Émile Zola (1840-1902) has been my favorite French author for the past ten years, thanks to his realistic style, which brings the reader the Paris of the 19th century in all its splendor and all its ugliness. He grew up in a fascinating period when Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann (1809-1891) reshaped Paris with the boulevards they built, a period when the first department stores appeared and the Les Halles market reached the height of its glory thanks to the structures designed by Victor Baltard (1805-1874). But at the same time, this was an era when the old order was collapsing and poverty was brutal. Zola captured all of this, and more, with his sharp pen.
He was born in Paris, grew up in Provence, and returned to Paris at age 18. After failing his baccalaureate exams twice, he took a job at a bookstore, where he began to develop his talent for writing. After a brief flirtation with the Romantic school of French literature, Zola joined the Naturalist movement, led by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), which set out to portray reality as accurately as possible.
In 1871, Zola began publishing a series of novels starring the sons and daughters of the Rougon-Macquart family, portraying with realism and cruelty France under Napoleon III (1852-1870). His big breakthrough came with the novel Gervaise (known in French as L’Assommoir), which tells the story of a lower-class family slowly sinking into alcoholism.
Another novel that was hugely successful and caused quite a scandal is Nana, which tells the story of the world of high-end courtesans through Nana, the daughter of Gervaise from the previous book. Other books from the series I’d recommend are The Ladies’ Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames), which describes the rise of department stores in Paris (and if I’m not mistaken, nearly the only Zola novel with a happy ending), and The Belly of Paris (Le Ventre de Paris), a literary monument to the Les Halles market, which no longer exists.
Until 1898, Émile Zola was simply a successful writer. That all changed when he published “J’accuse,” in which he accused the French government and army of antisemitism and of corrupting the trial of Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), a Jewish officer wrongly accused of spying for Germany. The article caused an enormous uproar and led to a retrial, but it also forced Zola to flee France for a while, after he was charged with libel. In the end, Dreyfus was acquitted, and Zola returned to France.
Because of his involvement in the Dreyfus affair, Zola made plenty of enemies, and when he died suddenly in his Paris home in 1902 from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a blocked chimney, many claimed he had been murdered. Émile Zola was buried in the cemetery of Montmartre, and his remains were later moved to the Panthéon, where he rests alongside the great figures of the French nation.
Instead of a map: under each stop’s heading you’ll find its address, and every address is a link. Click it, and the place will open right away in Google Maps.
Nana’s House
Start the walk by coming out of the Blanche metro station. Head north on Rue Lepic and turn right onto Rue Véron. This is where the high-end courtesan Nana lived, one of the most famous characters Zola ever created. And honestly, that’s not surprising, since this used to be Montmartre’s “red-light district.”
The house where Émile Zola wrote “J’accuse”
21 bis rue de Bruxelles, and 23 rue Ballu
Backtrack and head to Rue de Bruxelles. At number 21 bis, you’ll find one of the houses where the writer lived, where he wrote his famous “J’accuse” over the Dreyfus affair, and where he also died of carbon monoxide poisoning in 1902.
Turn left until you reach the end of Place Adolphe Max, then left again onto Rue Ballu. Zola lived in the beautiful building at number 23 on this street.
A 19th-century lesbian bar on Rue des Martyrs
Continue straight, then turn right onto Rue Blanche, then onto Rue Chaptal. Head to Rue Pigalle, then turn right onto Rue Victor Massé, and right again onto Rue des Martyrs. Today this is one of the most important food streets in Paris, with some excellent pâtisseries, but in Zola’s day, the street was known instead for its lesbian bars…
The great department stores of Paris: the inspiration for The Ladies’ Paradise
Turn left onto Rue de Châteaudun and right onto Rue Le Peletier. Picture the street as Nana saw it: “the last market where you could buy a person for the night.” Turn right onto Boulevard Haussmann. This boulevard marks the massive urban transformation Napoleon III brought to Paris, creating the wide avenues you can read about in Zola’s novel The Kill (La Curée). Turn left onto Rue Scribe and walk past the great department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps. These stores inspired Zola’s novel The Ladies’ Paradise, which describes the rise of consumer culture created by the department stores, and the collapse of Paris’s small shops.
Turn left onto Rue Auber and stop to rest at Café de la Paix, located at 12 boulevard des Capucines. This is where Zola liked to sit and drink something a bit stronger than just coffee…
From Pot-Bouille to The Belly of Paris
rue de Choiseul, and rue Montorgueil
Head east on rue du 4 Septembre and you’ll find rue de Choiseul. The plot of Pot-Bouille unfolds in a fictional apartment building on this street, home to families from different social backgrounds. Turn right onto rue Montorgueil, another important food street in Paris. This is the street where Zola’s novel The Belly of Paris is set. If you want to see what the wholesale market that once stood here looked like, go to 15 rue Montmartre, to the bistro Cochon à l’Oreille, where you’ll find tiles depicting scenes from market life. It’s also a good time to sit down and finish with a meal, since this is where our walk ends.
Bonus stop: the house where Émile Zola was born
Thanks to Anat Margalit, I learned that the house where Émile Zola was born is at 10 rue Saint-Joseph, not far from the Les Halles area. It’s not exactly on the route, but feel free to stop by after finishing the walk, or after visiting the Bourse district (it’s not far from there).
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