France, like most countries, has produced its fair share of great writers. There’s Marcel Proust, who wrote In Search of Lost Time; Alexandre Dumas, who created the timeless phrase “All for one and one for all” in The Three Musketeers; Simone de Beauvoir, who wrote the treatise The Second Sex, and many, many more. But there is one writer who is so beloved by the French that there are hundreds of roads around the entire country named after him, including the one in Paris where he lived in his final years—he is none other than the great Victor Hugo.
Victor Hugo is considered one of the best known French writers around the world. Globally, he is known for Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), both of which were set in Paris and have been adapted for film, television and the stage, and are some of the best-known books in the world. Take a page from one of his books and explore Paris through the eyes of Victor Hugo!
Start your journey of Victor Hugo at the Notre-Dame de Paris, the setting for The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. This Catholic cathedral is one of the best examples of French Gothic architecture, with its flying buttresses, rose windows and sculptural decorations such as the gargoyles that perch around the building’s facade.
Even if you aren’t Catholic or go to church regularly, this cathedral is a must see for any fans of the story, which Hugo wrote mainly to bring more attention to the value of the Gothic style at a time where they were being demolished in favour of newer styles. As the cathedral still stands today and has become a beloved icon of the city, it’s safe to say that he achieved his goal.
Continue your journey down to the Luxembourg Gardens, visiting the site of the scene in Les Misérables where Marius first sees Cosette, the love of his life. The gardens are one of the best in the city, and nowadays you’ll see games of bocce and chess being played, as well as people picnicking and people-watching. And since Paris is the City of Love, perhaps you’ll glimpse your own Cosette strolling down the pathways.
Truly dedicated fans can then attempt a visit to the sewers of Paris, where Jean Valjean saves Marius. Or rather, you can visit the Sewer Museum, which has been open since 1889. Though it seems a tad odd that there is a museum dedicated to a sewer system, the system itself played an important role in developing Paris to become the city that it is today, so while you may not find the exact stretch that Valjean walks while carrying Marius on his back, you can still learn more about the history of the Paris sewers.
After (or instead of) that, take a trip to the Marais neighbourhood, to find the Church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis. This beautiful church, originally built in the early 17th-century in a Baroque style, was the setting for Marius and Cosette’s wedding. In real life, Hugo was a parishioner of the church, and it was here that his beloved eldest daughter also married. The font he donated to the church still stands today. The church is also home to Christ in the Garden of Olives by Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix.
End your journey of Les Misérables in Paris with a visit to the Père Lachaise Cemetery, the largest cemetery in Paris, the most visited necropolis in the world, and the final resting place of Jean Valjean at the end of the novel. Like the sewers, a cemetery might seem an odd place to visit as a tourist, but in real life, the Père Lachaise is the first garden cemetery in Paris, and the final resting place of several notable persons, such as Edith Piaf and Marcel Proust.
Carry on your journey of Victor Hugo’s Paris by taking a stroll down the very avenue named after him. In Paris, the avenue where he lived for the last two decades of his life was renamed Avenue de Victor Hugo several years before his death. The letters to him after the change were addressed “To Mr Victor Hugo, In his avenue, In Paris”.
The Maison de Victor Hugo is a must-see for any Hugophile. The writer’s home-turned-museum on the second floor of the Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée, is where he lived from 1832 to 1848 with his wife Adèle and their four children. It was in the crimson-draped drawing room that Hugo solidified his position as the father of French Romanticism, wrote two collections of poetry, plays such as “Ruy Blas” and “Les Burgraves,” and a part of Les Misérables.
The museum is divided to illustrate Hugo’s life according to his exile: before, during and after. It houses hundreds of his drawings and is decorated with artefacts Hugo himself collected on his travels. The China Room exhibition, representing his exile in Guernsey, was designed by Hugo for his mistress, Juliette Drouet, and romantic allusions to her can be seen here and there around the room.
For fans of theatre, make sure to stop by La Comédie-Française, where the writer first premiered his controversial Romantic play, Hernani in 1830. Critics were ready to boo the play off the stage, given the theatres more conservative nature, but a small army of Romantic supporters prevented that from happening, and instead a fight broke out between these two camps, which would later be referred to as the Battle of Hernani. Today, the theatre is still in operation and visitors can enjoy a wide range of shows.
And finally, make a trip to the Panthéon, the final resting place of Victor Hugo, and other distinguished French citizens. Originally a church dedicated to St. Genevieve and now a secular mausoleum, visitors can opt for a guided tour around the crypts to discover who has been buried here.
