There are lots of students (and others) in this fifth extract from the 1940s/50s guestbook of the Hôtel des Grands Hommes!

This selection of pages dates from the summer of 1948, nearly 70 years ago, and the guests of the hotel don’t seem to want to leave!

H. Seiler from Zurich says “It is with pleasure that I leave a little word of thanks for Madame Souquet-Basiège who, through her friendly and warm welcome has rectified in many ways the impressions that we as foreigners can have about life in France.”

Harlan Schwartz thanks Madame Basiège a lot and adds “I now go to hunt lions in North Africa, but I’ll be back”!

And Englishman Peter J. Kimbers writes a poem, apparently as homage to Victor Hugo, saying “Oh Paris, queen of all cities, do not lose hope! The lives of tireless men forge your glory.”

Apart from that, it seems a lot of students stayed at the hotel, sole of whom said how much fun they had, and many of whom said how well they had eaten!

Dick Harrington of Massachusetts, a student at Harvard, could not find words to express his feelings when leaving.n’a pas trouvé de mots pour exprimer ses sentiments au moment de son départ, so he left us with a drawing of an animal (a dog?) heading west. Let’s hope he found his home without too much trouble.

For all our articles about the vintage guestbook of the Hôtel des Grands Hommes, click here. More pages coming soon!

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