The Paris Writers’ Café Tour Overview
What if you didn’t just visit Paris’s legendary cafés — but wrote in them?
Led by novelist, poet, and journalist Lisa Pasold, this writing-focused journey combines guided walks, workshops, and opportunities to connect with Paris’s creative community.
You’ll begin in St-Germain, home to some of the city’s most storied cafés, and take part in your first writing session at Le Mazarin, including one-on-one time with Lisa to clarify your goals for the week.
Most mornings are devoted to café writing sessions, with prompts and support. Later, practice ekphrastic writing at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, where art is arranged in unusual installations inside a historic mansion. Hear you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up stories in a setting straight out of Zola novel on a guided walk of Paris’s elegant 19th-century covered passages. These passages were social centres filled with boutiques and cafés.
Meet local authors and attend a long-running spoken-word evening of music and poetry. Take a guided tour of the American Library in Paris, a gathering place for writers and thinkers since 1920. Close the week with a festive salon at Lisa’s home in a vieux Paris pedestrian street behind Montmartre.
With just 10–13 participants, you’ll have the time, space, and individual attention to hone your craft in multiple café settings while forming real connections with fellow writers.
You’ll leave Paris with new work in hand — and a renewed sense of what it means to write in the present, in a city that has inspired generations of artists. Step into history while living and writing very much in the present Paris café.
Accommodation
Classical Pursuits’ longtime home in Paris is the Hôtel Le Littré. The hotel is in Paris’ 6th arrondissement, on a quiet street between the rue de Rennes and the rue de Vaugirard. Guest rooms are a generous size by Paris standards and are equipped with air conditioning, TV, safe, minibar, hair dryer, and free WiFi. A varied buffet breakfast is served in the elegant restaurant.
Itinerary at a Glance
Day 1: Arrive to Paris / welcome dinner in Montparnasse
Day 2: Guided walk on Left Bank café history / writing workshop and bookshop reading
Day 3: Writing workshop and Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature visit
Day 4: Walking tour on the history of the literary café / cooking class
Day 5: Musée Carnavalet writing session / bookshop visit / optional jazz or theatre
Day 6: Writing workshop / American Library visit / farewell dinner at Lisa’s
Day 7: Departure
Readings
This tour differs from our others in that it’s a writing-focused trip. There will be a recommended reading list for background information before the trip. We will discuss different Paris writers during our time together, but the main focus of these meetings will be creative ideas for our own writing.
Practical Details and Next Steps
Requesting an itinerary is a great way to help decide if this tour is for you. We’re also available to talk by email at info@classicalpursuits.com or on the phone toll-free at (844) 869-1001. You can also book online.
Once you’re ready to join, our colleague Abbie at our partner Worldwide Quest is happy to get you started with information about putting down a deposit and the tour payment schedule. You can reach her at abbie@worldwidequest.com or 1-800-387-1483. Classical Pursuits offers a number of pre-tour online experiences for each tour, all of which are free or deeply discounted for tour participants.
All Classical Pursuits tours are sold by and operate through our longtime partner Worldwide Quest, a licensed Ontario tour operator and an IATA Accredited Agent that was created in 1970 (as Quest Nature Tours and Worldwide Adventures). All participants on Classical Pursuits trips are covered by the terms of the Ontario Travel Industry Act (Worldwide Quest Inc., Ontario License #2667946).
Image credits: Tour page image of Les Deux Magots by Roger Salz on Flicker/Creative Commons
