France / Paris
Bookshops, riverbanks & the Left Bank
Build your days around neighbourhoods, with room for a bookshop detour and an unhurried café stop.
Plan a Paris stay →THE FIRST EDITION / PARIS & ROMEA city begins with a storyRead the place.
Read the place.
Then go there.
Books that open a city. Walks that give it shape. A hotel that puts you in the right chapter.
Open the Paris notebook ↗Two cities, many stories
Where the pages lead
Italy / Rome
Poets, piazzas & layers of history
Pair a literary stop with the streets around it, then choose a base that makes tomorrow easier.
Plan a Rome stay →On the reading table
A different way into a city
Memoir
A Moveable Feast
Ernest Hemingway
Paris in the 1920s; historical atmosphere rather than current travel logistics.
Explore the reading note →Cultural history
Rome
Robert Hughes
Art and cultural history; pair it with a current guide for practical planning.
Explore the reading note →Practical guidebooks
Paris / Rome city guides
Lonely Planet
Choose the city-specific guide for your trip; publication dates differ.
Explore the reading note →
Hôtel Littéraire Le Swann / official hotel photography · resized / displayed crop
Hotel notes / Paris
A Paris hotel with Proust at its heart
Le Swann brings the bookish theme into the stay itself. A closer look at its location, literary identity and the room details to compare.
Inside Le Swann ↗Places to return to
Eight stays, two cities
Hôtel Littéraire le Swann, BW Premier Collection
Right Bank / Saint-Lazare
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Hôtel Littéraire Marcel Aymé, BW Premier Collection
Montmartre
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Hotel & Spa La Belle Juliette
Left Bank / Rue du Cherche-Midi
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Hotel Le Six
Montparnasse / Luxembourg
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Damaso Hotel
Piazza Navona / Campo de’ Fiori
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Hotel Locarno
Piazza del Popolo
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Hotel Artemide
Via Nazionale
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Albergo Santa Chiara Hotel Rome
Pantheon / Historic centre
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Alexandra’s notebook
A book, a neighbourhood,
a place to return to.
I bring the reading and the practical planning together: what a book can add to a trip, how a neighbourhood fits your days, and which hotel details deserve a closer look.
Meet Alexandra →