The Saint-Germain address where the City of Paris places James Baldwin as a likely resident in the early 1950s, around the publication of Go Tell It on the Mountain.
What the address would have meant is clearer than the address itself. The rue Saint-Benoît concentrated Baldwin's Saint-Germain into one short block: Le Montana, one of the clubs of his nights, stands at number 28 next door, and the Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots wait at the boulevard end of the street. A room at number 26 put his whole daily geography within a hundred meters of the front door.
The street kept its own literary household throughout: at number 5, a plaque marks the apartment where Marguerite Duras lived from 1943 until her death, host to the writers the French remember as the groupe de la rue Saint-Benoît.
Last verified: August 2026.
The City of Paris's account places James Baldwin at this address as a likely residence, around the publication of Go Tell It on the Mountain.
A residential building; nothing marks the association.
Probably, around 1953. The City of Paris's walking account of the novelist James Baldwin's years in the city names this address, but phrases it as a likelihood rather than a fact, and no biographer fixes the tenancy. We record it as probable rather than documented.
In a shifting circuit of cheap hotels and borrowed rooms, most of it thinly documented. The firmest address is the Hôtel Verneuil, where he settled after his first nights in a hotel on the rue du Dragon in November 1948, and where the hotel's own history counts him among its residents. 26 rue Saint-Benoît is the address the City of Paris attaches to him around 1953. He later left Paris altogether for Saint-Paul-de-Vence, in the south of France, where he died in 1987.
Not on this building, and not on most of the addresses associated with him. The city's clearest commemoration is the Médiathèque James Baldwin, a public library in the 19th arrondissement named for him in 2024. The façade at 26 rue Saint-Benoît carries nothing at all.
Marguerite Duras, at number 5, from 1943 until her death in 1996 — a plaque marks it. Her apartment was the gathering place for the writers the French still call the groupe de la rue Saint-Benoît. Le Montana, one of the clubs Baldwin used at night, is next door to number 26 at number 28.
Only from the pavement. The building is private flats above a street-level restaurant, with nothing to enter and nothing marking the association. It is worth a stop as part of a rue Saint-Benoît walk — Duras's plaque at number 5 and Le Montana at number 28 are within a few doors, and the Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots are at the boulevard end.
Lived here · 1953
The City of Paris's walking account of Baldwin's years here lists 26 rue Saint-Benoît as his likely address in the period around the publication of Go Tell It on the Mountain in 1953. Held at probable: the city's own phrasing is conditional, and no biographer fixes the tenancy precisely.
A Saint-Germain bar of the postwar years, steps from the Café de Flore, that the City of Paris counts among the gay clubs James Baldwin frequented.
Visit the place
A few doors from Les Deux Magots and part of the same Left Bank circuit. Later became more associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
Visit the place
The famous literary terrace where the expat crowd gathered. Ernest Hemingway came here, though he preferred La Closerie for actual work.
Visit the place
The cheap bar across the boulevard from the Café de Flore where James Baldwin drank through his first Paris years, and where he met Lucien Happersberger in 1949.
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.
