Ernest and Hadley Hemingway had been married for less than three months when they set sail to Paris on 8 December 1921. Arriving on 20 December they spent their first night in the Hôtel Jacob on Rue Jacob in Saint Germain. On 9 January 1922, the Hemingway’s moved into an apartment on the top of Montagne Saint-Geneviève in the shadows of the Pantheon thanks to the help of fellow expat Lewis Galantiere. Lewis had pushed the couple to look at Montparnasse but they were drawn to the Latin Quarter a short walk away on the Rue du Cardinal-Lemoine. Located in what was once the moat of the ancient Philippe-Auguste wall, was the first official home for the couple.
Their 4th floor two rooms were considered a “cold-water walk up” with a “toilet” in the hall at each floor. Saying it was a toilet is really romanticizing it, it was not much more than a hole in the floor. Oddly shaped rooms, floors that bent and slanted and no hot water. Even with these bleak descriptions, Hem later said, “With a fine view and a good mattress and springs for a comfortable bed on the floor, and pictures we liked on the walls, it was a cheerful, gay, flat” They were happy at this time, and didn’t need much.
For just 250 francs or $18 a month it came furnished and with their own femme de menage, Marie Cocotte who would cook for them each night. The small two room apartment was small but had just enough room to add a piano for Hadley.
Below them was the Bal du Printemps, a bal musette dance hall that would keep them up on the hot summer nights with the windows open. This is also where the reference in the Sun Also Rises comes from. Just steps away was the Place de la Contrescarpe where the Café des Amateurs that he would sit and have a café and watch the characters of the square. Although he thought it was a “cesspool” and avoided it because of its smell and disruptiveness. In the Snows of Kilimanjaro, he wrote that Harry was sitting watching the “drunkards and the sportifs”. This was far away from the fashionable cafés Rotônde and Select of Montparnasse. The ghost of Hemingway is all over Paris. If you are going to be in Paris in April and May message me. I will be doing some guided tours in the steps of Hemingway, and other Paris tours (hopefully)