Victor Hugo’s Normandy

Victor Hugo was a great writer but also a great traveller, who visited Normandy from 1835 onwards. His letters and sketches give a precise idea of how he studied the landscapes and heritage of our beautiful region. Between romance and tragedy, this itinerary takes us from the loops of the River Seine to the Channel Islands. Let’s follow in his footsteps and his eyes…

Villequier, a tragic perspective

The link between Victor Hugo and Villequier was established through his friend Auguste Vacquerie. The Hugo family spent several summers at the Vacquerie house. It was here that the writer’s eldest daughter, Léopoldine, fell in love with Charles Vacquerie. She married him in 1843 and drowned in the River Seine the same year. The tragedy occurred during a boat trip when a gust of wind knocked Léopoldine and her husband’s boat off balance. This however had nothing to do with the tidal bore, the wave that sweeps up the Seine, as we often read. Victor Hugo read the news 5 days later in Le Siècle, while on a trip with his mistress Juliette Drouet. It is easy to understand why, in addition to his shock and grief, Hugo felt guilty. Feelings he would later express in Les Contemplations. Léopoldine, the writer’s wife, and another of Hugo’s daughters, Adèle, are buried in the village cemetery. The Maison Vacquerie houses the Victor Hugo Museum, the third largest collection of the writer’s drawings in France.

Romance on the roads of Normandy

True to the Romantic essence of travel, Hugo travelled all over France, especially in Normandy.
Often alone, he toured the Alabaster Coast, from Le Tréport to Etretat, enjoying the beauty of the sea and nature. He also took a keen interest in old buildings and became a master of heritage. At the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille, for example, he accused the owner of being a “hideous, destructive pig”. He was full of praise for Jumièges Abbey, ‘the most beautiful ruin in France’, and Rouen, which he called ‘the city of 100 spires’.

Another trip took him to the Mont-Saint-Michel, where he was struck by the magic of the place: ‘it is the most beautiful place in the world’, but also criticised it: ‘it is like a toad in a reliquary’. After the death of his daughter, he returned to Normandy to visit his friend Paul Meurice at Veules-les-Roses. Here Hugo found a nostalgic family atmosphere. But the emotions of his first journeys were gone…

A political look at the Channel Islands

Victor Hugo was a committed democrat from an early age. His speeches to the Assembly on children’s rights and poverty still resonate today. But everything changed after Louis Napoleon’s coup d’état. After accusing the government of treason, he fled to Belgium, where he wrote a pamphlet against ‘Napoleon the Lesser’. The Belgian government asked him to leave the country, so he settled in Jersey. Hugo isolated himself like a hermit and grew a beard – part of the romantic myth. His support for the banned rebels against Queen Victoria earned him another exile, this time to Guernsey. This exile lasted 15 years. He bought Hauteville House. There he gave lunches to poor children, helped their mothers and above all composed. It was on this rock, overlooking the sea, that he found the inspiration for : Les Misérables, Les Travailleurs de la Mer… The house is “a 3-storey autograph, a poem in several rooms”, according to his son Charles. In fact, the poet, who had a passion for antiques and decoration, furnished it with great care. A poem not to be missed!

Don’t miss

• Hauteville House
  38 Hauteville, St Peter Port
  Guernesey GY1 1DG
  Channel Islands

• Literary trail in the footsteps of Victor Hugo: 9 digital terminals with flash codes to discover the 9 stages of Victor Hugo’s journey in La Manche.