Balzac’s Paris-A Guided Tour Home Page

Balzac Biography

Introduction Virtual Tours

Locating Balzac’s Paris

Growth of a City
Plan de Paris During the Time of Louis XIII (1610-1643)
Monuments before 1800

After 1850: Haussmann and the Creation of Modern Paris

Balzac’s Paris

Two Maps
Before the Change: Paris in 1803
The Tardieu Map: 1838

Napoléon as Urban Planner

Louis Philippe’s Paris
The Vision of Félix Dubin

Visiting Balzac’s Paris

Arc de Triomphe – Champs Elysées – Place de la Concorde
The Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile in 1837
Place de la Concorde – 1837
A Promenade of Lucien de Rubempré – 1821
Place Louis XV – Champs Elysée – Arc de Triomphe

Rue de Rivoli – Palais-Royal

The Rue de Rivoli
The Palais-Royal
The Café de Foy
The Café des Milles Colonnes
Raphael de Valentin Loses His Last Louis d’Or
The Galeries de Bois
Lucien de Rubempré Visits the Galeries de Bois

Tuileries – Carrousel – Louvre
The Long View – 1836
The Place du Carrousel and Julie d’Aiglemont
Mariana Is Followed by a Stranger
La Cousine Bette
The Louvre in Balzac’s Time

Île de la Cité

The Heart of Paris in 1852
Lucien de Rubempré and “Carlos Herrera…”

Quartier Latin

The Maison Vauquer
Student Rooms
Flicoteaux
Rêver la gloire

Dreams of the Right Bank

Dynamics of Balzac’s Paris
A View to the West: Land for Sale
Moving to the Right Bank
Clothes Make the Man (or Woman)
You Are Where You Eat
Money

Epilogue: Balzac’s Vision of Paris

Credits

The Vernon Duke Collection

Treasures of the Vernon Duke Collection
A Record of Change

Bibliography