Shakespeare & Co

I've just returned from an incredible few days in Paris. I especially enjoyed Montmartre where I watched artists drawing portraits of diners; wandered passed other artists displaying their paintings and visiting small galleries.

Then walking through the streets from the grandeur of Sacre Coeur down passed Le Bateau Lavoir where the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Mondigliani painted whilst mixing with actors (Gertrude Stein, etc) and art dealers.

I spent hours wandering around Pere Lachaise taking countless photos and gazing at the gothic graves of many people and spotting among others the graves of Jim Morrison, Rene Lalique, Edith Piaf, and Oscar Wilde (covered in lipstick kisses).

One of best places I visited was Shakespeare & Co the second-hand bookshop on the Left Bank shown recently on The Book Show where writers including Ernest Hemingway have congregated since the early part of the Twentieth Century. I could have stayed for hours resting on one of the comfy settees, or sitting in a little cubby-hole where writers (including moi) have left short notes about their time spent in this fascinating place.

I was also there doing research and made a thrilling discovery, but it's something I needed for the book I've just finished writing, so I won't post about it for now. Suffice to say that sometimes in life things happen that are so serendipidous that if you wrote about them they would seem hard to believe.