The Paris apartment where Blaise Cendrars and Raymone Duchâteau settled in 1950 after their marriage — his home for almost nine years, facing the rear wall of La Santé prison.
Almost immediately after moving in, Cendrars began his final novel, Emmène-moi au bout du monde!. He started it in October 1950, calling it a roman-roman — a "real novel." The book would take about five difficult years to complete before appearing in January 1956.
Its title — "Take Me to the End of the World!" — carries an almost accidental irony at this address. Cendrars, the writer whose life had been associated with Russia, New York, Brazil, ocean crossings and restless movement, was writing his last novel while looking out onto one of Paris's most famous prisons.
At the same time, another side of Cendrars was reaching a large new audience: his voice. From 15 October to 15 December 1950, only weeks after settling at Jean-Dolent, Cendrars recorded a series of radio conversations with the poet Michel Manoll. The broadcasts were highly successful. Rather than delivering formal literary lectures, Cendrars talked about his life, travels, friendships, books and memories, transforming decades of experience into spoken stories. In March 1952, a reworked version of the conversations appeared in book form as Blaise Cendrars vous parle….
Radio suited the older Cendrars remarkably well. His writing had always blurred memory, invention and autobiography, and now listeners could hear him perform that mixture in his own voice. Jean-Dolent became the home of a writer who was increasingly famous not only for what he had written, but for the extraordinary life he could recount.
The radio work continued. On 25 December 1951, Cendrars and Raymone made Noëls du monde entier for Paris-Inter, and 1955 brought the radio pieces Serajevo and Gilles de Rais. He was also working during these years on Des hommes sont venus…, written to accompany Jean Manzon's photographs of Brazil, published as Le Brésil in June 1952.
Jean-Dolent was also a place of friendships. Henry Miller, one of Cendrars's great admirers and literary friends, spent New Year 1953 with Cendrars and Raymone. Cendrars remained close to artists from earlier periods of his life as well. In August 1954 he and Raymone spent eight days — in the rain — at Fernand Léger's farm in Normandy, and that October Cendrars recorded a conversation with Léger and the dealer Louis Carré. Léger's death on 17 August 1955 affected him deeply.
The address already had an artistic history before Cendrars arrived. In February 1951 the weekly Arts ran an article by Georges Pillement asking whether the country house where Auguste Renoir once painted would be demolished; the clipping is preserved in the press dossier of the Blaise Cendrars archive. The article identified the property as a former country house and noted that Renoir had painted there.
Two very different periods of modern art met at the same address: Renoir's Paris and Cendrars's Paris, separated by decades.
By the middle of the 1950s, Cendrars's health was beginning to fail. After five years of difficult work, Emmène-moi au bout du monde! appeared in January 1956. Its controversial reception disappointed him. Then, at about three in the morning on 21 July 1956, Cendrars suffered a serious cerebral attack. He was partially paralyzed and began an extensive rehabilitation.
The archive preserves a particularly moving trace of his recovery: five pages of difficult handwriting made between 1 August and 7 September 1956, immediately after the attack — among them a note of Raymone's birthday, a mention on 25 August of his "commotion cérébrale" a month earlier, and a small drawing beside the record of his own sixty-ninth birthday on 1 September.
His health remained fragile throughout 1957. A second attack in the summer of 1958 was more decisive: after it, Cendrars stopped writing.
One of the great public honors of his career nevertheless came to him at Jean-Dolent. On 7 January 1959, André Malraux came to rue Jean-Dolent and presented Cendrars with the insignia of Commander of the Légion d'honneur. A few months later, on 1 May 1959, Cendrars converted to Catholicism and he and Raymone celebrated a religious marriage at the Église Saint-Dominique in the 14th arrondissement.
By then his physical world had become increasingly limited. On 25 August 1959, Cendrars and Raymone left Jean-Dolent and moved across the Seine to 5 rue José-Maria-de-Heredia in the 7th arrondissement. The chronology describes Cendrars by that point as bedridden. It would be his final home.
