The French capital is a literary treasure trove thanks not just to the many distinguished figures of French literature who lived and worked here but also expatriates from the United States—most famously the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s—and elsewhere. And refreshingly in this day and age, literature is still very much a part of everyday life here, as evidenced by the many bookshops large and (sometimes amazingly) small, and the famous green bouquiniste bookstalls along the Rîve Gauche (Left Bank) of the Seine. Start at the Maison de Victor Hugo (above) on Place des Vosges, a 125-year-old museum where France´s most celebrated writer lived from 1832 to 1848 and wrote parts of works including Les Misérables.

Another prime site is the 222-year-old Père Lachaise Cemetery, the world´s most visited cemetery and also one of its most evocative literary pilgrimage sites, where visitors can track down the graves of writers including Honoré de Balzac, Colette, Molière, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright (and while you´re here, also keep an eye peeled for other celebs like Sarah Bernhardt, Frédéric Chopin, Olivia de Havilland, Jim Morrison, and Édith Piaf—you will regret nothing!). 

Apart from the above, much of Paris´ literary vibe is also furnished by its cafés, especially in Saint-Germain and the Latin Quarter on the Rîve Gauche. The main landmarks - where you can still have a seat for a coffee or glass of wine (the food tends to be pricey and nothing special) - include the 139-year-old Café de Flore (famed for its Art Deco interior and former haunt of James Baldwin (who wrote much of Go Tell It on the Mountain here), Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Truman Capote, Eugene Ionescu, and Jean-Paul Sartre). Then there´s the even older, also Art Deco Les Deux Magots (established as a café in 1884), which in addition to also being a haunt of Baldwin, de Beauvoir, Camus, and Sartre also had as regulars at various points in history Guillaume Apollinaire, Bertolt Brecht, André Breton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, André Gide, Ernest Hemingway, Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, George Orwell, Wilde, and Wright (and hey, let´s throw in Pablo Picasso for good measure). The oldest Parisian café of all, Procope (est. 1686) attracted Alexandre Dumas, Gustave Flaubert, Hugo, George Sand, and Voltaire. And over on the Rîve Gauche (Right Bank) the classic, 164-year-old Café de la Paix on Place de l´Opéra (part of the Le Grand-Hôtel) was a another Hemingway hangout as well as one for Arthur Conan Doyle, Hugo, Guy de Maupassant, Wilde, and Emile Zola. 

Finally, no literary traveler should miss Shakespeare and Company, the legendary English-language bookshop opened in 1951 on the Rîve Gauche just across the Seine from Notre-Dame Cathedral where generations of expatriate writers gathered, including Baldwin, Brecht, William Burroughs, Julio Cortázar, Lawrence Durrell, Allen Ginsberg, James Jones, Peter Matthiesson, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, George Plimpton, William Saroyan, Terry Southern, William Styron, and Wright. The shop still hosts regular readings and other events with up-and-coming as well as established writers of today.

And finally, looking to stay literary? Besides the aforementioned Le Grand-Hôtel, if you have the bank account for it, check into the 198-year-old boutique L´Hôtel in Saint-Germain-des-Pres, which over the years hosted writers such as Argentine master Jorge Luis Borges and Oscar Wilde (who spent his last days here). 

Read more in my post 5 of Europe´s Top Destinations for Literary Travelers.

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