Tag Archives: writers in Paris

Maison de Balzac. Paris Info

Trace the Literary Greats of Paris at their Former Residences

Paris’s literary traditions go back hundreds of years and countless writers have lived across the city and been inspired by it and its residents. Some of these are commemorated by plaques, while others are have been converted into museums. Visiting these former residences of writers in Paris, even from the outside, provides fascinating insight into their lives and works.

Maison-de-Victor-Hugo

Maison de Victor Hugo. Paris Info

Victor Hugo

Maison de Victor Hugo, 6 Place des Vosges, 75004

One of France’s most beloved authors lived in an apartment on Place des Vosges for 16 years from 1832 to 1848. It was here where Hugo worked on some of his most famous works, from novels (Les Miserables) to plays (Marie Tudor) and collections of poems (Beams and Shadows, The Legends of the Centuries). Converted into a museum run by the City of Paris, the Maison de Victor Hugo displays personal artifacts of the author and sheds light into life of the 19th century.

Maison de Balzac and top photo: Paris Info

Honoré de Balzac

Maison de Balzac, 47 Rue Raynouard, 75016 Paris

Hidden away on the “edge” of what was the village of Passy in the current day 16th district of the city, a countryside ambiance continues to prevail at this cottage lived in by Honoré de Balzac from 1840 to 1847. It was here where he edited La Comedie humaine and worked on La Rabouilleuse, Une ténébreuse affaire, La Cousine Bette, among others. Another museum of the City of Paris, since 1971 it has displayed manuscripts, original editions and other memorabilia linked to the writer.

Marcel Proust’s bedroom at the Musée Carnavalet

Marcel Proust

102 Blvd Haussmann, 75008

Proust spent much of his childhood in various apartments around the chic Parc Monceau. After his parents died he moved to this nearby apartment, which had belonged to his maternal uncle. He lived here from 1906 to 1919 and it is where he wrote much of his opus In Search of Lost Time. Now a bank, a plaque on the wall commemorates Proust’s time here. Although you can’t visit the interior of this elegant building, you can get a glimpse of the author’s bedroom, with furniture and other personal affects, on display in the Musée Carnavalet.

Plaque for Oscar Wilde on l’Hotel,  Mu/CC

Wilde, Wolfe, Borges

L’Hôtel, 13 rue des Beaux Arts, 75006

Now a luxury hotel, this once down and out establishment of the Left Bank has housed a variety of writers. Having fled England for France in 1897, Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde was staying at this hotel when he passed away on 30 November, 1900. This is commemorated by a plate on the outside of the building and Wilde’s final resting place is the Pere Lachaise cemetery. English writer Thomas Wolfe also lived here for a year in 1925 and later in the century Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges regularly stayed at the hotel between 1977 and 1984.

Gertrude Stein's apartment rue Fleurus

Gertrude Stein’s apartment on rue Fleurus

Gertrude Stein

27 rue Fleurus, 75006

One of the most important cultural addresses of the early 20th century, Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo, then Alice B. Toklas, lived in an apartment at this Left Bank address from 1903 to 1937. It was here where Stein held her famous literary salons and worked on her books here including The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, published in 1933. You can observe a plaque dedicated to her above the building’s entrance.

Hemingway Plaque on Rue Cardinal Lemoine. FLLL / CC

Ernest Hemingway

74 Cardinal Lemoine, 75005, 113 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, 75006, 6 rue Férou, 75006 and 69 rue Froidevaux, 75014

When they arrived in Paris, Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, lived in a tiny apartment behind the Pantheon on rue Cardinal Lemoine from January 1922 until August 1923. He described this drafty residence in his memoir A Moveable Feast. There is also a commemorative plaque on the wall of the building. They later lived on Notre-Dame-des-Champs, near our Paris School, the Luxembourg Gardens and his favourite hangout, La Closerie des Lilas, in a long dusty flat above a sawmill and where Ezra Pound also had a studio. He stayed in the area when he moved in with his second companion, Pauline Pfeiffer, first living on the other side of the park on rue Férou and then further south in the Montparnasse district on rue Froidevaux.

