The Paris Residences of James Joyce

Apartment: 2 Avenue Saint-Philibert

After living in the 7th arrondissement, Joyce was disappointed at having to move to Passy, near the location of Ludmilla Bloch-Savitsky’s apartment. The Irish author Mary Colum said that it was not the cheeriest home.

Apartment 2 Avenue Saint-Philibert (street view) – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

Joyce moved into 2 Avenue Saint-Philibert in the 16th arrondissement at the end of October 1931. The apartment was too small to invite guests for his birthday on 2 February 1932.

He had his 50th birthday celebrations at the home of Eugene and Maria Jolas. Sylvia Beach, his publisher and owner of the Shakespeare and Company bookstore did not attend. However, Joyce’s friend, author Samuel Beckett did attend.

The apartment was close to the Ranelagh Garden where Joyce could go for a walk.

When the lease expired, Joyce planned to go to England with Nora and Lucia. They were packed at at the railway station, but Lucia had a crying episode, so they took a taxi to Hotel Le Belmont.

James Joyce stayed in this location for six months from October 1931 to 16 April 1932. He returned here a month later, for three months from 15 May to July 1932.

James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 12 out of 18.

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Apartment: 2 Square de Robiac

After renovations, the Joyce family moved into their new apartment at 2 Square de Robiac in the 7th arrondissement on 13 June 1925, just off the Rue de Grenelle. Renovations were ongoing and Joyce’s London sponsor Harriet Shaw Weaver, on holiday in Paris, was “shocked by the chaos.” But the apartment was spacious and in a prestigious suburb.

Apartment 2 Square de Robiac – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

Joyce could unpack his furniture boxes and hang his Dublin art work and photographs. He also set to work on his next great novel Finnegans Wake, known only as A Work in Progress for the time being.

While he lived here, Shakespeare and Company bookstore owner, Sylvia Beach, published his poems in a collection called Pomes Penyeach in 1927. In this year, the rent doubled, but he decided to stay – while asking Beach for more and more money, straining their relationship. Ernest Hemingway introduced Joyce to new publishers, an American couple Harry and Caresse Crosby, who also lived and worked in Paris.

Joyce continued eating in restaurants on the Boulevard du Montparnasse, especially La Coupole where Lucia Joyce went dancing.

James Joyce stayed here for six years from 13 June 1925 to April 1931. Of all of his Paris residences, the Joyce family lived here the longest.

James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 9 out of 18.

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

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Apartment: 8 Avenue Charles Floquet

James Joyce took a six-months lease back to an area where he lived – the Avenue Charles Floquet – not at number 26, but on the opposite end of the street. After returning from a long holiday in England, he retrieved his furniture that was stored in Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company bookstore.

Apartment 8 Avenue Charles Floquet (street view) – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

Joyce moved into 8 Avenue Charles Floquet, an apartment that Nora chose, in October 1924.

In 2019, the building is now a hotel called Résidence Charles Floquet. It is an area with many foreign embassies and consulates.

The apartment is the closest location to the River Seine of all of his residences. It is a mere three minute walk to the river. It is also the closest location to the Eiffel Tower of all of his residences – it is hardly possible to get any closer. The Eiffel Tower, too, is only a three minute walk.

James Joyce stayed here for eight months from October 1924 to May 1925.

James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 7 out of 18.

Apartment 8 Avenue Charles Floquet – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Apartment: 26 Avenue Charles Floquet

After staying for four months at 71 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine, the Joyce family returned to the hotel at 9 Rue de l’Université for a year from 1 October 1921 to 31 October 1922. On 1 November 1922, the Joyce family moved from the hotel into an apartment at 26 Avenue Charles Floquet, close to the Champs de Mars and the Eiffel Tower in the 7th arrondissement. In fact, it was a mere seven-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower and it seemed to loom over the apartment.

