Explore the real-world places that appear in A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots, Shakespeare and Company Bookstore, Musée du Luxembourg, The Louvre Museum and 9 more.
172 Boulevard Saint-Germain — Hemingway's daily writing refuge
Hemingway describes arriving early at the Café de Flore with a notebook, ordering a café crème and a croissant, and writing for hours while observing the other patrons. He captures the café's warm interior, the way light falls through the windows, and the electric energy of creative minds gathering. The café becomes his sanctuary during his lean years in Paris, where he perfects his craft away from distractions.
Founded in 1887, Café de Flore became a legendary meeting place for intellectuals, artists, and writers during the 20th century. During the Nazi occupation of World War II, it remained open and became a gathering spot for existentialists and Resistance sympathizers, including Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
Café de Flore remains one of Paris's most iconic establishments, still operating as a café and restaurant at its original location. It attracts literary tourists and Parisians alike, maintaining much of its Belle Époque décor and heritage.
Visit: Café de Flore (restaurant)
6 Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés — Intellectual conversations and café culture
Hemingway frequented this café where he encountered fellow writers and artists. He discusses the intellectual ferment of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the endless debates about art and literature, and the sense of community among exiled American writers. The café represents the bohemian Paris of the 1920s where ideas flowed as freely as wine.
Les Deux Magots, established in 1885, takes its name from the wooden statues of two Chinese merchants that once decorated a fabric shop on the site. By the 1920s, it was firmly established as a favorite haunt of writers, philosophers, and artists, rivaling Café de Flore as the intellectual heart of Saint-Germain.
Les Deux Magots continues to operate as a prestigious café and restaurant, still decorated with the original Chinese statues. It remains a tourist destination and literary pilgrimage site, maintaining its historical ambiance and upscale clientele.
Visit: Les Deux Magots (restaurant)
37 Rue de la Bûcherie — Sylvia Beach's legendary literary salon
Hemingway visited Sylvia Beach's bookstore, the beating heart of expatriate literary Paris. He encountered Joyce, Stein, and countless other writers in this crowded shop packed floor-to-ceiling with English-language books. Beach served tea, offered lending library membership, and provided a refuge for struggling American writers who couldn't afford new books.
Founded in 1919 by American expatriate Sylvia Beach, Shakespeare and Company became the most important English-language bookstore in Paris. Beach famously published James Joyce's 'Ulysses' in 1922 when no English publisher would touch it, an act of literary courage that defined an era.
The original Shakespeare and Company was destroyed during World War II, but it was reopened in 1951. The current location (moved in 1951) operates as a beloved independent bookstore and literary landmark, with a reading library upstairs and regular author events.
Visit: Shakespeare and Company (landmark)
19 Rue de Médicis — Art and contemplation in the garden
Hemingway writes of visiting the Luxembourg Museum and wandering through its galleries, observing paintings and sculpture. He describes sitting in the Luxembourg Gardens adjoining the museum, watching light play across the water and observing Parisians at leisure. These moments of aesthetic appreciation contrasted with his financial struggles, becoming part of his sensory memoir of Paris.
The Luxembourg Museum, established in 1750, houses works by 19th-century European painters and sculptors. The attached Luxembourg Gardens, created in 1612 for Marie de' Medici, have long been a favorite retreat for Parisians and visitors. By Hemingway's era in the 1920s, both were established cultural landmarks.
The Luxembourg Museum and Gardens remain popular attractions, with the museum featuring rotating exhibitions of 19th and early 20th-century art. The gardens are freely accessible to the public and remain one of Paris's most beloved green spaces.
Visit: Musée du Luxembourg (museum)
Rue de Rivoli — Masterworks and artistic inspiration
Hemingway describes entering the Louvre, standing before great paintings, and feeling the weight of artistic tradition. He writes of studying Cézanne and other masters, understanding how real painters worked and achieved their effects. The museum becomes a classroom for his artistic education, teaching him principles of composition and economy of form that would shape his writing.
The Louvre, originally a royal palace built in the 12th century, became a museum during the French Revolution in 1793. By the 1920s, it was the world's greatest art museum, housing masterworks from across European civilization and serving as an essential pilgrimage site for artists and intellectuals.
The Louvre remains the world's most visited art museum, still housed in its iconic palace complex. Its glass pyramid entrance, added in 1989, has become as famous as the building itself. It continues to serve millions of visitors annually.
Visit: The Louvre (museum)
Left Bank — Gertrude Stein's apartment and salon
Hemingway describes visiting Gertrude Stein's apartment, where walls were covered with paintings by Picasso, Matisse, and Cézanne—works few had seen. Stein, sitting in her massive Renaissance chair, dispensed criticism and wisdom to Hemingway, calling him a 'lost generation.' These Saturday evenings shaped Hemingway's aesthetic understanding and introduced him to modernist art firsthand.
Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo purchased the building at 27 Rue de Fleurus in 1904 and began collecting avant-garde art when these painters were still unknown. The apartment became a legendary salon where Picasso, Matisse, Apollinaire, and countless others gathered, making it one of the most important artistic centers of early 20th-century Paris.
The building at 27 Rue de Fleurus still stands as a private residence. While not open to the public, a plaque commemorates it as Gertrude Stein's former home and the site of her important salon.
3 Boulevard Edgar Quinet — Final resting place of Paris's literary giants
Hemingway mentions walking through Montparnasse Cemetery and contemplating mortality amid the tombs of writers and artists. The cemetery symbolizes the inevitable end awaiting all creators, a sobering meditation on legacy and remembrance that haunts his reflections on artistic ambition and survival.
Montparnasse Cemetery was established in 1824 and became the burial ground for many of Paris's greatest literary and artistic figures. By the early 20th century, it held the graves of Balzac, Baudelaire, Maupassant, and countless others who had shaped French culture.
