Today, I embarked on a journey through the heart of Paris, tracing a path made famous by Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. My mission: to follow the spirited Gavroche and the two orphans on their way to the Elephant of the Bastille, a monument that once stood where the July Column now proudly rises. As I moved along this trail, this "bookpacking" adventure brought to life the lingering echoes of two tales.
The walk began near the Church of Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais, a church named after an elm tree that was once a prominent landmark. In Les Misérables, Hugo describes Gavroche as "entranced in front of a wig maker's shop near Orme-St-Gervais," a vivid detail that anchors his journey in the particular geography of old Paris. From there, just as Gavroche would have done with the two gamins, I headed east, "up Rue St-Antoine in the direction of the Bastille."
A significant stop along this route was the magnificent Church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis. For those who read Victor Hugo’s novel, this church holds a layer of significance as the very place where Cosette and Marius eventually marry, a beacon of hope amidst the novel's tumultuous backdrop. A church so beautiful that the author insisted that they get married there. And he was not lying. The tall ceilings, beautiful architecture, and detailed statues made this church especially stunning. On a topic outside the novel, this grand edifice, with its imposing facade, held a subtle yet powerful testament to the French Revolution. Inside, on a pillar, I observed faint but discernible graffiti: "RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE OU LA MORT" ("French Republic or Death"). This stark declaration, likely scrawled during the fervor of the Revolution due to its frantic endings of each word’s spelling, was a chilling reminder of the radical choices and profound sacrifices made in the pursuit of liberty. The quiet reverence of the church now contrasts sharply with the violent passion once etched into its walls, not too dissimilar from Cosette and Marius. Cosette, the physically beautiful, innocent young lady, and Marius, the intellectually beautiful, with plenty of tumult along his journey. The graffiti was a reminder of the chaotic times in which this novel took place.
Another reminder of the time period of the novel is right across the street. Directly across the street from Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, a modern-day bakery stands. However, in the vivid imagination of a "bookpacker," this is precisely where the wine shop of Defarge and Madame Defarge, from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, would have stood. This proximity highlights the incredible interconnectedness of these two literary masterpieces in terms of their shared Parisian landscape. Something about this street was so crucial that both Dickens and Hugo wrote about it in their novels. It's as if the revolutionary spirit and the lives of their characters intertwine in these very streets.
Also interesting is the stark contrast between how the same location is used. On one side of the street, we have the pure church where two heavenly beings get married, and on the other side, the epicenter of brutality in the Revolution. On one side, we have all that is good and right with the world, and on the other side, we have all that was wrong with the Revolution. Inside the church, we have two opposing views, two different kinds of people coming together to form one union, where at the wine shop, we have a fragmented society, where even among cliques, there are cliques, where even among the Revolutionaries, if you were not revolutionary enough, you were killed.
Continuing along Rue St-Antoine, just as Hugo describes, we passed "the corner of that dismal Rue des Ballets, at the end of which you can see the low, hostile gate of La Force prison." This grim historical marker, the Prison de la Grande Force, was a place of immense suffering during the Revolution. A plaque on a building indicates its former entrance, chillingly recounting how, between 1782 and 1845, 161 detainees, including the Princesse de Lamballe, were put to death there on September 3, 4, and 5, 1792. For readers of A Tale of Two Cities, La Force is particularly poignant as the very prison where Charles Darnay was held captive, awaiting his fate during the Reign of Terror. The sheer number of lives lost at this very spot, in such a short span, underscored the immense human cost of the revolutionary zeal, making the suffering depicted in both novels feel incredibly immediate and real.
“...they were finishing their pieces of bread and cominig up to the corner of that dismal Rue des Ballets, at the end of which you can see the low, hostile gate of La Force prison...”
We also took a small detour, where we got to see a bit of the actual wall remaining from La Force. Looking back at where the plaque that marked the entrance and the bit of wall from the back was, it was clear just how big this prison was and how none of it stands today. Instead, a street runs through the middle with numerous stores and shops for the people to enjoy.
Finally, just as Gavroche led the orphans, I arrived at the Place de la Bastille. Today, the majestic July Column stands proudly in the place of Napoleon's Elephant. In Les Misérables, the elephant was a powerful symbol of neglect and the unfulfilled promises of the revolution, a colossal, decaying structure that served as a makeshift home for Gavroche and the two boys. While the actual monument is gone, replaced by a different symbol of revolutionary triumph (the July Revolution of 1830), the location’s spirit remains deeply rooted in the struggles of the working class and the ideals of a new France. Imagining the boys finding refuge beneath the elephant, in the shadow of so much history, made the bustling square feel imbued with their presence.
This walk was more than just a historical tour; it was an immersion into the very fabric of Paris as depicted in Les Misérables and A Tale of Two Cities. The faint revolutionary graffiti, the stark reminder of the prison massacres, the proximity of iconic literary locations, and the imposing presence of the July Column all combined to create a visceral understanding of the historical context in which Gavroche, Jean Valjean, Charles Darnay, and countless others lived and struggled. The resilience of the human spirit, the enduring fight for liberty, and the indelible marks of history are truly etched into the heart of this city.