of a particular passion. In her case it’s Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books and her effort to re-create “Laura World” for herself. She investigates the settings and activities that have made several generations of young readers flock to the Little House books and to the sites across the Midwest where they took place. See my article my previous post on this book and my article, Novel Destinations, for my own encounter with Laura World.

The Good Girls Guide to Getting Lost, Rachel Freidman
We’ve read plenty about bad boys on the road; Jack Kerouac is the most famous. That’s why it’s nice to learn that good girls like Rachel Friedman can take risks and open themselves to great new experiences. She goes to Ireland on a whim where she forms a friendship with a free-spirited Australian girl, a born adventurer, who spurs her on to a yearlong odyssey that takes her to Australia and South America, too, and learns to cultivate her love for adventure.

No Touch Monkey, Ayun Halliday
If you’ve ever made grievous errors in judgement while traveling, you’ll relate to Halliday’s experiences, which she doesn’t hesitate to share— from hygiene to intestinal problems to a collagen implant demonstration during Paris fashion week with her mother.I enjoyed her sarcastic writing style, her impressive globe-trotting, and her openness to adventures that wouldn’t even occur to me. She’s a witty observer of the details that most travelers see but forget about. For example, the title comes from a sign she saw in Bali with rules to assure “your enjoymen and safety” including: “Never grab a monkey. If a monkey gets on you, drop all your food and walk a way until it jumps off.”

Uncategorized

Embarrassing Dog Stories: Poo and Poetry

April 3, 2014 Terri Peterson Smith Leave a comment

Dogs. If you love them, you’ll appreciate the stories that follow. If you don’t like dogs or

What? Me digging? I haven't been digging. Spring for dog-lovers. — What? Me digging? I haven’t been digging. Spring for dog-lovers.

are an extremely fastidious person, you should stop reading now and wait for my next post, which will undoubtedly be more literary and appropriate. However, when such great stories come my way, I must share them. I thought this was going to be an April Fool’s story, but it’s true…

The weather is warming up here in Minnesota and a winter’s worth of dog poo is thawing out of the snow right now. Cleaning up that nasty stew of poo is an annual ritual for local dog-owners, and the other day my friend who has two Golden Retrievers raked up three huge bags of dog poop. Because you don’t want such foul things festering in your garage, she put the bags by the garage door waiting for garbage day. The following day (not garbage pick up day) the bags disappeared. She couldn’t figure out what would have happened to them…..

until she saw the receipt from a local charity thanking her for her donation.

Of course, I’ve been repeating this story all over, which has led to other people telling me their embarrassing and slightly gross dog stories. I heard one from a friend in NYC. Her German shepherd died and the only way she could only think of to get it to the vet was in a large roller bag. She was held up on the street and the robbers took the bag! Surely, that’s the definition of karma.

Please, please, send me any great embarrassing dog tales you have. Click below to send your comment. I love to hear (and share) them.

And now, because you may be grossed out, because you came to this blog expecting something literary, and because April is National Poetry Month I’m going to elevate our discourse by sharing a dog poem by one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, from her book Red Bird.

Percy and Books
Percy does not like it when I read a book.
He puts his face over the top of it, and moans.
He rolls his eyes, sometimes he sneezes.
The sun is up, he says, and the wind is down.
The tide is out, and the neighbor’s dogs are playing.
But Percy, I say, Ideas! The elegance of language!
The insights, the funniness, the beautiful stories
that rise and fall and turn into strength, or courage.
Books? says Percy. I ate one once, and it was enough. Let’s go.

Charleston

Plantation Vacation 2: “Gone With the Wind” Meets “12 Years a Slave”

March 28, 2014 Terri Peterson Smith Leave a comment

Charleston is one this country’s oldest cities and also one of the most active cities for historic preservation. That has paid off handsomely in terms of attracting tourists who are drawn to the city’s broad, elegant boulevards and its dizzying array of pastel colors and architectural styles—Colonial, Federal, Georgian, Italianate, Victorian—like bees to honey.

The John Rutledge House Inn on Broad Street features the fabulous iron work that was frequently the art of African Americans. — The John Rutledge House Inn on Broad Street features the fabulous iron work that was frequently produced by enslaved African people.

