Tag: Paris

There is something magical about Paris where literary adventuring is concerned, the number of writers who’ve called the city home abundant.

I always have a full itinerary of addresses and cafes to hunt down before I land so my visits to the French capital are chock full of discoveries. There is an organic shift that happens without my knowing it—one time my explorations may be focused upon the Lost Generation while another it will be Edith Wharton and her lover Morton Fullerton. I record anecdotes to take with me so I can locate addresses where my literary heroes held court.

An example is this exchange between Oscar Wilde and Fullerton: “When Wilde was released from Reading Gaol, he went to France as ‘Sebastian Melmoth,’” Marion Mainwaring wrote in her book Mysteries of Paris: The Quest for Morton Fullerton. “His Paris base was the Grand Café at 14 Boulevard des Capucines. The Times was at number 35. He had his publishers send Fullerton a copy of The Importance of Being Earnest, then wrote asking his dear Fullerton to lend him a hundred francs…”  It seems that there are more episodes like this in Paris than anywhere else in the world, which makes me happy because it means I will always have new adventures in store!