Itinerary
- We start the tour at the Beat Hotel then visit the surrounding area, with the preferred cafés & bars of the Beats
- Shakespeare and Company: We visit the famous Shakespeare & Company bookstore, where Ginsberg & Corso gave a reading of Beat poetry in 1957. Since then it has become a Paris landmark for book lovers. We will visit other locales in the area.
- Le Caveau de la Huchette: Jazz was an essential element in the conception of Beat poetry and we will see two of the jazz clubs they frequented while living in Paris.
- Place De L'Odeon: We will visit one of William Burrough's favorite cafes
- We visit the English language bookstore that featured the more controversial publications written by William Burroughs, and a dive hotel where Gregory Corso stayed when he couldn't afford the Beat Hotel.
- We end the tour either in the Café Bonaparte, one of Gregory Corso's hangouts. The Beats preferred the more relaxed atmosphere of this cafe in comparison to the more famous ones on the Boulevard St Germain.
- Alternatively we can take a metro down to Montparnasse & finish the tour in the Select, the café where Ginsberg composed the first verses of his poem Kaddish.
Includes
- Guiding service
- The cost of any food or beverage is at the customer's discretion
Details
This is a unique tour that follows the footsteps of the Beat Generation poets through Paris. The tour also provides the context in which they evolved, how they came to be, what defined them as "Beats". And we will discuss their groundbreaking work, their growth as writers and their influence on those who came after - the hippies, the punks & the post-modern works of today.
Know Before You Go
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
- There is a certain amount of walking on this tour, but there are frequent stops
