DK Travel : Paris : History & Culture

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37 Avenue George V

Franklin D. Roosevelt and his new bride visited his aunt’s apartment here in 1905. He was later commemorated in the name of a nearby avenue.
37 Avenue Montaigne

Having wowed Paris with her comeback performances, iconic German actress and singer Marlene Dietrich spent her reclusive final years in a luxury apartment here.
4 August 1789

The abolition of feudalism, and the right of everyone to be a free citizen is declared.
49 Avenue des Champs-Elysées

Author Charles Dickens may well have had “the best of times and the worst of times” when he resided here from 1855–6. Ten years earlier he had also lived at 38 Rue de Courcelles.
8 Rue Artois

Here, in September 2001, the legendary Belgian mobster François Vanverbergh – godfather of the French Connection gang – fell victim to a drive-by assassin as he took his afternoon mineral water.
A la Recherche du Temps Perdu

The master work of Marcel Proust (1871–1922) was written in 13 volumes, the first novel appearing in 1913. Proust lived on boulevard Haussmann, and his epic tale is the fictionalized story of his own life, and of Paris during the belle époque . Proust is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery in eastern Paris (see Cimetière du Père Lachaise).
A Tale of Two Cities

The finest chronicler of 19th-century London life, Charles Dickens (1812–70) broke with tradition to set his 1859 novel in Paris, against the background of the French Revolution (see Top 10 Events in the French Revolution). His description of conditions in the Bastille prison makes for grim reading.
Albert Camus

Algerian born Camus (1913–60) moved to Paris in 1935 and lived here until his death.
Amedeo Modigliani

The Italian painter (1884–1920) and sculptor arrived in Paris in 1906, when he was 22, and was greatly influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec and the other artists on the Montmartre scene.
Anaïs Nin

US novelist Nin (1903–77) met her lover, fellow American Henry Miller, in Paris. Her Diaries tell of her time here.