Victor Hugo's house museums

The City of Paris preserves the two houses where Victor Hugo (1802-85) lived the longest, one in Paris itself and one on the island of Guernsey. In addition, there is a third home that I want to discuss -  his holiday home in Normandy.

1. Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée in Place des Vosges in Paris was where for 16 years (1832-48) Victor Hugo rented a 280 square-metre apartment on the second floor. Hugo was 30 when he moved into the Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée with his wife and their four children. By this time he had already triumphed with one play, and had enjoyed widespread success with his great novel Notre-Dame de Paris.

I mentioned the importance of the Parisian Victor Hugo House Museum in an earlier post. It is in this apartment that he wrote some of his im­por­tant early works, along with some of Les Misérables, the beginning of La Légende des siècles and part of Contemplations. During this period, this clever creative man became a member of the Académie Française, as well as a peer of France and a member of Parliament.

For excellent photos inside Place des Vosges, see Maisons Victor Hugo.

Victor Hugo House Museum
Place des Vosges in Paris
Closed on Mondays

2. Hugo loved holidaying in Fecamp, on the English Channel coast. And he loved staying at a very grand house in the small Normandy town of Villequier, built by the wealthy Vacquerie family. Victor Hugo and his family first stayed with the Vacqueries in 1839 and so it not surprising when one of the Vacquerie sons married Victor’s daughter Leopoldine in Feb 1843. The two extended families enjoyed a warm friendship.

A great tragedy occurred in the family in September 1843 when Léopoldine, her brand new husband Charles and two uncles were drowned in a boating accident on the Seine, near the family home. All four were buried in the cemetery of Villequier. Victor’s very moving poems after 1843 tell of his annual pil­grimage to her grave in the town.

Museum of Victor Hugo Villequier was opened in the Vacquerie’s home in 1959. Letters from Leopoldine to her family, portraits, family furniture, Victor Hugos’ sketches and views of contemporary Normandy fill the home. The young couple's tomb and the statue of Victor Hugo near the site of the accident complete the Museum.
  

Museum of Victor Hugo in Villequier

Once the home of the Vacquerie family

Closed Tuesdays

3. Victor Hugo lived in exile for 15 years (1856-70). He left Paris because Louis Bonaparte/Napoleon III seized complete power in 1851 and established a non-parliamentary const­it­ution. Hugo openly declared Napoleon III a traitor to France, so the writer had to flee the country to avoid arrest. But Brussels was not going to be safe enough, so in 1852 Hugo moved on to Jersey (with other opponents of the new French regime). The island was close to France geographically, but was a British Crown dependency.

Hauteville House (above and below)
Saint Peter Port on the is­land of Guernsey

In Oct 1855 Hugo moved to another British island, Guernsey. He was immediately captivated by Guernsey: he was struck by the ocean, the harshness of its cliffs and the gentleness of the flower filled landscape. In 1856, he published his book of poetry called Les Contemplations and with the proceeds he bought Hauteville House.

So his third house was Hauteville House in Saint Peter Port on the is­land of Guernsey. Today we can still see the large white building with a garden overlooking the sea. And we can still see his collection of furniture and decorative art pieces that he bought locally eg carpets and ceramics. Converting the house for his family’s usage was a time-consuming, energetic labour of love.

Although legally able to return to France in 1859, Hugo chose to remain on Guernsey until 1870 when the Second Empire fell. It was during this period that Hugo wrote, completed or published many of his famous works: Les Contemplations (1856), Les Mis­ér­ables (1862), La Legende des siecles (1877), William Shakespeare (1864), Les Chansons des rues et des bois (1865), Les Travailleurs de la mer (1866), L'Homme qui rit (1869) and Quatre-Vingt-Treize (1874).

In March 1927 Hauteville House was donated to the City of Paris by the poet’s descendants. The house has been preserved exactly as it was, including Hugo’s very personal decorative schemes. This year the house was awarded the Maison des Illustres label by the French Ministry of Culture, recognising the building’s cultural value to French herit­age. Visitors can tour Hauteville House from April–September inclusive, except for Sundays.

See the islands of Guernsey (G) and Jersey (J), as well as Fecamp (F), Villequier and La Havre.

Many thanks to Paris Musees for the details of Hugo's sites and their contents.