Echoes Along The Seine

Chapter 29, Part III of IV from
"Hemingway's Paris and Pamplona, Then and Now"
By Robert Forrest Burgess
Paris Kiosque - March 2002 - Vol. 9, N. 2
Copyright (c) 2002 Robert Forrest Burgess
Used with permission - Excerpted from
"Hemingway's Paris and Pamplona, Then and Now";
Chapter 29 - Part III of IV.

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Papa never met a stranger. He said he knew several Frenchmen who fished certain productive parts of the river between the Ile St. Louis (The island just east of L'Ille de la Cité containing Notre Dame Cathedral) and the Place du Vert Galant. He said that travel writers often thought that the fishermen along the Seine were completely crazy because they never seemed to be catching anything. The impression was that they were just fishing for the fun of it. Which to some observers suggested that they were engaged in an activity that was about as worthwhile as meditating on your navel.

Papa quickly pointed out to them that not only are these Seine River fishermen quite serious, but they are also quite productive. He said that many of them were men that lived on small pensions, which had grown virtually worthless from the inflation. They weren't fishing for the fun of it, they fished for food. Others, who had jobs, still needed that extra help feeding their large families. So they fished when they had half days off from work.

Summing it up, Hemingway thought there was better fishing at Charenton, several miles upriver where the river Marn came into the Seine, and on either side of Paris. But it was also fine fishing right in the city itself.

Today, I would be interested in his opinion of what has happened to the Seine fishing. He probably would chalk it up to pollution. He surely wouldn't chalk it up to overfishing. During the month I was there in May and early June I saw only one lonely Seine fisherman sitting with his long cane pole on the stone quai fishing practically in downtown Paris. He looked like any one of many I once saw there years ago except that he was a young man. Perhaps too young to know there were no fish to be caught. I would have talked to him about it but he was accompanied by a large black mastiff. The dog was not interested in what his master was doing. He sat with his back to his master glaring eyeball to eyeball at me. And he wasn't smiling. I never blinked, just kept walking. I'll always wonder if that Seine fisherman ever caught anything, and if he did, whether he ever dared eat it.

As soon as Bumby was old enough to enjoy the pleasures Ernest found along the Seine, like any doting father, Papa taught his son to enjoy the more meaningful things in life. In fact even at Bumby's tender age they shared their own kind of thing together. It was quality time, long remembered by his son. No wonder Bumby came home with an ice cream ring around his mouth and telling everyone how "beau" life was with Papa. After all, Papa was teaching him "neat" things. Fun things about which mothers might disapprove. Bumby never told anyone about them until long after he was a grown man. Then, Jack wrote of his early memories of Papa in his own book: Misadventures of a Fly Fisherman My Life With and Without Papa [Taylor Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas, 1986]

The book is good reading, especially the fishing parts. He recalled that his first fishing experience was as a spectator with Papa. What he saw and what they later did made enough of an impression on Jack that he become an avid sport fishing fan for life.

He said that when they lived in Paris and he and Papa went out for walks together, there was always some kind of fishing going on along the quaisides and river embankments. Papa may have started out intending to look for some good reading material, but it often ended up with them looking over the fishermen of the Seine. On his first trip, Bumby said that Papa was intent on visiting the bookstalls that lined the sidewalks along certain parts of the river. One after another these black metal boxes sat permanently attached to waist-high walls over the quais beside the Seine. Most are about the size of a small steamer trunk. Called " boites, " (boxes) their lids can be unlocked and propped open to display a treasure-trove of exciting old books and memorabilia.

These bookstalls along the Seine are fascinating. From them you can buy anything from old etched prints to long forgotten maps and leather-bound books, or cheap paperbacks, old Parisian playbills, artists' prints and reproductions of famous oil paintings of all sizes; naughty postcards and touristy ones, plus an enormous amount of unusual bricabrac of interest to almost everyone enjoying a casual promenade along the river walk in the dappled shade of the plane trees.

Papa's moves on the bookstalls were more thought out that most casual perusers. He sought quality merchandise. Some " boites " turned out better quality books than others did. Consequently Papa had certain ones that he preferred over others. For example he enjoyed searching those opposite the hotel that was right next door to our apartment: Hotel Voltaire on Quai Voltaire, for a definite reason. He said it was because there were several bookstalls along there that sold books purchased from hotel employees "especially Hotel Voltaire, which had a wealthier clientele than most." When you are out looking, you might as well shop for the best.

End of Part III of IV; Chapter 29 of "Hemingway's Paris and Pamplona, Then and Now".

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Robert F. Burgess who met Ernest Hemingway during his last Pamplona fiesta, describes those events. He tells of Ernest's early Paris and Pamplona years, then returns to Europe to revisit Hemingway's haunts today. He buses and back-packs into the Spanish Pyrenees to retrace the route described by Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises. Finding everything exactly as he described it, including where Jake and Bill cooled their wine bottles while trout fishing, he realizes that Hemingway often wrote more fact than fiction into his novels. From new interviews and perspectives of those who knew him we see a clearer view of the man behind the legend, a man who just before the end knew what he valued most and when he had been the happiest. Burgess shows us where and how Hemingway's legacy still lives on in Paris and Pamplona today. 392 pages, includes never before published pictures of Hemingway, and many others. Paperback: 6 x 9-inches. © Jan. 2000 Published by iUniverse.com. See more about the book at http://www.robertf.burgess.to

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