{"id":68491,"date":"2026-08-22T17:19:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T17:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/68491\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T17:19:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T17:19:34","slug":"tracing-fictional-crimes-and-a-very-real-one-through-the-streets-of-paris-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/68491\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracing fictional crimes (and a very real one) through the streets of Paris | Travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some cities transcend their own reality, with the creation of parallel, fictitious maps. This doesn\u2019t happen to many urban centers\u2026 but it certainly does with Paris<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In this article, we\u2019ll explore the city through crimes \u2014 both written and filmed \u2014 which are so legendary that they sometimes seem to be happening among us, rather than in the imaginations of their creators.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin with the most famous detective in the French capital. We\u2019re talking about Inspector Maigret, the protagonist of 75 novels and 28 short stories by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon. Jules Maigret works at Number 36 Quai des Orf\u00e8vres, a historic 19th-century building on the banks of the Seine that, for decades, housed the judicial police. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s currently waiting to be converted, perhaps into a museum about law enforcement. <\/p>\n

Simenon\u2019s character also lives at 132 Boulevard Richard Lenoir with his wife. The property couldn\u2019t be better located, between the Bastille and the Place de la R\u00e9publique, both with their respective metro stations.<\/p>\n

\"\"Number 36 Quai des Orf\u00e8vres, where the fictional Inspector Jules Maigret worked. Jean-Pierre REY ( Gamma-Rapho \/ GETTY IMAGES )<\/p>\n

The Parisian subway has inspired countless artists. One of its busiest stations is Ch\u00e2telet-Les Halles, a crossroads between numerous lines in the Paris Metro, which are connected by moving walkways. It\u2019s here that one of the most iconic scenes from Le Samoura\u00ef (1967) takes place: one of the best films of the noir genre, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. In it, the character portrayed by French actor Alain Delon \u2014 a silent hitman \u2014 escapes a police pursuit to the astonishment of onlookers and viewers, who are captivated by the protagonist. They sympathize with him, despite the fact that he\u2019s a criminal.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Ch\u00e2telet-Les Halles metro station in Paris.DIMITAR DILKOFF ( AFP \/ GETTY IMAGES )<\/p>\n

Continuing with locations from the silver screen: we recommend \u2014 due to its proximity to other attractions, such as the Giacometti Foundation, or the rather intriguing Passage de l\u2019Enfer \u2014 a visit to Rue Campagne Premi\u00e8re. This is a straight street that connects Boulevard Raspail with Boulevard Montparnasse. It\u2019s on this street that Breathless (1960), the debut film by Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard<\/a>, ends. The film tells the story of Michel Poiccard, a petty criminal who murders a policeman while traveling from Marseille to Paris. Death awaits him on Rue Campagne Premi\u00e8re after being betrayed by his lover, portrayed by the unforgettable Jean Seberg.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s incredible to stroll along this street, to see its skyline, all while visualizing the unfortunate man\u2019s limping gait as he tries to escape his final breath, sealed by the gunshots of his pursuers.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Passage de l\u2019Enfer, in the Montparnasse district of Paris.Hemis \/ Alamy \/ CORDON PRESS<\/p>\n

The film is best remembered for the lovers\u2019 encounter on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es. The quintessential Parisian avenue \u2014 the result of the grand renovation undertaken in the mid-19th century by Baron Haussmann \u2014 has provided countless fictional moments that will forever remain in the collective imagination. <\/p>\n

Another of these immensely beautiful moments can be found in Elevator to the Gallows (1958). The film \u2014 one of director Louis Malle\u2019s many masterpieces \u2014 shows the actress Jeanne Moreau desolately walking down the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es in the rain, amid a silence that\u2019s broken only by Miles Davis\u2019 soundtrack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Aerial view of the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es.Carl Larson ( GETTY IMAGES )<\/p>\n

This feature film, a precursor to the French New Wave<\/a> and a European form of film noir, is full of interesting locations. The (im)perfect crime that sets the entire plot in motion takes place at 81 Boulevard de Courcelles, headquarters of the Carala arms company. A few hundred feet away, at 182 Boulevard Haussmann, Jeanne Moreau waits on a terrace (today, it\u2019s an Italian restaurant) for her lover\u2019s car to arrive. He\u2019s tasked with killing her husband, so that they can begin a new life together\u2026 something that ultimately never works out. <\/p>\n

The car ends up creating confusion: its driver isn\u2019t the assassin. Before going off to commit the crime, he leaves the keys in the ignition\u2026 something that a flower shop assistant and her boyfriend take advantage of. They steal the car and enjoy a day off, with unforeseen consequences. Things go so badly that they end up having to ditch the car near the Bir-Hakeim bridge, unmistakable for its wrought iron pillars. This is the same bridge that Marlon Brando<\/a> and Maria Schneider walk over, lost in thought, during the opening scenes of Last Tango in Paris (1972), by Bernardo Bertolucci.<\/p>\n

Literary Crimes<\/p>\n

One of the most poignant passages in Victor Hugo\u2019s Les Mis\u00e9rables (1862) \u2014 a novel that\u2019s been adapted in numerous formats, from films to musicals \u2014 is the death of Gavroche on the barricades of the 1832 anti-monarchist uprising. The character is murdered by his opponents on the now-vanished Rue de la Chanvrerie, which was demolished by the Haussmannian urban renewal project. It was replaced by the Rue de Rambuteau, which connects Les Halles with Le Marais.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the greatest Parisian investigator is Patrick Modiano. The 2014 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature roams the city streets with a keen inquisitiveness: he seeks to capture every detail, before shrouding it in a fog of suspicion. In Memory Lane (1981), a real crime fills the thoughts of his alter ego, who feels uneasy as he passes by Le Palace, a theater located at 8 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre. There, on September 24, 1933, the body of theatrical impresario Oscar Dufrenne was found lifeless, his skull crushed by multiple blows. His murderer, later arrested in Barcelona\u2019s red-light district, used a billiard cue that was found at the crime scene, wrapped in a rolled-up cloth.<\/p>\n

\"\"A plaque at the Caf\u00e9 du Croissant, at 2 Rue de Montmartre, Paris. It commemorates the assassination of politician Jean Jaur\u00e8s, who was killed at this location on July 31, 1914.frederic REGLAIN ( Alamy \/ CORDON PRESS )<\/p>\n

This crime, which caused such a scandal, brings our journey to a close. We\u2019ve ended up in Montmartre, an artists\u2019 hill corrupted by overtourism<\/a>, which is so overwhelming that it can erase any traces of past crimes. These include the fictional acts in Maigret Sets a Trap (1955), one of Simenon\u2019s best works, as well as the tragically true murder of politician Jean Jaur\u00e8s, on July 31, 1914, at the Caf\u00e9 du Croissant at 2 Rue de Montmartre. He was shot dead by Raoul Villain, an ultranationalist. <\/p>\n

Villain was eager to eliminate a nobleman who was opposed to the war that was about to erupt in Europe, before spreading across the globe. Generally, reality is far more unbearable than fiction when it comes to the motivations behind these sinister plots.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some cities transcend their own reality, with the creation of parallel, fictitious maps. This doesn\u2019t happen to many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[42191,42197,42189,42193,42192,42190,42194,42196,42195,30,10776],"class_list":["post-68491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-alain-delon","tag-bernardo-bertolucci","tag-georges-simenon","tag-jean-seberg","tag-jean-luc-godard","tag-jean-pierre-melville","tag-jeanne-moreau","tag-marlon-brando","tag-miles-davis","tag-paris","tag-victor-hugo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}