A visit to Victor Hugo’s house in Paris.

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I was tempted to write «a pilgrimage» or «a funeral». I read recently that it will close next month for renovation, and I wanted to visit it again, not knowing exactly at what it will look after the renovation. Since 2013 the city of Paris has created a public structure to manage its museums with the goal to develop and broaden the number of visitors. I do not believe a lot in cultural democratization. For Hugo’s house Place des Vosges it has already resulted in the leasing of a salon on the second floor for private events with an optional VIP night visit of the flat of Hugo. For what I read the next stage will be the creation of a teahouse (yes, a teahouse, there is a limit to cultural democratization, they could not put a guinguette in a square called «Royal Square» in the past. By the way, there is a shop of one of the best tea sellers of Paris since a few years Place des Vosges, Dammann. They brag when they pretend to sell tea in Paris since 1692, but their products are excellent.) on a courtyard which is actually shared with a neighboring technical high school, the Lycée Théophile Gautier (Hugo and Gautier were neighbors during a few years Place des Vosges). But as it will close during a year, my main fear is a renovation a bit too flashy of the flat which is on the third floor. They are renovating actually the house of Hugo in Guernsey, and the curator is proud to display on his Twitter some shiny furniture. Let’s say that I find them too shiny now, and that I am pleased to have visited Hauteville House when they were looking to have their age. This said, Hauteville House is the only authentic house of Hugo and the only one he owned. If Hugo has effectively occupied the flat opened to the public Place des Vosges between 1832 and 1848, the internal layout changed before it became a museum. The actual flat/museum was installed by Paul Meurice, who was a friend of Hugo and his executor, and was conceived to reflect all the life of Hugo : the antechamber of the salon is dedicated to his young years and his family ; the salon is supposed to be a reconstitution of the salon of this house Place des Vosges that Meurice had known... and the last room is the bedroom where Hugo died avenue d’Eylau (today avenue Victor Hugo). I suppose it is a room accurately displayed. The more interesting in my opinion are two rooms with the decorations and a part of the furniture created by Hugo for his long-term mistress (among others) Juliette Drouet for her house in Guernsey (he was seeing her house from his working room and they could communicate. They also exchanged thousands of love letters. The letters of «Juju» to her «Toto» are available online today). Hugo was a tortured genius when he was drawing or designing furniture : he was buying a lot of old furniture and was asking to a cabinetmaker to modify and reassemble them from his drawings : the top of a table was made from a door, the higher part of a buffet is too high to open it, etc. He had no more respect for tapestries, that he was cutting in pieces to cover the ceilings. A part of these furniture were probably in the Japanese salon designed by Victor for Juliette where their initial letters (VH, JD) can be seen here and there. They gave to the visitor (at least to me) the same queasy feeling than the visit of Hauteville House with its secret doors and its secret drawers inside secret drawers. I have selected photos of these rooms to illustrate this post. I hope that the varnish of the Japanese salon will not be too shiny when I will visit it after the renovation... Sorry, it is a bit long, I know I have the bad habit to digress, but I am also supposed to ask a question. So, do you like to visit homes of famous people, and if yes, what was your most interesting visit, the one that you would recommend ? In Paris I would recommend the house of a painter, Gustave Moreau, and the house of a philosopher, Auguste Comte, the founder of positivism. These ones are authentic homes with their furniture. The houses of Hugo and Balzac (this one also closed last year for a renovation. There were 3 lots for decoration works in the last public tender, it is a serious disease.) were more recomposed homes targeted towards a school audience... until now.