When the Hemingways arrived in Paris, they were in good shape financially. Hadley's trust could be expected to yield an annual income in excess of $3,000, and Ernest's agreement to write stories for the Toronto Star promised to add to that figure substantially. At the current rates for Paris housing, they could thus afford a decent place to live. Yet when they went apartment-hunting, they settled on a two-room, fourth-floor walk-up in the oldest part of the Paris Left Bank, costing about eighteen dollars a month. The neighborhood was charmless, with no good restaurants or shopping, and the plumbing and heating were primitive. But the newlyweds indulged themselves in other ways. Immediately after moving into their apartment, they left for a three-week skiing holiday in Switzerland.This view from the apartment was possibly taken by Hemingway himself. In a letter to his parents, he called the apartment "the jolliest place you ever saw."
View from the kitchen window of the Hemingways' first apartment in Paris
Unidentified photographer /
Gelatin silver print, circa 1922
Image courtesy Ernest Hemingway Collection, John F. Kennedy Library,
Boston, Massachusetts
