Houses With Stories

It is estimated that in France, there are about 120 authors’ houses in the strict sense, in other words, houses in which writers once lived. But if we extend this description to places with literary associations, including libraries and museums devoted to writers, we reach a total of 265. This profusion includes a huge diversity of places and legal statuses. Some houses are privately owned and managed by individuals or associations, others are publicly owned.

Five centuries, from the Renaissance to the present day, are represented, although the 19th century clearly predominates. Our heritage includes all sorts of houses, from the modest thatched cottage in Montmorency that sheltered Jean-Jacques Rousseau (he was forced to leave it by night to avoid the legal proceedings that resulted from the publication of Emile), to the Chateau de Saint-Point in the Macon district where Lamartine lived; from Boris Vian’s small apartment in Pigalle, in Paris, to the Chateau de Monte-Cristo which the extravagant Alexandre Dumas had built at Port-Marly.

Honor to he to whom honor is due – the Victor-Hugo Museum will be the starting point of our Tour de France in 10 houses. This 17th-century mansion stands in the heart of Paris, in Place des Vosges. The poet moved here at the height of his fame, in 1832. He was to remain here for 26 years, with his wife and children. Here he was to write his great dramas and entertain the élite of the Romantics. As at Hauteville House, the house he occupied during his exile on the Channel Island of Guernsey, Hugo here gave free rein to his taste for second-hand furnishings and things medieval. The layout of the apartment has changed and the furniture been dispersed, but in the museum, first opened in 1903, we find the atmosphere of Hugo’s world again, through the recreation of the decor he designed for his mistress, Juliette Drouet, and that of his last bedroom, Avenue...Victor-Hugo. But the Victor-Hugo Museum is especially valuable for the wealth of its collections and the enthusiasm of its curator, who arranges exhibitions focusing on the links between Hugo and contemporary creative work.

Still in Paris, but this time in the Passy district, is the house of the other literary giant of the 19th century – Honoré de Balzac. The comparison is edifying. On the one hand, a poet crowned with glory, on the other, a novelist up to his eyes in debt, pursued by his creditors. Oddly built on two levels, this delightful house allowed Balzac, living under a false name, to escape them by the back door which opens on to a narrow street below. In his study, he would write all night, his back to the window. The small table and coffeepot remind us of the immense labor of the author of La Comédie Humaine (The Human Comedy). The library is very well stocked, particularly with newspapers and magazines of the period; and the garden allows us to imagine the time when this part of Paris was still in the countryside.

The Alchemy Between A Book And Reality

The family of Marcel Proust’s father came from the Chartres area where, in summer, they stayed at the home of an aunt, Elisabeth Amiot – immortalized in A la Recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) as Aunt Léonie. The transfigured memories of the novelist were to make the small town of Illiers the Combray of his childhood. To enter Aunt Léonie’s house is to penetrate the world of Du cote de chez Swann (Swann’s Way). It’s all here – the polished furniture, the bedroom where he listened for his mother’s step on the stairs, the provincial atmosphere. Visitors come from all over the world, some weep with emotion. This is surely the best example of the alchemy between a book and the reality which – in part – inspired it. Lectures and heritage courses encourage students to appreciate this difficult writer, as do outings (the church, the Pré Catelan and the Chateau de Villebon) and the famous madeleine (a small sponge cake) whose invention is claimed by each one of the local patissiers.

Of the countless houses in which Colette lived, none was available for a museum; one had to be created, in the Chateau of Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, the Burgundy village where she spent her childhood. This task was entrusted to an interior designer, Helene Mugot, who has created an unusual place devoted entirely to an encounter with a writer. Her rejection of reverent reproduction, the use of pictures, sound, the architecture, light and colors provide a very purified and contemporary interpretation of Colette’s world. In the library, a trompe l’oeil painting of 1,500 books reveals some opened at her finest sentences – for the visitor to pick his favorites.

There was a time when Ferney was one of the most famous places in France. For the man then called "L’Aubergiste de l’Europe" ("The Innkeeper of Europe") lived in this Ain village, a short walk from the Swiss border – a wise precaution? In Ferney, Voltaire, then aged 60, could at last put into practice his ideas about work and society, planting trees, setting up factories, cutting taxes, writing for and acting in his theater. The philosopher defended freedom of thought and wrote the Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical Dictionary) and the Traité sur la tolerance (Treatise on Tolerance).