Yet for years, Charleston’s tale was only half-told. The truth is behind all the beauty, antebellum charm, the Gone With The Wind-type nostalgia for plantation life, and the honor of the boys in gray, lies the story of the people who built it all—enslaved Africans. They manufactured the brick and the ornate metalwork of those beautiful buildings, grew the crops and raised generations of children, too. But, their story was either ignored all together or told as if slavery offered sort of a lucky opportunity to be cared for as part of the plantation family. Historians believe as many as 40 percent of all enslaved Africans who came to North America entered through Charleston, making it the Ellis Island of Africans in the U.S. Consequently, nearly 80 percent of African Americans can potentially trace an ancestor who arrived through Charleston. That’s a huge group of people to ignore.

Yet, just as the winds of change blew through Tara, they’ve also blown through Charleston. They came literally in the form of Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the subsequent restoration of the city. They also blew in with fresh voices who are interpreting the history of the South in a richer and more accurate form. For example, in 1998, author Edward Ball, who descended from a dynasty of Charleston rice planters, broke the taboo against talking about the city’s slave heritage. His book, Slaves in the Family, which won the National Book Award, chronicles the Ball family history as slaveholders and his discovery of his black relatives, who descended from relationships between his plantation-owning forbears and their slaves. With breakthrough movies such as 12 Years a Slave, it’s impossible to maintain a rosy picture of slavery.

Now, in Charleston you can visit the Old Slave Mart museum, which seeks to interpret the history of enslaved Africans who arrived through this port. It’s a small museum but the big new International African American Museum will open in Charleston in 2018. In the meantime, they offer a great educational web site as does the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. For more of the African American perspective, you may also want to tour the city with Gullah Tours.

Drayton Hall plantation stands by the Ashley River, just south of Charleston. It's my favorite area plantation because it has been left "as is." — Drayton Hall plantation stands by the Ashley River, just south of Charleston. It’s my favorite area plantation because it has been left “as is.”

The plantations along the Ashley River Road (see my previous post) south of the city have also broadened way they interpret the plantations’ history to visitors by including the role of enslaved Africans in plantation life in their tours.

No matter where your ancestors came from, it’s a more satisfying trip when you receive an accurate picture of what is our collective history.

Charleston

Plantation Vacation

March 22, 2014 Terri Peterson Smith 1 Comment

Drayton Hall plantation stands by the Ashley River, just south of Charleston.

Irene Levine, among many other things, writes a wonderful blog, More Time to Travel: Advice on Travel After 50. Her recent post is a collaborative effort with several other travel bloggers, including me, on the topic of plantations. As you’ll see, “plantation” doesn’t necessarily mean the kind in Gone With the Wind. Still, while I’m on the topic, here is a link to my previous post about Charleston, which is the starting point for a journey down Ashley River Road south of the city. There you’ll find three fascinating plantations–Drayton Hall, Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, and Middleton Place. And now is a great time to visit. More in my next post.

Ideas for Book Clubs

How to Build a Better Book Club

March 17, 2014 Terri Peterson Smith 1 Comment

Sheila DeChantal is a fellow book fanatic who lives in Brainerd, Minnesota. She reviews books and frequently shares the antics of her book club on her blog, Book Journey. It always looks like they’re having so much fun, I asked Sheila to share of a few of their activities, ideas for what makes a successful book club, and how to connect with books beyond the typical book club meeting.

Tell me a bit about your book club. Our book club, “The Bookies,” started in August of 2001. I had worked with the same group of people for over 10 years and I thought it was sad that we hardly knew each other. (Granted there were 300+ people working there and I did not want to know them all… ha ha!) I put up a sign one day in July on the time clock with a book title – Dance Upon The Air by Nora Roberts, and invited people to join me at a local restaurant in four weeks to discuss this book. Nobody said a word to me about it… I very well thought I would be at the restaurant alone but the day came, and two of my co-workers showed up and we discussed the book. The next month, three came… and by the end of the year we had eight, currently we have 17 members.

When we first started the Bookies we had a few choice authors that we recycled through the group until finally we began to branch out… new authors… new genres…. Now we read all over the board, mostly fiction, but occasionally non-fiction and every October we read a classic.

What ways does your group get involved with books beyond the typical books- and-wine discussion? As the group became bigger I learned that the old ways no longer worked for us. We were no longer at the size where casual book conversation at a restaurant table was going to work. For one thing, it was harder to get everyone on topic. Also, in restaurants it became difficult to hear one another and I feared that our laughter or discussion might interfere with the other patrons’ experience. We started meeting more at homes and only go to a restaurant occasionally.

