James Joyce arrived in Paris on 8 July 1920, with Nora Barnacle and their two children Giorgio (15 years old) and Lucia (13 years old). The poet Ezra Pound arranged for the Joyce family to stay in a small hotel at 9 Rue de l’Université in the 7th arrondissement.
In 1982, James Joyce biographer Richard Eder wrote that it was called Hotel Lenox. In 2019, the building is the renovated Le Saint Hotel with its Kult Restaurant and Cocktail Bar—a neo-bistrot.
It is close to the Sylvia Beach’s first Shakespeare and Company bookstore at 8 Rue Dupuytrens (1919-1921), before she moved it 12 Rue de l’Odéon in July 1921.
It is also close to Café les Deux Magots at 6 Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Café de Flore at 172 Boulevard Saint-Germain.
The Joyce family stayed here from 8-14 July 1920, and in October and November 1920. The Joyce family returned to the hotel for a year from 1 October 1921 to 31 October 1922 and again from 17-30 November 1932.
James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 1 out of 18.
Photographer: Martina Nicolls