Apartment · Plaine Monceau · 17e arrondissement

177 bis rue de Courcelles

The buildingDemolished

Getting inOutside only

What's there nowA later apartment house

The building is gone. The apartment house Colette knew at 177 bis no longer stands; a later building occupies the address, so it is best treated as a historical one — the rue de Courcelles itself is what remains to walk.

The larger apartment of the Claudine years, where Colette kept a gymnasium and her marriage to Willy came apart.

Address: 177 bis rue de Courcelles, 75017 Paris
Years: 1902–1906

Artistic reconstruction The same Haussmann-era building rendered in colour, an imagined reconstruction

A colour impression of the lost building, not a photograph of a surviving one.

Artistic reconstruction

The place, briefly

In 1902, on the strength of the Claudine books, Colette and her husband Willy moved to a larger apartment at 177 bis rue de Courcelles. Colette turned an upstairs room into a gymnasium and trained there, part of the physical discipline that would carry her into a stage career.

This was the home most closely tied to the peak of the Claudine phenomenon and to the end of the marriage. Colette left in 1906, as she and Willy separated and she began performing in earnest. The building no longer stands; a later one occupies the address in the 17th arrondissement, so the site is best walked as a historical address rather than a surviving residence.

Key facts

Address: 177 bis rue de Courcelles, 17th arrondissement
Who lived here: Colette and her husband Willy
When: 1902–1906
Why it matters: The Claudine peak and the collapse of the marriage; Colette kept a gym here
Today: Demolished; a later building occupies the address. The street is worth walking.

In images

Pen-and-ink reconstruction of a Haussmann-era apartment building at the corner of rue de Courcelles — An impression of the apartment building that stood at 177 bis in Colette's day. The building is gone; this is a reconstruction, not a photograph.Artistic reconstruction

The same Haussmann-era building rendered in colour, an imagined reconstruction — A colour impression of the lost building, not a photograph of a surviving one.Artistic reconstruction

Illustration of the modern apartment block standing at 177 rue de Courcelles today, a mid-century building between older Haussmann neighbours, a shop at street level — What stands at the address today: a modern apartment block between its older neighbours. The building Colette knew is gone.Editorial illustration

Timeline

1902
Colette and Willy move to the larger apartment at 177 bis; she installs a gymnasium.
1906
Colette leaves as the marriage ends and her stage career begins.

On the map

Writers who knew this place

Colette

French · The French novelist who wrote the Claudine books under Willy’s name, earned her independence on the music-hall stage, and made women’s private lives a serious literary subject.

Lived here · 1902–1906

The larger apartment of the Claudine peak, where Colette kept a gymnasium; she left in 1906 as the marriage to Willy ended.

— Société des amis de Colette — Lieux de vie; Société des amis de Colette — Chronology

Within walking distance

Apartment · Plaine Monceau

93 rue de Courcelles

The sixth-floor former studio near Parc Monceau where Colette and Willy lived while the Claudine novels appeared under his name.

Visit the place

Apartment · Étoile / Champs-Élysées

14 Rue de Tilsitt

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's Right Bank apartment in the year of Gatsby — a furnished fifth-floor flat by the Arc de Triomphe, and the address where Ernest Hemingway first came to lunch.

Visit the place

The Friday Letter

Paris, one address at a time.

The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.