It also became important to go beyond just the standard book discussion so we started cooking food that goes with the book. At first we all brought something but, as you can imagine, it was way too much food. Now we assign two people to main dishes, two people to sides, and one to dessert. If we can make something that refers to the book, all the better.

Talk about getting into the spirit of a book! The Bookies demonstrate their fashion sense and as well as their sense of humor by occasionally dressing up in era-appropriate clothing for their book club gathering. In this case, it was in conjunction with their classic read *Giants in the Earth* (a prairie saga by Ole Rolvaag) and they met at an 1800s cabin owned by one of the members.

And, we dress up whenever we can. The first time I mentioned dressing up I remember driving through town in a yellow taffeta prom dress afraid of being pulled over. I was sure I would be the only one dressed up but when I arrived I was thrilled to see that most of us participated. Last winter we read Garlic and Sapphires , about a food critic who dressed up differently to see how she was treated. We also dress up frequently for the classic. When we reviewed Cleopatra, the Bookies were surprised to see their host dressed up as… well, Cleopatra. Every July we have a Queen event where we dress up in formal wear, eat and compete for the royal throne (which is a toilet spray-painted gold and bedazzled). You can find pictures for most of our crazy book club stuff on my blog under For Book Clubs Only.

We have had a few authors skype in and we have gone to movies together for books we have read. Due to our busy schedules it is hard to get us all together to do anything that takes more than a few hours, although we try.

Is there an example of one trip or outing that you’ve done related to a book that you most enjoyed? I am going to have to go with the “Wine and Words” event [a dinner and author event that raises funds for the Brainerd Public Library]. The Bookies filled two tables and had quite a presence at the event. It was fun for us to dress up for real and not because we were imitating a book or era, although while I type this I think that could be interesting! It was fun to meet the authors.

Why do these extras? The extras have bonded us together as a group. As the group became bigger I knew I had to do something to bring it above and beyond your average book club to hold their interest. Amazingly, it worked and it was not a one person thing; they all got into it! We have had some very emotional reviews and by doing this, it does bring us deeper into the book. Often I hear from people or receive comments on my blog that they are envious of our group and wish they could find such a group of book lovers. As much as I love my group to my toes and think they are so AWESOME for what we do together – I think other groups could do this too. Do not be afraid to add the little extras. It may take a while to catch on but it is the extras that get people talking about the books outside of the group. Start something new and I hope it catches like wild fire.

Any tips or examples for organizing book-related activities? Just go for it! My advice is think outside the box and pull in the extras that make the books come alive. If you can go somewhere as a group, even if it is a movie to expand the book, do it! If you can actually visit a place mentioned in a book, don’t miss out! Last year we read a book centered around the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, MN. We are trying to find a time when we can all go tour it as a group. One of the girls in our group is taking a trip to Italy this fall with her husband because of what she read in an Adrianna Trigiani book. The books make us want to fully experience the settings.

Anything else you want to add? Our group now has a wait list. Last year we decided we were just getting too big so we capped it. I hate doing that. I wish we could accommodate all book lovers! There are other book clubs in town, in fact there are many! I think the difference is the extras. Our group has so much fun together that others want in on that fun.

My advice? Dig into those books. Be The Book.

Massachusetts

It’s Summer in My Mind: Dreaming of Cape Ann, Massachusetts

March 6, 2014 Terri Peterson Smith 9 Comments

Sea breezes wafting over my bare skin, the smell of salt air, warm sun, gentle waves lapping on the shore….

In complete contrast to my last post on the Lake Superior ice caves, I’m presently traveling to a warm weather spot, at least in my mind. I’m pondering plans for summer travel and looking fondly at my pix from last summer on Cape Ann, north of Boston, Mass.

Known as "Motif #1" to artists, this building is a Rockport icon. — Known as “Motif #1” to artists, this building is a Rockport icon.

Minnesota is beautiful in summer, but there’s just something captivating about New England that time of year and Cape Ann, known as Massachusetts’s “other cape” is a great place to experience it– in Gloucester, which is still a fishing town, and just to the north, the village of Rockport which has, for the most part, shifted from fishing to tourism. Rockport is so darned adorable that on visits there my husband requires a periodic dose of ESPN to counteract the charm overload.

Everything in this part of the country is really old, like 1600s old, hence the charm, and the ocean has been the focus of life here for hundreds of years. So before you go, you’ll want to break out a couple of classics of seafaring literature to enhance your appreciation of the area’s maritime traditon. They include Rudyard Kipling’s Captains Courageous, a story of cod fishermen who work between Gloucester and Newfoundland; Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm about the ill-fated Gloucester fishermen of the Andrea Gail; and Mark Kurlansky’s The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America’s Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town. For more area literature, see my post about nearby Dogtown.

