Photos of Paris by Julius Gwyer Some books paint such an attractive portrait of a city, that they go so far as to define your subsequent experiences of that city. In fact you foolishly go out of your way to try to experience the city as the writer described it, regardless of whether it ever existed or not, regardless of how foolhardy and futile it may be. For me, Ernest Hemingway's book "Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises" had such an effect. For years now I've pondered over how I could experience the Paris he describes through his chief protagonist Jake Barnes. On my last visit to Paris, I deliberately crossed a line: I thought, I've been so persistently intrigued by what it is about Paris that inspired Hemingway, and so many other great artists that I've felt a kinship with, or at least admired (e.g. Andre Kertesz, Louis Malle, Henry Miller, Miles Davis, Emile Zola, Jean Paul Satre, Chopin), why not seek it out? That way I could settle the matter once and for all, and I'll either end up understanding better what is Paris's X Factor, or become disillusioned by it and "move on". So it was, that like a moth to a flame, I decided to suspend my disbelief, open my eyes, indulge my senses, and walk around Paris for four thirsty days in September with camera in hand. Here then is the product of my four day stint, the first in a series of visits that I've earnestly proposed to myself, and am tritely naming "My Search for Hemingway's Paris". What I found on this first primer visit was a Paris dense with statues, parks, and other beautiful cultural artifacts, the sum effect of which was - and could only ever have been - that most addictive, necessary, yet so often illusive of human emotions: inspiration.