It’s DECEMBER. Some of us are finished our Christmas shopping. Others will start it on the 24th. I’m somewhere in the middle of the spectrum when it comes to Christmas gift shopping. I have begun.
Have I got a gift idea for the writer on your list! 🙂
As some of you may know, I went to Paris in June of this year. It wasn’t an ordinary Paris trip, though. I went for a writing workshop. As a HUGE fan of Ernest Hemingway’s A MOVEABLE FEAST, I always had the desire not only to see Paris…but to see it in the footsteps of Hemingway. I Googled Hemingway’s Paris writing retreatabout a year ago. As is often the case, Google struck gold. On the first page of my search, LEFT BANK WRITERS RETREAT IN PARIS came up. I knew within a minute of clicking on the website that I had found what I was looking for.
The Beautiful Luxembourg Gardens, where writers on the retreat spend their mornings writing and listening and breathing in the beauty that is Paris…
I saw Hemingway’s Paris, I wrote in the Tuileries and in the Luxembourg Gardens, I saw the city from atop the Eiffel Tower, I wandered museums, I strolled down the Champs-Élysées, and I climbed the great spiral staircase to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. I did it all.
In this unique writing retreat, writers have the opportunity to explore Paris on their own during the evening. There is nothing more beautiful than walking the streets of Paris while the sun is setting! Doing so after a full day of living the writing life is even more extraordinary!
The retreat is perfect for first time visitors to Paris, as well as those returning to the city of love and light. For first timers, not only will you be taken through Hemingway’s Paris in the embrace of tour organizer Darla Worden and her amazing faculty Sarah Sazur and Travis Cebula during the day, but you will also have the nights to explore Paris on your own. And all three faculty members are amazingly knowledgeable on all things Paris…and extremely helpful at making suggestions and offering directions, etc. I never once felt abandoned during my stay. It was wonderful to have the evenings to ourselves after our days of writing and museum hoping and neighbourhood visiting. And there was always someone from the group to share the evening experiences with.
Left Bank Writers Retreat Founder Darla Worden, Faculty Member Travis Cebula, and 2014 Alum Nina Welsh. Writing and Learning in the Luxembourg Gardens!
If you are a writer, now is the time to spoil yourself for Christmas! The Left Bank Writers Retreat is currently offering a discount! So treat yourself while the deal is on. You will NOT regret it. I loved it so much, I plan to attend this retreat again in the future.
The Left Bank Writers Retreat faculty take writers to these magical steps, where Gil was whisked off into the 1920s in the movie Midnight In Paris!
If you have a loved one who is a writer, this is the perfect Christmas gift for them. I promise you, they will love this enriching experience in the city of love and light. Paris changes you. Paris through the wonder of the Left Bank Writers Retreat, done in the shadow of Ernest Hemingway, changes you on an even deeper level. Give the gift that will give back to the writer in your life for years to come.
As writers on the loose in the evenings of Paris, you could visit the Louvre! If you walk straight from the pyramid, through the Tuileries beyond, you will find yourself strolling on the Champs-Elysees. This will eventually take you to the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, where you can walk to the top and view the city in all its splendour!
Here’s a media release from the retreat:
Forget the fancy pens and notebooks. This year’s best holiday gift for writers is six days at the Left Bank Writers Retreat, a small-group summer writing workshop held in Paris each summer. A $200 discount on registration for this year’s retreat, to be held June 14-19, 2015 – on any registration made by January 1, 2015 – makes the deal sweeter for gift givers.
The discounted price of the six-day Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris is $1,799 (regularly $1,999) and includes morning writing sessions, coaching and one-on-one time with the instructor for a maximum of eight writers, as well as lunch each day, admission to museums and area sights, an excursion to Montmartre, a picnic on the banks of the Seine and a literary tour visiting many of the sites featured in the Woody Allen movie “Midnight in Paris.”
“I’ve heard many stories at the retreat from women and men who received the retreat as a gift,” says retreat founder and CAL member Darla Worden. “It is definitely a gift that keeps on giving – writers leave the retreat with newfound inspiration found in Paris.”
The retreat welcomes fiction and memoir writers, poets and playwrights. A place in the 2015 retreat can be held with a $500 deposit.
What trip to Paris would be complete without a visit to the Eiffel Tower. The Left Bank Writers Retreat included a boat ride down the Seine where we viewed the Tower from the river. Later, on our own, a fellow alum and myself made our way to the tower for our own personal exploration up close and atop!
Put yourself, or your loved one, in the hands of the best Paris tour guides you will ever meet. Darla, Sarah and Travis are AMAZING! They gave me a gift I will never forget. Ernest Hemingway once said, “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”
I have changed this slightly after being fortunate enough to have experienced the Left Bank Writers Retreat. “If you are lucky enough to have experienced the Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for the Left Bank Writers Retreat is a moveable feast.”
