Down and Out in Paris, September 2022

OS Member Robert Morton describes our September Orwell Walk through Paris

On this walk we found out what it was like to be down and out in Paris. Thankfully this was second-hand, not to mention a million other things, due to being guided by a walking encyclopaedia, Richard Hallmark, helped our brilliant walk mates. There was pretty much nothing either trivial or significant about Orwell and his works, along with an array of other literary figures, that Richard or someone in the group didn’t know.

Needless to say, high-minded scholarly types like us, were utterly oblivious to things like food and drink, but even we noticed that we were eating in perfect places. Lunch on Sunday took three hours, not you’ll understand, as an indulgence but so that, like Orwell, we would find out how it felt to live in France by going through it ourselves. But in our case, wine bottles kept on magically appearing, so the time passed very easily. Thank you Quentin!

A lucky thing is that while down and out Orwell may have been, he lived in a wonderfully atmospheric neighbourhood. It certainly has been discovered by tourists who we naturally viewed with disdain! However, it’s hardly a neighbourhood for those who are poor to live in now, but it still beguilingly swept us up. A magical moment was alighting on a street market where a little band were playing and couples spontaneously dancing. Lit up by brilliant autumn sunshine.

And we vicariously relived great moments from Orwell’s experiences as told in Down and Out like the wonderful scene with the bed bugs causing uproar in the street. We also heard about how he and Boris’ suspense over how much they could pawn their overcoats for. It is hard to know whether to envy Orwell or feel for him for what he went through in Paris. Certainly, his witty and immediate accounts make it sound like much of it was fun and games. One can hardly not envy him for all the people he met. Unlike most down and outs, he could have escaped back to a comfortable life in England had he wanted to. Orwell’s meeting with Hemingway, recounted brilliantly by Richard, inevitably makes one envy living in such a place at such a time, although the true part to envy is having the brilliance to make such people want to know him.

The “Rue Coq d’Or” or actually the Rue du Pot de Fer

The tour was 90% laughter but there were a few sobering moments, including a reminder of that ending of Down and Out:

‘I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant.’ Orwell has plenty to tell us today.

Robert Morton

Photographs: Quentin Kopp

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Read about our September walk through London here.