Hello, Good Bye, and Hello again in 2015, which is when I get back to Paris after a long voyage.

My Writers in Paris Walking Tours went off beautifully in 2014, with "Lost Generation" Montparnasse leading the way in popularity -- Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and others of the 1920s expatriate crowd.  Very stimulating!   You can't miss.  But my "A Band of Outsiders": Place de la Contrescarpe/rue Mouffetard walk is right behind Montparnasse, because this colorful fringe of the Latin Quarter was where Hem started his Moveable Feast period, James Joyce finished Ulysses, and George Orwell started writing Down and Out in Paris and London, all in the 20s.  But towering French writers also figure in that walk -- Verlaine, Balzac, Victor Hugo in the 19th century, and with a history going all the way back to Francois Villon in the Middle Ages,

                   

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Every one of the eight walks I offer is extremely rich, each in its own special way. For descriptions of each, please take a look at the heading of THE WALKS

My 2015 season will start in the middle of April and will run to the end of November. I give a walk on every Sunday morning, and do walks on weekdays and Sundays according to the requests of prospective walkers.

Happy Holidays to you all!

Yours,

David Burke

Timeout's take on my literary walks: nice!

http://www.timeout.com/paris/en/walks-tours/writers-in-paris-walking-tours

Timeout's take on my literary walks

Please take a look: 

www.timeout.com/paris/en/walks-tours/writers-in-paris-walking-tours

         WRITERS IN THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS:  A DOUBLE WHAMMY

Two stories this time.  Part 1 is about 20th century American writers in the Luxembourg Gardens -- Henry James, Ernest Hemingway,Gertrude Stein, and (surprisingly, perhaps) William Faulkner.  Part 2 is about outstanding French writers of the 19th century who have statues and busts in the garden -- Balzac, Victor Hugo, George Sand, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Verlaine, and a couple of others -- copiously illustrated with photos and my pithy comments. Both pieces were first published in Richard Nahem's sprightly web magazine I PREFER PARIS.

The link to the American story is:

http://www.ipreferparis.net/2014/04/david-burkes-writers-in-paris-writers-in-the-luxembourg-gardens-the-americans.html

The link to the French story is: 

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IPreferParis/~3/QoNerwaF-UI/david-burkes-writers-in-paris-writers-in-the-luxembourg-gardens-the-french.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email

Enjoy!

EDITH WHARTON IN PARIS 

                                                                                                                                                             The last thirty years of Edith Wharton’s larger-than-life life took place in France.  They were her most exciting and fruitful years, writing her finest work, frequenting a dazzling social and intellectual world, her mentor Henry James among them, and experiencing a torrid clandestine love affair.  In Paris she lived on the Rue de Varenne in the fashionable Faubourg Saint-Germain, in the 7^th Arrondissement, where the final scene of her most famous novel The Age of Innocence takes place. One day I would like to do a walking tour of Edith Wharton’s neighbourhood. It has a tremendously rich history of writers who lived in or frequented the district.  As one example, please take a look at my little piece about the friendship of Auguste Rodin and Rainer Maria Rilke, which originated in Richard Nahem’s lively I Prefer Paris blog, as did the Edith Wharton piece.  Here is the link to the Wharton story: 

http://www.ipreferparis.net/2014/03/david-burkes-writers-in-paris-edith-wharton-on-the-rue-de-varenne.html

Spring is here.

Time for this literary groundhog to crawl out of his hole and start doing walks.  Which is just what I'll do, beginning next week, on the day of the vernal equinox.

A few walks on requests will follow, and on Sunday April 20th I'll get going on my regular schedule for 2014.  This means a Writers in Paris Walk every Sunday morning and others on weekdays, upon request.  I'll have my schedule up on the web site shortly, but in the meantime please click on THE WALKS heading and see all the goodies I have to offer.  

Cheers to you all.

David 

luckyburke@gmail.com