Give the writer on your list a gift that will last forever. Give them Darla. And Sarah. And Travis. Give them Hemingway’s Paris!
Darla Worden, Sarah Suzor, and Travis Cebula — collectively, the magic behind the Left Bank Writers Retreat!
From the website of Left Bank Writers Retreat (Our June 2014 group captured at Les Deux Magots, a Hemingway haunt)
“If you are lucky enough to have gone to Paris as a LEFTBANK WRITERS RETREAT writer, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you…for the LEFTBANK WRITERS RETREAT is a moveable feast.” ~ Me
But okay…I borrowed a lot of those words from someone greater than myself. (-:
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”~ Ernest Hemingway
I have just returned from the Left Bank and I am in love. But it is not just being immersed in Paris’s Left Bank that has made me feel this way. It is the enchanted way in which I got to see it that made it so special. If you are a writer, you really should check out the LEFTBANK WRITERS RETREAT. It is the best thing I have done for my writing life in years, possibly ever.
As an avid fan of Ernest Hemingway’s Paris–through reading and rereading his Moveable Feast–I wanted to see it through his filter. With the Leftbank Writers Retreat that is exactly what happened. Darla Worden, Sarah Suzor and Travis Cebula–the LBWR faculty–were extremely knowledgeable of all things Hemingway and Paris. But they didn’t only lead us through the streets of Hemingway’s Paris, pointing out all the incredible places frequented by Hemingway. They gave us everything they knew of Paris. Every day we went on a new adventure. We went to museums, we went to Shakespeare & Company, we ate at Hemingway’s favourite restaurants and other incredible pearls the faculty had discovered on their own numerous trips to Paris. We went to Montmartre, we took a boat cruise to the Tower Eiffel. Every day was magical. And the registrants did not have to worry about a single thing during our days together. The meals, museum tickets, and metro passes were included in the tuition. We merely followed our three leaders as they led us into a magical adventure every single day.
And we wrote every single day of the retreat. The faculty lead us in some fantastic writing exercises in such wondrous places as the Tuileries, the Luxemburg Gardens and the gardens of Notre Dame Cathedral.
From the moment I met Darla, Sarah and Travis, it was clear they LOVED what they were doing. They didn’t only love writing and Paris, they loved wrapping up the city they were so passionate about in a huge bow and gifting it to each and every one of the writers who registered for the retreat. They came alive when we came alive. And with our evenings free, we were off to explore Paris individually or together on our own terms. Again, the faculty were there to answer any and all questions we might have had before we set off on our journeys into the Paris evening.
I think I will let a few pictures speak for the magic I witnessed there…
The Metro Station at Montparnasse
Au Lapin Agile – Setting for Steve Martin’s glorious play Picasso at the Lapin Agile!
My bucket list moment – Stepping inside the famous Shakespeare & Company!
My grandson Charlie, born while I was at the airport about to take off for Paris. Mr. Beautiful!
If you want to see Notre Dame without the crowds, go at 8am. Perfect time. Thanks to LBWR faculty member Travis for the tip (one of many!).
Nina. Atop the Arc de Triomphe. Paris, 2014.
Shakespeare and Company. Paris. 2014.
Tower Eiffel, as seen on our boat tour of the Seine.
Approaching the incredibly massive Louvre.
Notre Dame, which was just down the street…
Van Gogh anyone?
The Seine, from atop the Tower Eiffel.
La Closerie des Lilas – One of Hemingway’s haunts!
Lunch at Musee D’Orsay – As with all lunches during the week, this was included in the LBWR tuition.
The stairs where, in MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, Gil awaited the arrival of the car to take him back into the 1920s Paris night!
From atop the Tower Eiffel!
A piece in the garden of the Musee Rodin, which was included in the LBWR tuition.
Approaching the Arc de Triomphe for the first time. A magical sun on a magical evening!
My favourite artist, Odilon Redon, was celebrated in two of the museums we visited!
Inside the Louvre, in the apartments of Napoleon!
A Rodin…
The Tower Eiffel at night…I’m sure the lightshow was for me and Nina alone. (-:
The neverending spiral staircase one must climb to reach the top of the Arc de Triomphe!
Nina and I about to take on the Louvre! And we were running!
One of the settings for Amélie, a movie I adore!
If you do one thing for your writing life–just one thing ever–make sure it is to register for the LEFTBANK WRITERS RETREAT. You will not be disappointed! You will see Paris like you’ve never seen it before. And if you’ve never seen it before, you will see it in the best possible way! You will come away from your experience with a wealth of new writing and a passion to re-immerse yourself in your writing. And wherever you go for the rest of your life, you will take it with you…for the LEFTBANK WRITERS RETREAT is a moveable feast!
KEVIN CRAIG 