American Writers in Paris Tour continued...

As you remember, we left off on our writer's tour last time

on a gorgeous late spring (summer-like) day.

I loved the look of this Salon de The 

along the way with its 

flower boxes and

trailing ivy. 

And this unique way of serving ice cream

to warm tourists. 

Leaving Gertrude Stein and Rue Christine

and heading west on small streets to Rue Bonaparte,

I then turned right onto L'Hotel des Beaux Arts.

Here, at 13, L'Hotel des Beaux Arts

the tour states that Thomas Wolfe lived here for a year in 1925

(though another chronology of his life would put him here at another time). 

On either side of the front door are plaques,

one dedicated to Jorge Luis Borges

(according to the plaque, the Argentine writer 

who lived here during frequent visits to Paris

from 1977 to 1985). 

The other a plaque announcing that 

Oscar Wilde died in this building on

November 30, 1900. 

Sources say he died destitute in Paris

of cerebral meningitis,

the cause disputed by family and doctors. 

He was buried at Cimetiere de Bagneux but was 

moved to Pere Lachaise in 1909.

His epitaph a verse from his poem,

The Ballad of Reading Gaol:

"And alien tears will fill for him

Pity's long-broken urn,

For his mourners will be outcast men,

And outcasts always mourn."

We'll continue our tour next time

and until then, you can see more of it yourself

here:

American Writers in Paris Tour

(Photographs copyright: Kirsten Steen)