VIRAGO
MAPS AND PLACES
Maps are essential to understanding any historical events. In 1830, Paris already had many of the physical characteristics it still has today, but it was also a Paris that would have seemed very unfamiliar to our modern eyes. Unlike the "City of Light" so popular with tourists today, 1830 Paris was a teeming, overcrowded metropolis with poor lighting, poorer sewers, and very much of its narrow medieval street plan still intact. It was the claustrophobic narrowness of these streets that led to the popularity of barricades as a form of street warfare, for such streets provided protection and strategic advantage to those familiar with them. During the 1850s and 1860s, Emperor Napoléon III and Baron Haussmann undertook the renovation of the older sections of Paris, ostensibly to decrease the effects of overcrowding and unhygenic living conditions, but also surely to eliminate the danger that these streets could be barricaded with each successive uprising.
I consulted a number of period maps of Paris for this story, of which the most useful was A. M. Perrot's Petit Atlas Pittoresque des Quarante-Huit Quartiers de la Ville de Paris, published in 1834, and N. Maire's Plan de la Ville de Paris, republished in 1828. Below are a few maps that I made to accompany Virago, all based on the maps of Perrot.
Map of Paris
On this map, Paris is shown divided into arrondissements, that is, local administrative districts. Careful, though: the Parisian arrondissements ca. 1830 were different from those of modern-day Paris. For instance, the Panthéon, now a famous landmark of the 5th arrondissement, was at that time located in the 12th arrondissement; likewise, the magnificent Palais du Louvre, now the primary attraction of the 1st arrondissement, was then located in the 4th arrondissement. Enjolras and her friends and family spent most of their time in the 10th, 11th, and 12th arrondissements, a thought foreign to those familiar with the modern-day Latin Quarter, now located in the 5th and 6th arrondissements.
I have also marked famous neighborhoods on this map, as well as several of the locations commonly mentioned in Virago.
Map of the Latin Quarter
This map shows the most common locations mentioned in Virago: the student neighborhoods, including the universities and schools, the Panthéon, the Odéon, and the Jardin du Luxembourg, as well as the fictional café Musain.
Map of the Palais-Royal Neighborhood
Map of the Hôtel de Ville Neighborhood
LINKS
For some idea of how complicated and cramped the maps of this period can be, here is a Gallica-hosted scan of X. Girard's 1830 map of Paris. Sometimes it's hard to even pick out the labels on individual streets!
In French. An amazing website that offers tons of diagrams, maps, and models illustrating how the city of Paris has changed over the decades and centuries. It breaks down the city into neighborhoods to better show the development over time, and also provides outside links to historical maps for reference. I only found this website after I had finished writing Virago, but when I did find it, it was so wonderful that I just had to share it with you!
In French. Stands for "AnaLyse diachronique de l'espace urbain PArisien: approche GEomatique." This in-depth interactive map gives you the opportunity to see different historical locations and layers of the city of Paris juxtaposed and overlapped on one diagram. A really fascinating look at historical and archaeological Paris of all time periods.
In French. Another great website, this one devoted to tracing all the locations in Paris that made revolutionary history from the 18th to the 20th century. If you visit Paris and you want to see some of the famous places you've read about, you should try some of this website's walking itinerary suggestions!