But put down your book. There’s plenty to do on the water such as kayaking, stand-up paddling, and whale watching. And, if you’re a seafood lover, stroll down Bearskin Neck in Rockport to Roy Moore’s lobster shack. Eat it on the deck in back or take it out for a beach picnic. Last year, there was a lobster surplus so we felt it our duty to help alleviate that problem. Also, the Red Skiff gets my vote for the world’s best fish chowder.

Like any resort community, Rockport has its share of art galleries. Some of the best are on Main Street where you’ll also find Toad Hall bookstore and another gem, The Shalin Liu Performance Center, where a giant window with a view of the harbor serves as a backdrop for the music. As you can imagine, the area abounds with charming inns, B&Bs and homes for rental.

Cape Ann is one of the destinations in my book, Off The Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs, and Girls on Getaways where you’ll find many other ideas for getaways year-round.

Wisconsin

A Frozen Trek to Lake Superior’s Icy Sea Caves

Image February 17, 2014 Terri Peterson Smith 5 Comments

Sea caves in winter. Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Okay, all you friends of mine who keep posting your tan beach vacation pix on Facebook…..

The sea caves on the western shore of Lake Superior near Bayfield, Wisconsin, have

Duffy came along on our ice adventure to the sea caves, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

been forming over thousands of years as the action of the water carved out vast caverns in the sandstone cliffs. They’re typically reachable only in summer by boat or kayak. The caves are remarkable enough in the summer, but in winter they’re frosted with thick icicles, hoar frost and fanciful ice formations. Problem is, you can’t usually see them. Right now, for the first time five years, due to the consistently frigid weather, the ice is sufficiently thick for frozen nature lovers to make the trek out to the caves. The Great Lakes in the last week reached its broadest ice coverage in 20 years at 88 percent, with Lake Superior at about 95 percent.

Thousands of hearty souls are making the three-mile round-trip hike to the caves.

To some people, going to ice covered sea caves on Lake Superior must seem like a trip to Siberia. But this year, the caves have received huge media attention. So despite the fact that the trip isn’t for the underdressed or infirm, thousands of people are making the hike. At times the bundled up figures silently trudging in the same direction through the vast expanse of white looked like they stepped from that Dennis Quaid movie, The Day After Tomorrow. You expect to find a frozen-over New York City just around the bend, but the destination is far more like the place you’d Santa’s workshop in the movie Elf, or maybe a scene from Frozen.

You can’t just hop out of your car to see the caves. The round-trip trek takes about three

Ice coats the sandstone cliffs on Lake Superior that are usually only accessible by boat.

hours or more over a well-packed and slippery path with little cover to break the sometimes fierce winds. The caves are part of the Apostle Islands National Seashore and their web site offers an Ice Line to check on current conditions. (Or, you may want to just enjoy these photos from the warmth of your computer.)

The popularity of the caves has been a huge bonus for the area’s winter tourist business. If you want to avoid the crowds, go on a weekday. And if you’re looking for a cozy place to stay, check out the Rittenhouse Inn B&B in Bayfield. The little shops in Bayfield are happy to welcome visitors to the area and sell you any extra warm weather gear you may need and the Apostle Islands Booksellers offers terrific books to hunker down with when you return from your trip.

Uncategorized

Ten Literary Trips for You and Your Valentine

February 11, 2014 Terri Peterson Smith Leave a comment

ID-10018648 — Book + Trip = Happy Valentine

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, sometimes women just have to drop a few hints to help their sweeties kindle a little romance. Though well-intentioned, those boxes of chocolate you received mid-diet and the ill-fitting lingerie didn’t really cut it. If he wants to rack up the romance points this Valentine’s Day, tell him to to take a page from your book club and give you the gift of a literary adventure together: wrap up a book that you both will read with a romantic little note promising a trip related to the book. Now that football season is over, isn’t it time to do something you want to do?

The great thing about this is it means he’s venturing into your territory. But, it might be a little scary for him. You’ve probably noticed that he makes a quick exit to the basement or runs off to the local sports bar whenever the book club meets at your house. He scurries away to avoid all that talking, sharing of feelings, and general estrogen overload. So how can he expose his sensitive literary side without having to turn in his “man card?”

