House · Passy · 16e arrondissement

57 rue Cortambert

The buildingDemolished

Getting inOutside only

What's there nowA later apartment building

The chalet is gone. The wooden house Colette lived in no longer stands; a later apartment building occupies the site, and the address is best treated as a historical one.

The wooden Swiss-style chalet in Passy, since demolished, where Colette lived through her second marriage and the birth of her daughter.

Address: 57 rue Cortambert, 75116 Paris
Years: 1911–1916

No photograph survives The same ivy-covered wooden chalet in colour, warm timber walls and green shutters in a leafy garden

A colour impression of the vanished chalet.

Artistic reconstruction — no photograph survives

The place, briefly

In October 1911 Colette moved into a house at 57 rue Cortambert, in Passy, belonging to Henry de Jouvenel — an editor at the newspaper Le Matin, where she had begun writing. They married in December 1912, and their daughter, also named Colette and nicknamed Bel-Gazou, was born in July 1913. These are the years Colette left the music hall behind and established herself as a journalist and novelist.

The house was an unusual one: a wooden chalet set back from the street in its own garden, in a Passy that was still half-rural when she arrived. During the First World War it became a gathering place for women in her circle, among them the actress Marguerite Moreno and the film star Musidora, while the men were at the front. Colette lived here until 1916, when the couple moved to the boulevard Suchet.

The chalet no longer exists. It was demolished, and a later apartment building stands on the site, so the address belongs on Colette's map as a historical one rather than a house to visit.

Key facts

Address: 57 rue Cortambert, 16th arrondissement
What it was: A wooden Swiss-style chalet, since demolished
Who lived here: Colette with Henry de Jouvenel, whose house it was
When: 1911–1916
Why it matters: Her second marriage and the birth of her daughter; the turn to journalism
Today: Demolished; a later apartment building occupies the site

In images

Pen-and-ink reconstruction of a wooden chalet with balconies, half-covered in ivy, set in a garden behind tall Parisian apartment buildings — An impression of the wooden chalet at 57 rue Cortambert, set back in its garden as the stone apartment blocks of Passy rose around it. The house is gone; this is a reconstruction, not a photograph.Artistic reconstruction — no photograph survives

The same ivy-covered wooden chalet in colour, warm timber walls and green shutters in a leafy garden — A colour impression of the vanished chalet.Artistic reconstruction — no photograph survives

Illustration of the modern apartment building that stands at 57 rue Cortambert today — What stands at the address today: a later apartment building occupies the site. Nothing of the chalet remains.Editorial illustration

Timeline

1911
Colette moves into Henry de Jouvenel's house on the rue Cortambert in October.
1912
Colette and Henry de Jouvenel marry in December.
1913
Their daughter, Colette de Jouvenel, is born in July.
1916
The family moves to the boulevard Suchet.

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 · 1911–1916

Henry de Jouvenel's house in Passy, where Colette lived from October 1911 through their 1912 marriage and the 1913 birth of their daughter.

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

Within walking distance

Museum · La Muette

Musée Marmottan Monet

The former townhouse of the Duc de Valmy at the edge of the Ranelagh gardens, bought by Jules Marmottan in 1882 and opened as a museum in 1934.

Visit the place

Landmark · Champ de Mars

Eiffel Tower

The tower at the era's edge of vision — and in the twenties and thirties, a champagne advertisement three hundred meters tall, fizzing in lights over everyone's night walks.

Visit the place

Apartment · Chaillot

2 rue Georges-Ville

The home of Mathilde de Morny — Missy — where Colette lived through much of their relationship after leaving Willy.

Visit the place

The same Haussmann-era façade in colour, in warm stone with black iron balconies

Apartment · Chaillot

44 rue de Villejust

The ground-floor apartment Colette rented on her own after leaving Willy, remembered as a place of new independence. The building no longer exists.

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.