Before James Joyce and his family could move into their new rental apartment, it needed renovations. So for a month, the Joyce family moved into a nearby hotel – the Hotel Bourgogne & Montana.
Hotel Bourgogne & Montana still exists. It is located at 3 Rue de Bourgogne in the 7th arrondissement. It is located at the historic Place du Palais-Bourbon and the site of the National Assembly that looks onto the River Seine.
The hotel is a fifteen minute walk from the first hotel that Joyce moved into on 8 July 1920 at 9 Rue de l’Université.
The hotel is close to the River Seine and the Museé d’Orsay, taking eight minute by foot. However, construction for the Museé d’Orsay commenced in 1981 and it was opened to the public in 1986. In Joyce’s time, the site was the Gare d’Orsay – the Orsay railway station.
Hotel Bourgogne & Montana is a five minute walk to Les Invalides, the military history museum and the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Across the river is the Place de la Concorde and the Tuileries Garden.
James Joyce stayed here from May to 12 June 1925.
James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 8 out of 18.
Photographer: Martina Nicolls