Don’t forget to write home

Hugh Francis Anderson takes a look at Ernest Hemingway’s loving relationship with the Ritz Paris

Who? Ernest Hemingway Where? Ritz Paris, France What? The Sun Also Rises, 1926 Why? In late August 1944, a lone Willys Jeep screeched along the cobbled streets of the 1st arrondissement, into Place Vendôme and came to a halt outside Ritz Paris. A lone figure marched through the doors, gun slung over his shoulder, and proudly announced the liberation of the hotel and Paris from the Nazi regime. He subsequently made his way through to the bar and ran up a tab of 51 dry martinis. That man was Ernest Hemingway, and his love for Ritz Paris ran deep. ‘When I dream of an afterlife in heaven, the action always takes place at the Ritz Paris,’ he once wrote.

Throughout the decadent Jazz Age, Hemingway was a regular at what was then called Le Petit Bar; years later, the hotel renamed it Bar Hemingway in his honour. It can seat only 25 people at any one time. The hotel is mentioned in the author’s debut novel, The Sun Also Rises, and it is claimed that the discovery of some of his own long-lost journals in the hotel’s basement inspired his 1964 memoir, A Moveable Feast.

How? The charm of Paris is irrefutable at any time of the year, but spring and early summer is the best time to visit, when the hotel’s garden is in full bloom. When you’re there, sip on a Serendipity, head bartender Colin Field’s own creation, a mixture of Champagne, calvados and apple juice. From €1,700 (£1,435) for a superior room (00 33 14 316 3030; www.ritzparis.com)