Rue de la Harpe

Arrondissement 5

Numbers 6, 11, (63, 85, 89)

During his final years Paul Verlaine lived in the Hotel de la Harpe at No 6, shown here as the mauve building on the right.

Before the construction of the boulevards Saint-Germain and Saint-Michel, the 13th century narrow road went all the way to the southern gates of Paris (today’s Place Edmond-Rostand). It was named after a café sign of a harp.

Towards the end of his life the poet elected ‘Prince of Poets’ by the French literary world, Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), lived in poverty at the Hôtel de la Harpe at No. 6.

In the remaining old part of the street at No. 11, Philippe Buonarroti often visited his editor in 1830 as they prepared the publication of Babeuf’s political legacy.

No 11 was a very old bookshop and printworks, where Philippe Buonarroti printed his influential works on Babeuf in 1830. Blanqui lived at No. 85 rue de la Harpe while fighting in the 1830 Revolution. Much earlier, in 1746, another printworks, Le Breton, at No. 16, printed the first volume of Diderot’s Encyclopedia.

Gustave Courbet‘s first Paris studio was at No. 89 in 1842, and was where he became friendly with Proudhon.

The 1848 Jacobin club used to meet at 63 rue de la Harpe during the 1848 revolution.

PLACES