DEATHLESS WRITERS IN THE PERE LACHAISE CEMETERY

Second in popularity in my series of Writers in Paris Walking Tours, the first being the ones dominated by Ernest Hemingway and his 1920s “Lost Generation” associates, is the moody, magnificently verdant Pere Lachaise Cemetery. This walk  features the final resting places -- fascinating all -- of Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Richard Wright, Marcel Proust, Guillaume Apollinaire, Balzac, Moliere, Jim Morrison, Colette, the medieval lovers Heloise and Abelard and others.

Where could you find such an illustrious bunch of writers as these?

Irresistibly drawn to this cemetery was explorer extraordinaire Dale Dunlop (www.themaritimeexplorer.ca), who had previously written that marvellous piece about my “Lost Generation” Montparnasse walk (scroll below for that piece), and who now wrote another of his remarkable text-and-photo spreads entitled “Walking Pere Lachaise with David Burke.”

Here’s the link: http://themaritimeexplorer.ca/2015/04/30/walking-pere-lachaise-david-burke/

Check it out.  

You will enjoy Dale’s sprightly take on it. I guarantee!

Welcome back to Writers in Paris Walking Tours for 2015.

I am pleased to tell you that I received a great honor this year in Lonely Planet's book BEST IN TRAVEL 2015.  It features Top 10  bests in many travel categories, one of them being "Top 10 Literary Walking Tours of the World."  And in that lot of 10 you will find -- you guessed it already --moi, David Burke.  Thank you, Lonely Planet!

And adding to that pleasure, here is a wonderful piece about my "Lost Generation" Montparnasse walk by Canada's extraordinary world explorer Dale Dunlop, who joined me on it with his wife Alison and sister Anne last week. I urge you to take a look at his take on it in superb pictures and astute text.  Here is the web link:
themaritimeexplorer.ca/2015/04/22/search-hemingway-david-burke/

NOTE:  make that:  www.themaritimeexplorer.ca/2015/04/22/search-hemingway-david-burke/

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!