58 rue de Vaugirard. Celette / CC

Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald

14 rue de Tilsitt, 75008 and 58 rue Vaugirard, 75006

The Fitzergeralds lived in various apartments in Paris, both on the Right and Left Bank of the city. When they first moved to Paris in 1925, they lived on a small side street, rue de Tilsitt, in the 8th arrondissement and around the corner from the Arc de Triomphe. They later crossed over to the Left Bank, where most of their friends were living, and in 1928 took up an apartment on rue de Vaugirard, near the Luxembourg Gardens.

Rue de Verneuil. Mbzt / CC

James Baldwin

Rue de Verneuil, 75007

This narrow street of the Saint Germain neighborhood is now famous for bearing the house of iconic French singer Serge Gainsberg, however, it once held several third-rate hotels. It was in these that James Baldwin lived during his early years in Paris. From here it was a short walk to the Café de Flore, popular with writers of the era and a favorite of Baldwin’s.

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Café Les Deux Magots Paris

Top Historic Literary Cafés of the Left Bank

Since the Age of Enlightenment, cafés became a popular meeting place of intellectuals and writers. This was especially the case over the course of the 20th century when the waterholes of la Rive Gauche developed legendary statues thanks to the literary greats who graced their tables. Although these literary cafés of the Left Bank no longer attract bohemian scribes like they did in bygone days, they are still worth making a pilgrimage to for current day writers and literary fans.

Le-Procope-Creative-Writing-MA-Paris

Le Procope

Considering the oldest café in Paris, this Left Bank institution has been welcoming intellectuals virtually since it opened in 1686. Thanks to the arrival of the Comédie Francaise theatre across the street in 1689, French playwrights, writers and philosophers naturally gravitated here. These include Condorcet, La Harpe, Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot, who is thought to have worked on his famous Encyclopaedia at the café. More restaurant than café today, the classic establishment still has Voltaire’s favourite table, located on the first floor.

Les Deux Magots Cheng-en Cheng

Les Deux Magots. Photo: Cheng-en Cheng / CC

Les Deux Magots

One of the most famous cafés in Paris, if not the world, this classic institution was originally a fabrics and novelty shop which was converted into a café in 1884. It’s growing popularity with Lost Generation writers like Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce led the café to start its own literary prize in 1933. Writers continued to gravitated to it over decades including Bertolt Brecht and Vladimir Nabokov, who mentioned it in his 1955 novel Lolita.

Le Café de Flore

Le Café de Flore

Opened during the café boom of the 1880s, this iconic St-Germain café, and staunch rival of its neighbour Les Deux Magots, acted as the unofficial headquarters of existentialism philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir for decades. Earlier in the century it was also a favorite of Apollinaire and Salmon, who worked on their arts review, Les Soirées de Paris, at the café. Albert Camus and poet Jacques Prévert could also found inspiration here.

La Closerie Des Lilas Paris writers

La Closerie Des Lilas

Along with St-Germain, the Montparnasse district was another literary hub of the first half of the 20th century. This historic café, opened in the 1860s, first attracted avant-garde artists before drawing in both French and foreign writers. French poets Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire and Max Jacob could often be found here, pen or glass in hand. In their various eras one might encounter Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, Fitzgerald and Henry Miller at its tables, however, it was Hemingway who frequented the venue the most. It’s said that he read Fitzgerald’s manuscript of The Great Gatsby here, he likely worked on The Sun Also Rises and the café is described in his memoir, A Moveable Feast.

La Rotonde Paris Writers cafe

La Rotonde

Another literary haunt of the Montparnasse district, and around the corner from our Paris School, this café used to be so popular that Hemingway wrote in The Sun Also Rises that, “no matter what cafe in Montparnasse you ask a taxi driver to bring you to from the right bank of the river, they always take you to the Rotonde.” In literary circles you could find Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein here as well as those in the art scene like Picasso, Modigliani and Cocteau. More recently, President Emmanuel Macron chose to celebrate his 2017 Presidential victory here, adding another chapter to the legendary café’s storied history.

Café Tournon

Photo courtesy of Café Tournon

Café Tournon

On the other side of the Luxembourg gardens, this unassuming neighbourhood café became a meeting place for the next generation of writers. In the 1950s one could find James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Chester Himes and William Gardner Smith debating around its tables over an afternoon coffee. The café also served as the early base of the staff and writers of the literary magazine The Paris Review.

Looking for inspiration for your own writing in Paris? Advance your craft by undertaking our Master’s in Creative Writing in Paris offered at our campus in the Montparnasse district.