Montparnasse Cemetery remains open to the public as a peaceful green space and historical landmark. It attracts literary tourists seeking the graves of famous writers and serves as a working cemetery for Parisian burials.
Visit: Montparnasse Cemetery (historic site)
Montparnasse — Hemingway's visits with Sylvia Beach
Hemingway visited Sylvia Beach at her residence, where they discussed books, writers, and the literary scene. Beach offered friendship and support to the struggling young writer, lending him books and introducing him to other expatriates. These visits represented the mentorship and community that sustained Hemingway through his poorest years.
Sylvia Beach lived in this modest Montparnasse apartment while running Shakespeare and Company bookstore. Her homes—first in this Montparnasse location, later on Rue de l'Odéon near the bookstore—became gathering places for the Lost Generation writers.
The building still stands as a private residence in Montparnasse, identifiable by its nineteenth-century Haussmann architecture. While not open to the public, the exterior is visible from the street as a literary landmark.
Avenue du Maine — Departures and returns in Hemingway's Paris
Hemingway describes arriving in Paris via train and contemplates the comings and goings of expatriates through this station. The terminal becomes a symbol of movement, escape, and return—the physical gateway between the struggles of American life and the artistic promise of Paris.
Montparnasse Station opened in 1840 as a major rail terminus. By the 1920s when Hemingway arrived, it was the primary entry point for expatriates traveling from the Atlantic ports, making it a threshold between two worlds.
Montparnasse Station remains one of Paris's major railway hubs, still serving passengers traveling to the French regions and internationally. The Belle Époque building was significantly modernized in the 1960s but maintains historical elements.
Visit: Montparnasse Train Station (landmark)
171 Boulevard du Montparnasse — Café and literary gathering place
Hemingway frequented this café in Montparnasse, where he drank wine, observed other writers, and worked on his craft. He describes the café's atmosphere—the smoke, the voices, the sense of artistic purpose surrounding him. The Closerie represented the café culture essential to expatriate intellectual life.
Closerie des Lilas was established in 1847 as a garden café and dance hall. By the Belle Époque and 1920s, it had evolved into a favorite meeting place for writers, painters, and intellectuals, though slightly less legendary than Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots.
Closerie des Lilas continues operating as a restaurant and bar at its original location. It retains its Belle Époque character and remains a popular destination for those retracing the literary geography of 1920s Paris.
Visit: Closerie des Lilas (restaurant)
3 Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés — Architectural landmark of Left Bank
Hemingway walks past and through the streets around Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church, using it as a reference point in the neighborhood. The church's presence anchors the district geographically and historically, representing centuries of Parisian cultural tradition beneath which contemporary artistic life unfolds.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, originally constructed in the 11th century and rebuilt in the 17th century, is one of Paris's oldest churches. By Hemingway's era, it stood at the heart of the Left Bank's intellectual and artistic quarter, having survived centuries of French history.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church remains an active parish church and architectural landmark, open to visitors. Its Romanesque bell tower and interior maintain medieval and classical elements, making it a popular stop for literary tourists exploring the neighborhood.
Visit: Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church (historic site)
Left Bank — Heart of the Latin Quarter
Hemingway walks along Boulevard Saint-Michel, observing students and intellectuals, absorbing the literary and academic atmosphere of the Latin Quarter. The street represents the intellectual ferment of Paris, where ideas are debated in cafés and classrooms, where literature and philosophy animate daily life.
Boulevard Saint-Michel, completed in 1869, became the main commercial and intellectual artery of the Left Bank and Latin Quarter. By the 1920s, it was lined with bookstores, cafés, and the offices of literary magazines, making it the nerve center of Paris's intellectual life.
Boulevard Saint-Michel remains a major thoroughfare and shopping street in the Latin Quarter. It still houses independent bookstores, student-oriented cafés, and maintains its character as an intellectual neighborhood, though commercialization has increased.
Visit: Boulevard Saint-Michel (landmark)
Montparnasse — Street of artists' studios and bohemian life
Hemingway evokes the streets of Montparnasse where artists maintained studios and lived in poverty but creative freedom. He describes the neighborhood's bohemian character—crowded apartments, artistic ferment, and the sense that everyone around him was pursuing their art with dedication despite financial hardship.
Rue de la Grande Chaumière and the surrounding Montparnasse district became the center of artistic Paris after the decline of Montmartre in the early 20th century. Modigliani, Soutine, and countless other artists maintained studios here, establishing Montparnasse as the creative heart of Paris.
Rue de la Grande Chaumière still maintains some artistic character, though gentrification has transformed Montparnasse significantly. The street and surrounding neighborhood remain recognizable from photographs of the 1920s era.
Visit: Rue de la Grande Chaumière (landmark)
Marais District — Modern art masterworks
Hemingway writes of studying Picasso's work, seeing how the artist had broken with tradition and created new forms of expression. Picasso's radical innovations in painting influenced Hemingway's thinking about artistic simplification and the power of distortion to reveal deeper truths—principles he applied to his prose.
While the Musée Picasso in its current form opened in 1985, Hemingway encountered Picasso's work throughout 1920s Paris—in galleries, private collections like Gertrude Stein's, and exhibitions. Picasso lived and worked in Paris during this period, making his influence inescapable for anyone seriously engaged with modern art.
The Musée Picasso, housed in the Hôtel Salé mansion in the Marais, contains the world's largest collection of Picasso's works. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually and provides comprehensive insight into Picasso's artistic evolution.
Visit: Musée Picasso (museum)
More by Ernest Hemingway: Across the River and Into the Trees locations map · A Farewell to Arms locations map · For Whom the Bell Tolls locations map · The Old Man and the Sea locations map · All Ernest Hemingway books
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