Left Bank "Drinkers and Thinkers Walk | Paris, France

I normally do not like tour groups, but this one caught my attention. It was my first ever Airbnb “Experience” called the Left Bank “Drinkers and Thinkers” Walk. The experience was like going back in time while at the same time feeling like you were in the movie “Midnight in Paris”.

The tour takes about 3 hours and on a 1.9 mile walk around the streets of the Left Bank. Learn about the booze and café culture of Existentialist, postwar poets like Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, favorite spots where you would find Ernest Hemingway back in his hayday, the Situationist and explore the Left Bank neighborhoods of Saint-Germain-des-Pres and the Latin Quarter by foot.

You will either get Amarens or James as a guide. Amarens is a feminist journalist and a literature graduate who has spent many years in Paris. James is a teacher at Sorbonne and has lived in the Latin Quarter for many years. We took the tour on a rainy afternoon and had Amarens as our guide. Lucky for us, the rain kept other people away, so we ended up having a private tour!

Some of the highlights: Saint-Germain-des-prés (the neighbourhood of Oscar Wilde, Juliette Greco, James Baldwin, Camus, Sartre and De Beauvoir); the Church of Saint Sulpice; the Luxembourg Gardens; the streets of the Latin Quarter; the Sorbonne; the Pantheon; the steps from Midnight in Paris; the apartments of James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway; and the present day University neighborhood.