In August 1946, Whitman boarded a ship for Paris, to work in a camp for war orphans. When it disbanded, he enrolled at the Sorbonne to study French civilisation. Whitman traded his G.I. rations for other veterans' book allowances, quickly amassing a large number of books. He left the door to his tiny room in the Hotel de Suez unlocked, so anyone could come and read the books whether he was home or not. Lawrence Ferlinghetti remembered: "He was living in this little room, no windows and books stacked up you the ceiling on three sides. And there was George in the middle, reading in this broken down armchair".