Rest assured, these don’t have to be high-brow or girly outings. The secret is to find a book topic that interests both of you, then think of a place to go where you can experience the subject of the book in person. Books have the power to bring people together over common ideas. When you travel together, even to a destination in your own town, you also bond over new, shared experiences. Literary travel offers the best of both, with a chance for couples to talk, share ideas, and most importantly, laugh together.

Here are a few reading-and-travel pairings to inspire your Valentine getaway:

For Beach Lovers–Read: Skin Tight, Bad Monkey or or any of Carl Hiassen’s zany books about life in southern Florida. If you’re golf lovers, check out Hiaasen’s The Downhill Lie: A Hacker’s Return to a Ruinous Sport, his hilarious commentary on golf. Go: South Beach, Miami, Florida.

For Baseball Fans–Read: Bernard Malmud’s The Natural or Michael Lewis’s Moneyball Go: Take in a spring training game together.

For Those Interested in Native American Culture– Read: Laughing Boy: A Navaho Love Story by Oliver LaFarge Go: Santa Fe, New Mexico. It doesn’t get more interesting or romantic than Santa Fe.

For Music Lovers–Read: Cash: The Autobiography; Blues All Around Me by B.B. King; or Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller (or a biography of any favorite musician) Go: Mosey down to Austin, Texas. SXSW (South by Southwest) Music, Film and Interactive Festival is March 7-16 this year, but music abounds in Austin any time of year. Be sure to try a little two-steppin’.

For Wine Lovers–Read: M.F.K. Fisher, Musing on Wine and Other Libations Go: Explore the vineyards of California’s Napa and Sonoma counties. For fans of another type of grape, The Grapes of Wrath (which has absolutely nothing to do with wine), take a side trip to the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas.

But lit trips don’t need to be far from home. Here are a few ideas to whip up a little romance with a book-based adventure no matter where you live.

For Art Lovers–Read: Dance Me to the End of Love, a “picture book for adults” that combines the poetry of Leonard Cohen with the art of Henri Matisse. Tres romantic. Go: Visit an art museum. If you live in Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Institute of Art is featuring “Matisse: Masterworks from The Baltimore Museum of Art: February 23-May 18.

For history buffs–Read: Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell (or ask a librarian for tips on great books about your local history) Go: Visit a local historical society, battlefield or landmark

For Animal Lovers–Read: Temple Grandin’s Animals Make us Human or Julie Klan’s Love at First Bark: How Saving a Dog Can Sometimes Help You Save Yourself Go: Attend a dog or cat show, or volunteer together at an event for your local humane society or animal rescue group

For the Outdoors–Read: Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail Go: Take a hike

For people who love to cook–Read: My Life in France by Julia Child Go: Take a cooking class

Or wrap up a copy of Off The Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs and Girls on Getaways with a note promising a trip to any of its 15 U.S. destinations.

Keep in mind, ladies, if he starts to feel a little panicky in this bookish territory, it’s okay for him to fortify himself with a quick dose of sports stats on his phone. Just don’t overdo it.

France

A Tour of Hemingway Haunts in Paris

February 4, 2014 Terri Peterson Smith Leave a comment

There are certain aspects of Paris that have always captured my imagination, most of them in some way related to literature. The French Revolution, for example, fascinates me, a fact I trace back to middle school when I read Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, Madame DeFarge and her nasty band of peasant rebels all made Paris seem real to me long before I had an opportunity to actually see it. Then, Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables added to my panorama of Paris.

From Victor Hugo, fast forward to the Jazz Age of the 1920s, when artists and writers swarmed to Paris like bees to honey. If you saw Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, you have a feel for the era when American expat writers such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald lived in Paris but seem to spend more time carousing than writing. That was about 90 years ago, but you can still see most of the places that Hemingway describes so beautifully in A Moveable Feast. The book is a virtual guidebook to the places he found most remarkable when he lived in Paris with is first wife, Hadley in the 1920s (and with subsequent wives later on).

The story goes that, in the 1950s, a trunk full of notes on his first years in Paris turned up at the Ritz Hotel. That gave him the raw material to write A Moveable Feast. So, take a little stop at the Ritz, near the Place Vendôme, especially at the hotel’s Hemingway Bar. During the Liberation of Paris in 1944, Hemingway considered it one of his first duties to “liberate” the Ritz bar and order martinis all around. Here at the Ritz, Hemingway asked Mary Welsh to become his fourth wife. The hotel is closed for renovations but will open this year. CoCo Chanel lived at the Ritz and one of the rooms in the Imperial Suite re-creates one of Marie-Antoinette’s rooms at Versailles.