Long a private property, the Chateau has been altered, but the beauty of the gardens and the buildings is unspoiled. The State has just bought the property and the Centre des Monuments Nationaux has embarked on some major restoration work. Since December 16, 2000, an agreement between the State, the Rhone-Alpes region and the town of Ferney-Voltaire has resulted in the creation of a cultural center, "Auberge de l’Europe," which will provide residential accommodation for artists in exile, persecuted in their own countries.

A Romantic Pilgrimage

The Chateau de Nohant has belonged to the Caisse des Monuments Historiques since 1952. Open to the public since 1961, it has recently been restored. Visitors love this romantic house where George Sand lived, often visited by Alfred de Musset, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Eugene Delacroix and so many other distinguished guests. Nohant is the archetype of a writer’s house, in the traditional sense of the word. The intimist character of the restoration work, the eventful life of George Sand and her complex personality give the pilgrimage to Nohant, in the heart of the Berry she loved so much, a romantic tone to which the Chopin Festival and Fetes Romantiques contribute.

François Mauriac’s heirs donated the Malagar estate to the Regional Council of Aquitaine in 1985. This wine-producing property, situated not far from Bordeaux, was a haven of peace for the novelist who here rediscovered his roots, and found a source of inspiration for his writing. A family mansion, vines, two wine storehouses, outbuildings and a beautiful terrace overlooking the Garonne valley, Malagar is first and foremost a piece of land. A superb restoration has made it also a cultural, research and meeting center. The François-Mauriac center will in particular focus on the 2001 "Les Rendez-vous francophones" ("Gathering of the French-speaking world") in Quebec.

A house of many facets, a museum-house, a book-house: Pierre Loti’s home in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, is one of the most amazing in the country. Of this austere and bourgeois family house, the naval officer-novelist was to make a permanent theater, projecting his dreams, his delusions and his nostalgia. Like a stage-set, the scenes unfold, borrowing furniture and wall hangings from the Middle Ages, from Turkey, from China and Japan, a reflection of the costumes that he himself was so fond of wearing. He threw lavish parties here, but lived in a monastic cell which reveals a little of the truth to us of that "heart more changeble than an equinoctial sky."

Museum-Home Book-Home

The historic route of writers’ houses runs from Normandy to the Ile-de-France. It is punctuated by 12 stopping points, including Michelet’s chateau, Turgenev’s dacha, or Chateaubriand’s Vallee aux Loups (Valley of Wolves). The Villeneuve mill at Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines was bought by Louis Aragon in 1951, as a gift of "a piece of French soil" to his wife, the novelist of Russian origin, Elsa Triolet. The two writers worked together to restore the property, and write their books. They are buried, side by side, on the grounds. Time seems to have stopped – beautifully restored, the house is exactly as it was at Aragon’s death, with its blue-tiled kitchen, its large wooden table, its water mill and thousands of books. Series of lectures on Elsa Triolet and Aragon, seminars, exhibitions of the work of young designers as well as of painters associated with both writers from cultural programs open to a wide audience.

Last stop: Emile Zola’s house in Médan, beside the Seine. Bought thanks to the success of his novel L’Assommoir (The Still), it seems like a distillation of the relationship that a writer may have with his house. Zola was its designer and architect. It grew with his books, the original house being enlarged by a "Nana" tower, then by a "Germinal" tower. The novelist wrote here in peace, but also entertained his friends here – a retreat, a place for creative work but also for socializing, in the country but near Paris, it reflects his tastes and his personality, his aesthetic and his lifestyle. A major restoration project is in progress, on the initiative of its patron Pierre Bergé.

So many others ought to be mentioned! In recent years a large number of them have been benefiting from a policy of restoration and activity which is making them centers of attraction drawing several thousand visitors a year. They are endowed with research centers, libraries, Web sites, shops or tearooms – combining a literary and tourist role. Considerable thought has been given to museographic matters in order to improve the presentation of collections. As for the activities they are directed at both schoolchildren and adult audiences, enriched by theatrical performers, lectures, symposiums, literary tours and reading groups. It is evident that writers’ houses fall into a fast changing area. We only hope that they will not lose their soul, as fragile as paper... (Reprinted from Label France, the quarterly news magazine of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)