Where the Writers Lived

Victor Hugo, 6 Place des Vosges

Hugo lived in the second-floor apartment at no. 6 from 1832 to 1848 — wrote much of Les Misérables here, raised four children, hosted Lamartine, Dumas, and Vigny in the salon. The apartment is now a free museum, with several rooms restored to their 1840s appearance.

Free entry. The salon and study are the rooms to linger in. Look for the carved wooden Chinese-style room he designed for his mistress Juliette Drouet's apartment, transferred here. Closed Mondays.

Verified nearby ·Pasta Linea3 min

→Métro Saint-Paul (line 1) → Cardinal Lemoine (line 10, transfer at Hôtel de Ville). 4 stops total. Walk up Rue du Cardinal Lemoine to no. 74. ~20 min.

48.85510, 2.36540

Hemingway, 74 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine

Hemingway and his first wife Hadley rented a fourth-floor walk-up here from January 1922 to August 1923 — their first Paris apartment, no running water, no toilet. He wrote In Our Time on the kitchen table. There's a small plaque on the facade.

Look for the green plaque next to the door. The apartment is private; just stand on the cobbles opposite and read A Moveable Feast's opening pages on your phone. Hemingway's local café was the now-gone Café des Amateurs at the bottom of the hill.

Verified nearby ·Arènes de Lutèce2 minHôtel des Grandes Écoles3 min

→Walk west, ~15 min downhill to Rue de Seine. Or métro Cardinal Lemoine (line 10) → Mabillon (3 stops). Hôtel La Louisiane is at 60 Rue de Seine.

48.84600, 2.35170

Sartre & Beauvoir, Hôtel La Louisiane

60 Rue de Seine. Sartre and Beauvoir lived here in adjacent rooms in the 1940s — small, cheap, with a curving Art Nouveau staircase. Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex partly in room 50; Miles Davis stayed here on his first visits to Paris.

Still operating as a hotel — the lobby is open to the public, with a small display of the philosophers' invoices and Beauvoir's room key on the wall. Look but don't loiter; rooms 50 and 60 are upstairs and not visitable.

Verified nearby ·Kodawari Ramen (Yokochō)2 minMusée national Eugène-Delacroix2 min

→Walk south to Métro Saint-Sulpice (line 4), ride south to Vavin (3 stops), transfer to line 6 westbound to Edgar Quinet (one stop). Walk south on Rue Schoelcher 3 min. ~20 min total.

48.85420, 2.33700

Beauvoir, 11bis Rue Schoelcher

Beauvoir lived in a top-floor studio here from 1955 until her death in 1986, looking directly across at Montparnasse Cemetery (where she's now buried with Sartre). She wrote The Mandarins, Les Belles Images, and her Memoirs from this room. Bookshelves, a futon-like bed, photographs of her travels — preserved by friends after her death.

Private apartment, no plaque. Stand on the street opposite to see her windows, then walk into the cemetery (entrance one block south, free) — Beauvoir and Sartre's joint grave is in division 20, easy to find from the map at the entrance.

Verified nearby ·Institut Giacometti2 min

→Métro Edgar Quinet (line 6) → Trocadéro, transfer to line 9 westbound to Rue de la Pompe (3 stops past transfer)... actually easier: line 6 to La Motte-Picquet, line 8 to ... Actually Boulevard Haussmann is north. Take RER B from Denfert-Rochereau to Auber, walk to no. 102. ~30 min.

48.83640, 2.32950

Proust, 102 Boulevard Haussmann

Proust lived in apartment on the second floor from 1907 to 1919 — the period when he wrote most of À la recherche du temps perdu. He had the bedroom walls lined with cork to silence street noise, slept by day, wrote by night, hardly went out. The cork bedroom itself is preserved at the Musée Carnavalet (4 km east).

The actual building is private offices now, with a discreet plaque. To see the cork-lined bedroom, you have to go to the Musée Carnavalet in the Marais — the room was transferred there piece by piece in 1971.

→Métro Saint-Augustin (line 9) → Trocadéro (4 stops), transfer to line 6 westbound to Passy, walk down to Rue Raynouard. Maison de Balzac is at no. 47. ~25 min.

48.87570, 2.31980

Balzac, 47 Rue Raynouard

Honoré de Balzac rented this small house on the slope below Passy from 1840 to 1847, hiding from creditors under the false name "Monsieur de Brugnol". Wrote major chunks of La Comédie humaine here. The house is now a free museum (Maison de Balzac), preserved as he left it — including the writing desk and the famous walking stick.

Free entry, garden included. The garden is on a steep slope and offers an excellent view across the Seine. Closed Mondays. Combined visit with the nearby Musée du Vin (in old wine cellars cut into the chalk) is good for a half-day.

Verified nearby ·Le Bistrot des Vignes2 min

48.85680, 2.27840