The apartment where Hemingway and his "Paris Wife," Hadley, were "very poor and very happy." — The apartment where Hemingway and his “Paris Wife,” Hadley, were “very poor and very happy.”

If, like most of us, you lack the Versailles-level budget required to stay at the Ritz, consider staying in the Contrescarpe neighborhood where Hemingway lived in the 1920s. Be sure to pause at 74 Rue de Cardinal Lemoine where he and Hadley lived from 1922 to 1923, “the Paris of our youth, when we were very poor and very happy.” He describes their apartment:

Home in the rue Cardinal Lemoine was a two-room flat that had no hot water and no inside toilet facilities except an antiseptic container, not uncomfortable to anyone who was used to a Michigan outhouse.”

This apartment is where Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises, the book that made him famous. Below it is a shop that used to be a bal-musette or dance hall. It appears in The Sun Also Rises as the bal where we first meet Lady Brett. (Rest assured, you don’t have to live like a starving artist in this neighborhood. If you can book far enough ahead, try the Hotel D’Angleterre where Hemingway once stayed.) Wander Place Contrescarpe, a rough old square packed with cafes and apartments that couldn’t have changed since the 1920s. Take a morning stroll through the Marche Mouffetard (prime time is Saturday and Sunday morning), a fantastic market with produce, cheese, wine and just about anything you’ll need for your own feast, a picnic by the Seine or in the nearby Luxembourg Gardens.

Strolling among the "bouquinistes" along the Seine in Paris. — Strolling among the bouquinistes along the Seine in Paris.

If you walk downhill from Hemingway’s apartment on Cardinal Lemoine you’ll come to the Seine where you’ll see the famed expat bookstore, Shakespeare and Co., and across the street, Notre Dame Cathedral. From here, you can follow the steps of Jake and Bill in The Sun Also Rises as they circle the Île St-Louis. The stalls of the bouquinistes–sellers of antique books, magazines and a bit of tourist trash–line the walk along the river. Hemingway used to stroll here and chat with the booksellers. “I would walk along the quais when I had finished work or when I was trying to think something out. It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood.”

He adds, “With the

Hemingway might be surprised to see his book “A Moveable Feast” among the books sold by “bouquinistes” in Paris.

fishermen and the life on the river, the beautiful barges with their own life on board, the tugs with the smokestacks that folded back to pass under the bridges, pulling a tow of barges, the great elms on the stone banks of the river, the plane trees and in some places the poplars, I could never be lonely along the river.”

You won’t feel lonely in any of the many famous cafes along Boulevard du Montparnasse, either. Okay, they’re pricey and popular with tourists, but worth it if you want to sample jazz age cafe life. The Closerie des Lilas, for example, at 171 Boulevard du Montparnasse is a lovely cafe where Hemingway wrote and Scott Fitzgerald read him The Great Gatsby. La Coupole, at number 102, is a vast art deco brasserie, brightly painted by Brancusi and Chagall.

Finally, to really get the swing of the Paris of Hemingway’s era, wander the medieval lanes of the Latin Quarter where you’ll find the great jazz club Le Caveau de la Huchette at 5 rue de la Huchette. Though it wasn’t around during Hemingway’s time, it surely has much of the era’s joie de vivre. In Le Caveau’s ancient vaulted cellar you’ll find a dance floor, a swing band, and people dancing like Mexican jumping beans on a hot skillet. Sit back and watch Parisians enjoy la belle vie or join in the dancing. It’s your own moveable feast. As Hemingway concluded, “There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other.”

Children and reading, Uncategorized

What Children’s Book Turned You On to Reading, Or Travel?

January 23, 2014 Terri Peterson Smith 3 Comments

It’s National Reading Day. I believe we should all celebrate by taking the rest of the day off to read more books. If that doesn’t work for you, I want to share a great article from Charles Blow at The New York Times called “Reading Books Is Fundamental,” a follow up to my previous post. It brings tears to my eyes when he talks about his first experience buying something for himself–a book. “That was the beginning of a lifelong journey in which books would shape and change me, making me who I was to become.” It also brings tears to my eyes when he talks about how few people read books today.

Was there a children’s book or series of books that made you a dedicated reader? A life-changing book? Was there a book that made you wish you could go explore the story in person? Share your favorite children’s book below in the comments section.

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