“Hunger is a good teacher”: learning from Hemingway in Paris

Le Dome was too pricey. So was Le Globe.

It was my third day in Paris and I’d been existing on fruit and le pain au saucisson (hard sausage and butter on fresh … or not so fresh … bread). I’d pushed myself to get to Paris after my job vanished. I found that the food prices kept me hungry.

Le Select — dirtier, with a wider street seating area offered the cheapest fare in la Place Vevin. I drank a half-blonde beer while trying to scribble worthily in my tiny moleskein. “Hunger is a good teacher” Hemingway had written once. Was vacation the time to learn at the hands of such a master?

Idly, I saw the carte for bar food, and learned: prices at the bar were half the prices on the street. I gulped down the best green salad I’d ever had with some soup, glutted my tightness with the best food I’d had in years. I winced at the end of my second half-beer — what would the final bill be?

I learned again; the bill came to twenty. I don’t remember if it was francs or euros, but it was twenty, not thirty-eight and forty-five. No tax, no tip. The prices I’d feared were final, unlike in America, where prices relentlessly escalated. I smiled with Kerouac gladness, and ordered a third half-beer.

I swung north on Raspail angling through the street, skirting Luxembourg, where I was stopped by a young man on a scooter asking for directions. Cocky with intoxication, we figured out his route, and somehow, someone spoke with my mouth, repeating the lessons of my beautiful raven-haired french teacher from high school. He nodded, and was gone … I’d learned again.

Finally just before the river, at the foot of Pont Neuf, I saw a Scottish flag and heard English words.

Confusion.

Was this right? The chance to be less of an alien appealed. In my weakness I gave up the learning, and stumbled into one of the few anglophone bars on the left bank a wiser man.

The Highlander
8 Rue de Nevers, 75006
Paris, France

Photo Credits: info.chatel.com, The Highlander Scottish Pub Facebook

Sean Munson also likes good Kentucky bourbon and beer.