Today's walk is a compact and beautiful one, but as it leads you by some of the most expensive jewelry and couturier shops in Paris, leaving your credit card at the hotel is perhaps a good idea.

Begin at the métro stop St-Augustin, named after the imposing church just north of the stop.  Turn toward the west and follow the rue La Boetie, which splits off from the principal street, boulevard Haussmann.  On your left at number 19, you'll see the building where the thirteen-year-old Henry James  stayed with his family for several months in 1856-57.  James is, of course, more famous as an expatriate in England, but he and his family spent much of their time abroad in France even in his youth.

Turn left at the next major intersection onto the rue Miromesnil.  After it crosses one of the most famous shopping streets in Paris, rue du Faubourg-St-Honoré, it becomes the rue Marigny.  On your left are the grounds of the Palais de l'Elysée (the equivalent of our White House), and at the end of the street, just before it reaches the Champs Elysées, at number 1,  John Steinbeck and his family lived in the summer of 1954.

Turn right onto the Champs Elysées and follow it to the Rond-Point.  Cross the street and turn left onto the major street leading to the Seine, the avenue Montaigne.  As you walk the length of this street, you will pass some of the most expensive boutiques in the city--shop after shop of high fashion.  At the end of the street is the hotel where  Sinclair Lewis  finished Arrowsmith during the winter of 1924-25.

Re-trace your steps about ten yards and cross to the other side.  The second street on the left is the rue du Boccador.  Number 24 was the home for five years to the journalist and historian Theodore H. White; he wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning The Mountain Road while living there.  Both Art Buchward and  Irwin Shaw  (The Young Lions) lived at this address:

Turn right onto the avenue George V at the end of this short street and take the third left onto the rue Christophe Colomb.   Henry Adams  rented rooms at number 16 in 1898 while he worked on his important Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres.

At the end of the street, turn right and follow the avenue Marceau a short distance to the Arc de Triomphe.  Cross the Champs-Elysées.  The circle around the Arc is known as the Place Charles de Gaulle.  One block behind is a second ring of streets, and the one here, on the northeast side of the Arc, is the rue de Tilsitt.  Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald lived in a 5th floor apartment here for most of the year 1925.

If you made it through today's walk without overcharging on your credit card, you're entitled to a leisurely stroll down the Champs-Elysées.  If not, take the métro directly home.  Do not pass any more fancy boutiques or hotels, though trying to collect $200 isn't such a bad idea.