Montreuil-sur-Mer and Les Misérables
When Victor Hugo was travelling through the north of France in 1837, he stopped at a small town in the Pas-de-Calais region on the way back to Paris, noted it in a letter to his wife Adèle, and appeared to forget about it. In 1847, as he was working on the first draft of his masterpiece, then titled Les Misères, he noted, "M--- sur M--- is a pretty little town... I passed through there ten years ago and I remember nothing remarkable besides a walk on the ramparts, where I saw a good old priest who was reading his breviary while seated upon a cannon." From this single recollection he drew the setting for the first volume of his novel.
Hugo might have forgotten most of the details of his visit to Montreuil-sur-Mer, but the city itself certainly hasn't forgotten Hugo. Shops named after characters from the novel are scattered throughout Montreuil, and a substantial part of its tourism is based on its connection to Les Misérables. To wit:
- The Spectacle Son et Lumière "Les Misérables à Montreuil-sur-Mer" takes place every summer at the end of July and the beginning of August. Locals don costumes and re-enact the events of the novel, with narration lifted straight from Hugo's text and a variety of dances, pyrotechnics, and special effects.
- Guided tours entitled "In the Footsteps of Victor Hugo" are available for groups.
- Hugo himself stayed at the Hôtel de France when he passed through. Room 12b, the room he stayed in, is available for reservation.
- It's probable that the Cavée Saint-Firmin, a treacherously steep cobblestone road at the entrance to the upper city, was Hugo's inspiration for Fauchelevent's cart crash.