“Rive Gauche” usually refers to the Paris of an earlier era: The Paris of artists, writers and philosophers, Colette, Gertrude Stein, Henri Matisse, Jean-Paul Sartre…. and dozens of members of the great artistic community in Paris. There is a sense of bohemianism, creativity, modernism, it is left of the river Seine, around the Boulevard Saint-Germain, St Michel, rue de Rennes… the architecture is 19th century, a bit of “Belle Epoque”, it nice to wander around this area slowly as if time had stopped, to seat at a terrace and enjoy an expresso and why not a “gauloise” (cigarette in blue packet from a time when smoking was fashionable and not terribly bad for your health). I have spent many good moments walking around that area… stopping at a bookshop and buying for 10 francs an old paper book to read during my travels….

When I have travelled enough i leave…