The building at 23 rue Jean-Dolent still stands as a private residence. Across the street remains the massive presence of La Santé prison. For Cendrars, these nine years represented a final transformation. He arrived newly married and returned permanently to Paris. He wrote his last novel here, became a familiar voice on French radio, received friends and fellow writers, revisited Brazil and his earlier adventures in new forms, endured the stroke that partially paralyzed him, struggled to write again, and finally received the Commander of the Légion d'honneur.
The great traveler had become more stationary, but his imagination had not. From this quiet house opposite a prison, Cendrars spent much of his final creative decade turning an entire lifetime of movement into stories.
Cendrars and Raymone Duchâteau marry civilly at Sigriswil on 27 October, after a relationship stretching back more than thirty years. They travel through Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium before returning to France.
In March, Cendrars returns permanently to Paris and becomes increasingly active in French radio.
On 1 September, Cendrars and Raymone settle at 23 rue Jean-Dolent, opposite La Santé prison.
In October, Cendrars begins Emmène-moi au bout du monde!, his final novel, which will occupy him for approximately five years. From 15 October to 15 December, his radio conversations with Michel Manoll are broadcast to considerable success.
Cendrars divides his work between Emmène-moi au bout du monde! and Des hommes sont venus…, his text accompanying Jean Manzon's photographs of Brazil. On Christmas Day, he and Raymone broadcast Noëls du monde entier on Paris-Inter.
Blaise Cendrars vous parle…, adapted from the Manoll radio conversations, is published in March. Le Brésil, with Jean Manzon's photographs, follows in June.
Henry Miller spends New Year with Cendrars and Raymone.
In August, Cendrars and Raymone spend eight days in the rain at Fernand Léger's farm in Normandy; on 28 October, Cendrars records a conversation with Léger and the dealer Louis Carré.
Cendrars continues working for radio with Serajevo and Gilles de Rais and writes the preface to Robert Doisneau's Instantanés de Paris. Fernand Léger dies on 17 August; the loss affects him deeply.
Emmène-moi au bout du monde! is published in January after five years of difficult work. Its controversial reception disappoints Cendrars.
On 21 July, at about three in the morning, Cendrars suffers a cerebral attack. Partially paralyzed, he begins a long rehabilitation; pages in the Cendrars archive preserve his difficult attempts at handwriting from the first weeks after the attack.
A second attack in the summer leaves Cendrars in still poorer health, and he stops writing.
On 7 January, André Malraux comes to rue Jean-Dolent and presents Cendrars with the insignia of Commander of the Légion d'honneur.
On 1 May, Cendrars converts to Catholicism and celebrates a religious marriage with Raymone at the Église Saint-Dominique in the 14th arrondissement.
On 25 August, Cendrars and Raymone leave Jean-Dolent and move to 5 rue José-Maria-de-Heredia, his final Paris home.
Lived here · 1950–1959
The Bibliothèque de la Ville de La Chaux-de-Fonds, holder of a major Cendrars archive, records that after their honeymoon Cendrars and Raymone settled at 23 rue Jean-Dolent, facing La Santé prison; the Leroy-credited chronology dates the move out to 25 August 1959.
The students' dance hall behind the mock-oriental façade opposite the Closerie des Lilas — where the Latin Quarter danced for a century, and Robert and Sonia Delaunay painted the dancers.
Visit the place
Ernest Hemingway's favorite writing spot, where he drafted much of The Sun Also Rises. Quieter than the other cafés, which was the point.
Visit the place
Ernest Hemingway's second flat, above a working sawmill — where the journalism stopped, The Sun Also Rises was finished, and the first marriage ended.
Visit the place
Henry Miller's studio flat from 1934 to 1939 — the headquarters of the Villa Seurat circle, and the address where Tropic of Cancer was delivered to the door the day he moved in.
Visit the placeThe Friday Letter
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.