Apartment 26 Avenue Charles Floquet – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

Sylvia Beach had published Ulysses in 1922 and Ernest Hemingway assisted getting the novel into America, since it had been banned for obscenity. However, it enabled Joyce to take a seven-month lease in this beautiful apartment. He didn’t undertake any writing until March 1923 – instead, Joyce focused on translations and promoting his novel.

He also had eye operations and dental operations which consumed much of his income.

In June 1923, when the lease expired, the Joyce family put their furniture in storage at Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company bookstore and took a vacation to the British seaside. Here he did some writing – two sentence became the beginning of his next novel, Finnegans Wake. However, before he had he title, it was called A Work in Progress.

James Joyce stayed here for seven months from 1 November 1922 to 18 June 1923.

James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 5 out of 18.

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Apartment: 71 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine

After the lease at 5 Boulevard Raspail expired, French poet Valery Larbaud, who announced to France that James Joyce was a ‘genius’ of literature, offered James Joyce his apartment, rent-free, while he was on vacation. This was timely, and the Joyce family accepted the kind offer.

Apartment 71 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine (street view) – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

The Joyce family moved into the quiet, comfortable, and good-looking apartment at 71 Rue de Cardinal Lemoine in the 5th arrondissement – the Latin quarter.

Again, James Joyce loved the apartment and the area. It was close to the River Seine and the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the botanical garden – the Jardin des Plantes, with its small zoo. Around the corner was the ancient Lutetia Arena – the ruins of Roman-Gallo baths and stadium.

If Joyce turned left from Larbaud’s apartment, and continued straight for seven minutes, he would arrive at the Mouffetard market, a well-known street frequented by the American chef Julia Child, but not until she arrived in Paris with her husband Paul in 1948.

The twenty-two-year-old Ernest Hemingway lived a few steps from the apartment at 74 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine, but not when James Joyce lived on the street. Hemingway arrived afterwards (in January 1922), with his first wife, Hadley Richardson, soon after they married. He had not yet met James Joyce, nor Sylvia Beach. The apartment was small and cheap with no running water. He rented another room at nearby 39 Rue Descartes so that he could write.

While he was in this apartment, Sylvia Beach moved her bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, from 8 Rue Dupuytrens to larger premises at 12 Rue de l’Odéon, which was not far away. Lucia Joyce made friends with Beach’s new assistant, Myrsine Moschos, a girl her own age. She also made friends with Valery Larbaud’s two daughters.

James Joyce stayed here for four months from 1 June to 30 September 1921 when Valery Larbaud returned from his holiday abroad. During this time, he finished his novel Ulysses.

James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 4 out of 18.

Apartment 71 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine (signage) – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Apartment: 5 Boulevard Raspail

Finally, after five months in Paris, staying in the small hotel on Rue de l’Université and in Ludmilla Bloch-Savitsky’s servants’ quarters, Joyce signed a five-month lease for an apartment at 5 Boulevard Raspail in the 7th arrondissement.

Apartment 5 Boulevard Raspail – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

The luxurious apartment was in the Montparnasse district, halfway between two gardens: the Tuileries Garden across the River Seine and the Jardin du Luxembourg on the Left Bank.

James Joyce loved the apartment and the area, being close to the cafe les Deux Magots and the cafe de Flore. He had the Rue de Bac Metro on his doorstep, and he was close to the shopping street of Rue de Rennes with Le Bon Marché nearby, and the restaurants along the Boulevard du Montparnasse.

He was also a regular visitor at Sylvia Beach’s bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, at 8 Rue Dupuytrens.

James Joyce stayed here for five months from 1 December 1920 to 31 May 1921 until the lease expired.

James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 3 out of 18.

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Apartment: 5 Rue de l’Assomption

After a week in a small hotel at 9 Rue de l’Université, poet Ezra Pound arranged for the Joyce family to stay in a room at Ludmilla Bloch-Savitsky’s apartment in Passy.

