The Real Latin Quarter

The Real Latin Quarter

Cocher, drive to the rue Falguirethis in my best restaurant French. The man with the varnished hat shrugged his shoulders, and raised his eyebrows in doubt. He evidently had never heard of the rue Falguire. Yes, rue Falguire, the old rue des Fourneaux, I continued. Cabbys face broke out into a smile. Ah, oui, oui, le Quartier Latin. And it was at the end of this crooked street, through a lane that led into a half court flanked by a row of studio buildings, and up one pair of dingy waxed steps, that I found a door bearing the name of the author of the following pageshis visiting card impaled on a tack. He was in his shirt-sleevesthe thermometer stood at 90 outsideworking at his desk, surrounded by half-finished sketches and manuscript. The man himself I had met beforeI- 8 - had known him for years, in factbut the surroundings were new to me. So too were his methods of work. Nowadays when a man would write of the Siege of Peking or the relief of some South African town with the unpronounceable name, his habit is to rent a room on an up-town avenue, move in an inkstand and pad, and a collection of illustrated papers and encyclopedias. This writer on the rue Falguire chose a different plan. He would come back year after year, and study his subject and compile his impressions of the Quarter in the very atmosphere of the place itself; within a stones throw of the Luxembourg Gardens and the Panthon; near the cafs and the Bullier; next door, if you please, to the public laundry where his washerwoman pays a few sous for the privilege of pounding his clothes into holes. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 30981
Author: Smith, F. Berkeley (Frank Berkeley)
Release Date: Jan 16, 2010
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Illustrator: Smith, F. Berkeley (Frank Berkeley), 1869-1931 , Smith, Francis Hopkinson, 1838-1915