Surrounded by her team, hotel manager Delphine Questel receives all our visitors with the same kindness to offer them four-star comfort, ensuring the quality of their cultural stay.
The decoration of the Hôtel Littéraire Gustave Flaubert was designed by architect Aude Bruguière assisted by Aleth Prime, interior decorator, to pay tribute to the writer and introduce us to his world. Emma Bovary’s little boudoir has been reconstructed as it is described in Flaubert’s novel, not far from the hanging cage of the parrot Loulou, hero of A Simple Heart. A shimmering wallpaper with his effigy leads to the reception, which evokes the medical world of the writer’s childhood at Hôtel-Dieu, in front of Helleu’s Seine Landscape, recalling the view contemplated by Flaubert from his Croisset salon.
We invite you to travel with Flaubertian themes to guide you from floor to floor: from Normandy to Paris, from Carthage to other works of the writer, from Flaubert’s friends to his voyages.
The rooms are personalised around a work, a character, a place or a close friend of Flaubert: you can choose to sleep in Emma Bovary or Frédéric Moreau, in Mégara, or Guy de Maupassant. An original watercolour by Jean Aubertin revisits the chosen theme and a text gives the curious visitor more anecdotes and quotes from the writer.
The headboards present the quote of Sentimental Education, evoking the hero of the book, Frédéric Moreau:
“He travelled. He realised the melancholy associated with packet-boats, the chill one feels on waking up under tents, the dizzy effect of landscapes and ruins, and the bitterness of ruptured sympathies. He returned home. He mingled in society, and he conceived attachments to other women. But the constant recollection of his first love made these appear insipid; and besides the vehemence of desire, the bloom of the sensation had vanished. In like manner, his intellectual ambitions had grown weaker. Years passed; and he was forced to support the burden of a life in which his mind was unoccupied and his heart devoid of energy.”
As in each Hôtel Littéraire, we invite you to discover the chosen writer through a collection gathered over the years. Original editions that should delight bibliophiles: Madame Bovary (1857), Salammbô (1863), Sentimental education (1870), The Temptation of St. Anthony (1874), Three Tales (1877), etc. Some of these precious works are embellished with art bindings by Nathalie Berjon, Bernard Alix and Anne Leméteil.
A multilingual library of 500 books is available to visitors, in pocket editions that can be taken to their room during their stay. It is continually supplied with the latest publications thanks to our partner bookseller who never fails to bring us new ones. As far as translations are concerned, we suggest that everyone read in the language of their choice with editions in English, German, Russian, Estonian, Turkish, etc., which we have collected together following the travels or donations of our guests.
In the courtyard, we exhibit a work by painter Hastaire from Flaubert’s book in its colours and entitled Portrait of Flaubert, printed on canvas and attached to an outside wall of the hotel.
If our guests are eager to learn more about Flaubert, they can read the quotes that adorn the walls and listen to musical excerpts selected specifically according to Flaubert’s tastes for opera, and Mozart’s Don Juan in particular.
An illustrated chronology retraces the main stages of the writer’s life and a historical map of Rouen guides our visitors along Flaubert’s footsteps in his city. This map is available in a paper version to take everywhere with you for discovering Flaubert’s successive addresses and the literary places of his novels.
A booklet available on your bedside table reproduces the texts and watercolours of each room to give you an overview.
We wish this place to be a true cultural hotel and we regularly organise events such as book signings, bookbinding exhibitions or reading evenings to offer our visitors a personalised stay.
« Tell me when you are coming to Rouen to spend a few days with us ». Letter from Gustave Flaubert to Ernest Chevalier, Rouen, 23 July 1839. Discover the work and travels of Gustave Flaubert without leaving the hotel with its caring team. Let yourself be told about Rouen in the footsteps of the famous writer. Stroll through its cathedral to discover its secrets. Come share with us a unique experience in the city with a hundred steeples.
