Café · Alésia (14th) · 14e arrondissement

Le Bouquet d'Alésia

The buildingStill standing

Getting inIn, as a customer

What's there nowStill the same

Still a working café-brasserie at the same corner.

A corner café-brasserie in the 14th, and one of the few Paris addresses Henry Miller names himself. In a manuscript dated 17 March 1937 he places himself here, examining a section of the café's marble counter with the painter David Edgar.

Address: 75 avenue du Général-Leclerc, 75014 Paris
Years: Henry Miller wrote from here in March 1937

The place, briefly

Most of the Paris addresses attached to Henry Miller come from biographers reconstructing where he was. This one comes from Miller.

In a book-letter manuscript dated 17 March 1937 he locates himself explicitly at the Bouquet d'Alésia, and describes examining a section of the café's marble counter with the painter David Edgar. It is a small, specific, dated piece of evidence of the kind that is unusually scarce for a writer who spent the 1930s moving between borrowed rooms.

The detail is also very Miller. The interest is not the café's clientele or its reputation — it is a slab of marble, looked at closely, in company, and written up. His Paris books work that way: the significance is wherever the attention lands, and the attention lands on whatever is in front of him.

Alésia is a long way south of the Montparnasse of the myth. By 1937 Miller had a settled address at 18 villa Seurat, a few streets from here, and this is the local — the café you use because it is near, rather than the one you are seen in.

It is still a working café-brasserie on the same corner, which makes it one of the Miller addresses you can sit down in.

Key facts

Why it matters: One of the very few Paris addresses Miller names himself
The evidence: A manuscript dated 17 March 1937, placing him at the café
What he was doing: Examining a section of the marble counter with the painter David Edgar
Where it sits: Alésia — the local, a few streets from 18 villa Seurat
Today: Still a working café-brasserie at 75 avenue du Général-Leclerc

Timeline

1934
Tropic of Cancer is published in Paris.
17 March 1937
Miller dates a manuscript from the Bouquet d'Alésia, describing the café's marble counter with David Edgar.

On the map

Questions before you go

What is Henry Miller's connection to the Bouquet d'Alésia?

He wrote from it. A manuscript dated 17 March 1937 places him at the café, examining a section of its marble counter with the painter David Edgar. It is one of very few Paris addresses Miller names himself rather than being placed at by a biographer.

Can you go to the Bouquet d'Alésia?

Yes — it is still a working café-brasserie at 75 avenue du Général-Leclerc in the 14th, on the same corner. It is a few streets from 18 villa Seurat, where Miller was living by then, so the two work as one short walk.

Why is it in Alésia rather than Montparnasse?

Because by 1937 Miller was living at 18 villa Seurat, well south of the Montparnasse cafés he is associated with. The Bouquet d'Alésia is the local — the café you use because it is near, not the one you are seen in.

Writers who knew this place

Henry Miller

American · The Brooklyn dropout who arrived in Paris broke at thirty-eight and wrote the exuberant, banned books that ended American censorship.

Frequented by · 1937

Miller dated a manuscript from this café on 17 March 1937, describing a section of its marble counter examined with the painter David Edgar — one of the few Paris addresses he names himself.

— Henry Miller, A Letter from Henry Miller

Within walking distance

Café · Alésia (14th)

Le Zeyer

A corner café-brasserie in Alésia where Henry Miller met regularly with Alfred Perlès and Michael Fraenkel during the years that fed into Tropic of Cancer. Still trading on the same corner.

Visit the place

The Villa Seurat today — pale modernist façades, black-framed studio glazing, and cobbles down the private lane

Apartment · Parc de Montsouris

18 Villa Seurat

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 place

Street · Plaisance / Montparnasse

Rue du Château

A workers' street behind the Montparnasse yards with two literary lives — the surrealists' communal house at No. 54, and Henry Miller's broke wanderings looking for a friend and a meal.

Visit the place

Landmark · Denfert-Rochereau (Montparnasse's southern edge)

The Catacombs of Paris

The Catacombs are a municipal ossuary in a disused limestone quarry twenty metres under the 14th arrondissement, holding the remains of several million Parisians moved out of the city's overflowing graveyards from 1786 onward. The visit is a 1.5 km one-way walk, 131 steps down and 112 up, at a constant 14°C. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 9.45 a.m.–8.30 p.m., last admission 7.30 p.m.; full rate €31.

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.