Apartment 5 Rue de l’Assomption (street view) – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

The Joyce family moved into Ludmilla’s rent-free apartment at 5 Rue de l’Assomption in Passy, west of Paris, in the 16th arrondissement. They moved in on 15 July 1920.

Unfortunately, it was a small servant’s room with no furniture, no electricity, and just one double bed for the Joyce family of four.

Nearby is the Bois de Boulogne (the Boulogne Woods) and the Pont de Grenelle (Grenelle Bridge) across the River Seine (where there now stands a miniature replica of the Statue of Liberty). It’s also not far from the Trocadéro and the Eiffel Tower.

James Joyce stayed here for four months from 15 July to October 1920. They moved back to the hotel at 9 Rue de l’Université.

James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 2 out of 18.

Apartment 5 Rue de l’Assomption – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Hotel Lutétia

James, Nora, Giorgio, and Giorgio’s seven-year-old son Stephen James, packed their goods permanently due to the onset of World War II, evacuating first to the French countryside, and then to neutral territory – Zurich, Switzerland.

Hotel Lutetia – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

The Joyce family moved into the Hotel Lutétia on 45 Boulevard Raspail in the 5th arrondissement. His daughter Lucia Joyce was in a sanatorium, and so was Giorgio’s wife Helen.

Hotel Lutétia still exists. The building was renovated in 2016.

Hotel Lutétia is an extravagant five-star hotel, which opened in 1910. It is close to Le Bon Marché, the large mall, on Rue de Sevres, the Luxembourg Garden, and the Boulevard du Montparnasse.

James Joyce stayed in the Hotel Lutétia from mid-October to 23 December 1939 when James and Nora took little Stephen James to the country to stay near Maria Jolas in Saint-Gérand-le-Puy near Vichy so that he could attend school.

Giorgio Joyce, bored with the country, stayed in the Hotel Lutétia for about six months, often returning to the country to see his family. He returned to Saint-Gérand-le-Puy briefly for his son’s eighth birthday on 15 February 1940.

It was the last hotel, and last residence, in Paris where James Joyce lived before he evacuated the city and retreated to the French countryside permanently due to the German occupation. He stayed in the countryside to the end of 1940, before leaving France on 14 December and arriving in Zurich, Switzerland, on 17 December 1940. He died in Zurich on 13 January 1941, less than a month later.

James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 18 out of 18.

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Hotel Lord Byron

On 20 October 1932, the Joyce family moved into the Hotel Lord Byron at 5 Rue Chateaubriand in the 8th arrondissement, on an S-shaped street one block from the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, but on the northern side. Far from the Seine, and twenty-five minutes to the Eiffel Tower, it was, however, closer to the Arc de Triomphe and his closest residence to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, one of the most famous avenues in the world.

Hotel Lord Byron (renovations) – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

Hotel Lord Byron no longer exists. The building was being renovated in 2019, and it is not clear whether it will continue to be a hotel.

James Joyce stayed here for one month from 20 October to 17 November 1932.

James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 14 out of 18.

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Hotel Le Belmont

The lease on their Passy apartment expired so the Joyce family decided to holiday in England. On 17 April 1932, James Joyce, Nora, and daughter Lucia went to the railway station in Paris with their luggage, but Nora had a severe crying episode which put a stop to their plans. They took a taxi to Hotel Le Belmont.

Hotel Le Belmont – Photographer: Martina Nicolls 2019

The Joyce family moved into the Hotel Le Belmont at 30 Rue de Bassano in the 8th arrondissement near the Avenue des Champs-Elysées.

Hotel Le Belmont still exists. It was renovated in 2013.

The area was familiar to them because it was near the Hotel Grand Powers and near La Résidence. It is halfway between the Arc de Triomphe and the River Seine. It is also close to one of their favourite restaurants, the Chez Francis at 7 Place de l’Alma.

James Joyce stayed here for one month from 17 April to 14 May 1932.

James Joyce Paris Residence: Number 13 out of 18.

Photographer: Martina Nicolls