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STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MADELEINE HENN

This past winter I got to travel to Paris to visit my daughter, Gabrielle who is spending her Junior year studying at Sciences Po. Part of the festivities included celebrating my birthday with a sumptuous lunch at the Jules Verne restaurant located high up in the Eiffel Tower. We walked off the delicious five-course meal which included an individual sized cognac-soaked birthday cake with a serious afternoon of sight-seeing.

Early evening found us at the gorgeous Place Vendome on the door-step of the famous Ritz Hotel. The Ritz is home to the tiny but titanically atmospheric and storied Bar Hemingway. An ardent devotee of Ernest Hemingway since my high school days, I had re-read both The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast in anticipation of this trip. 


 Detail from a Post Card    The Place Vendome in Paris France as seen in American Public House Review
PLACE VENDOME
        

Papa H. first arrived in Paris after WWI, a time of ex-pat American excess and exuberance. He worked very diligently, honing his writing and became a stand-out in a group of extraordinary artists who came together in Paris in the twenties. Throughout the remainder of his life, Hemingway returned often to Paris always staying at the Ritz and frequenting the intimate bar there. Today the bar survives as a shrine to the iconic author.   
          

It was on my list of must-sees and my daughter though not exactly an aficionado of the great but probably-dated author cheerfully accompanied me there.


The atmosphere of the bar is masculine, yet cozy. The walls are paneled in rich dark wood. Some are inset with bookcases filled with old leather-bound books There is a least one rifle framed in a beautiful case on the wall above the bar. Black and white pictures of Hemingway and his celebrated contemporaries abound. The tables are small, round and candle-lit. The service by formally attired waiters who offer to speak French or English with you add to a feeling of under-stated elegance.



A waiter at Bar Hemingway in paris as seen in American Public House Review
THE WAITERS WILL SPEAK TO YOU IN FRENCH OR ENGLISH


I had arrived at the perfect spot to have a memorable birthday cocktail and have one I did. At  28 Euro ( just about $40) a drink-there would be only one and it would be languidly sipped for maximum effect. I ordered  a Horses Neck (Crown Royal, a splash of ginger-ale and a gigantic twist of lemon.) Gabi enjoyed an elegant Raspberry Martini. Both drinks were garnished with beautiful flowers. We reveled over our cocktails for about an hour; chatting idly, snug with each other, smug with the accomplishments of the day. Then we walked out into the Paris evening. Birthday in Paris: Fait Accompli!


Restaurant Jules Verne at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Franc as seen in American Public House Review
THE RESTAURANT JULES VERNE OFFERS
MAGNIFICENT VIEWS OF PARIS

                                                                                   File Photograph
Hemingway in Milan, 1918 as seen in American Public House Review
ERNEST HEMINGWAY RESPLENDENT WITH ESPRIT DE CORPS IN HIS WORLD WAR 1 UNIFORM - MILAN ITALY, 1918


                              File Photograph
Hemingway in Paris 1924
HEMINGWAY IN PARIS 1924


  File photograph      
Ernest Hemingway as seen in American Public House Review
PORTRAIT OF POPPA IN LATER YEARS


Bar Hemingway at the Ritz Paris as seen in American Public House Review
BAR HEMINGWAY


Cocktails at Bar Hemingway in Paris France as seen in American Public House Review
THE COCKTAILS ARE BEAUTIFUL BUT EXPENSIVE AT ABOUT $40 A POP









Madeleine henn as seen in American Public House Review


MADELEINE BEST HENN

was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

She graduated from La Salle University with a degree in English and a passion for the literature, landscape, and history of Ireland and the British Isles.

Madeleine also indulged an interest in the well-being of the human psyche and went on to earn a nursing degree from Holy Family College. 

Along with free-lance writing, she is employed as a psychiatric nurse and a mental health program administrator. Madeleine is a wife and mother. She is suitably proud of her own Irish heritage and currently resides in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.



BAR HEMINGWAY


15, PLACE VENDOME

75001 PARIS, FRANCE


01 43 16 33 65


 www.ritzparis.com


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