#lesgles

"LES MISERABLES" LOCATIONS IN PARIS: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE

BY KATIE BARNES

AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON

“Among many other things, “Les Misérables” is Victor Hugo's love letter to the Paris of his youth... His descriptions of its streets and buildings, and the routes the characters take, are almost forensically detailed and accurate.”

If you have ever wanted to know more about the locations in Paris where Victor Hugo says that Valjean, Javert and the other characters walked, this will be for you. Using contemporary and modern maps, photographs, engravings and paintings, this book gives detailed written and illustrated histories for 35 locations connected with the novel, the musical and the life of Victor Hugo, including the sites of the Barricade, the Rue Plumet, the quay where Javert commits suicide, the Cafe Musain, the church where Marius and Cosette are married, the street where Valjean dies, the street where Hugo was nearly killed on the night of the barricades, the Pantheon where he is buried, the place on the river bank where Valjean and Marius emerge from the sewers, and many more. And if you visit Paris in person, the book includes information on travel to each location by Metro, bus and bicycle, together with two suggested walking tours on the Right and Left Banks.

All profits are donated to Acting For Others, which provides financial and emotional support to all those working in theatrical professions, through its network of 14 member charities. I will receive no financial benefit whatsoever.

It's available as a Kindle download for £5.99/$7.99; as a paperback with colour illustrations for £21.50/$28.98; and as a paperback with illustrations in black & white for £12.50/$16.79. 

If you like it, please leave a rating and review on Amazon: if I get more than 10 positive reviews and ratings, Amazon will do more to help me publicise it, which would hopefully mean more sales and more funds raised for Acting for Others. 

These are the links to all three editions on Amazon:

Black & white edition:https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0H2WCQTHM

Colour edition: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0H2WCNZRZ

Kindle edition: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0H4DWJ8LP

I’m by no means an expert on all of them and obviously there are costume changes between productions & actors so this won’t be perfect… but this should at least be kind of helpful when put alongside their line distributions (though those can and will change depending on the amount of swings on in the show!)

First up: Feuilly! Commonly, he is wearing an orange waistcoat with light (sometimes patterned) grayish pants + a black long-coat and cravat!

notable moments/lines: he is the one to climb the tower during DYHTPS and sing the classic “the blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of France” speech; “at rue de bac they’re straining at the leash”, “let them come if they dare, we’ll be there!”, he begins drink with me “sing with me, the songs we knew” (pretty sure he is the non-lead Amis who speaks the most)

Jean Prouvaire (Jehan)! His green is quite a bit more saturated and bright compared to Grantaire. His waistcoat is embroidered with flowers and he wears a (varying shade of) green tailcoat on top. His cravat color changes quite a bit 😭

noteable moments/lines: follows after Feuilly in Drink with me “here’s to pretty girls who go to our heads”, he’s (usually…) the character to steal Grantaire’s drink from him in ABC and run away with it, “so what’re we gonna do with this snake in the grass?”

Joly is like the pastel version of Marius! His coat is a light blue, with his waistcoat a varying shade of blue as well (often with some white detailing)

notable lines: “what’s wrong today, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost!”, “here’s to witty girls who went to our beds”, “here comes a man in uniform, what brings you to this place?”, “theres a boy climbing the barricade!”,

Lesgles or Bossuet is very stylish in his deep red tailcoat and light waistcoat! He also has a wild variety of cravat colors 😭

notable lines: “Look how they turn and run!”, “come back, gavroche, don’t you dare!” , “they will do what is right!”

Courfeyrac is Usually in a striped waistcoat with a deep blue waistcoat… but for whatever reason he’s quite different/inconsistent in the US tour? Luckily, he’s got lots of lines

Notable lines: “make them pay for every man!”, “before we cut the fat ones down to size”, “students, workers, everyone - there’s a river on the run”, “then join in the fight that will give you the right to be free!”, “and if I should die in the fight to be free-“

Combeferre is an easy one: He wears a long brown coat with a (commonly) yellowish waistcoat!

notable lines: “a spy who calls himself javert”, “at Notre Dame the sections are prepared”, “will you join in our crusade-“, “this is where it begins!”, “make them pay through the nose!”

Valjean: You would assume he’d be one of those Facebook boomer parents, but he actually has a very good grasp on how to work the internet. He just does not find it useful nor does he want large amounts of his personal information out there and therefore barely owns a flip phone and 100% still has a landline. Also an extensive DVD collection.

Javert: Now HE is one of those Facebook boomer parents. He does not use the internet or social media and has a pager as his sole form of contact. Think Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec levels of internet knowledge.

Marius: He is one of those guys whose instagram is like. Literally just pictures of his girlfriend and almost nothing else. And if the post isn’t about his girlfriend she will still be in at least half the photos. He also absolutely uses chat gpt and is all “oh no it’s not that bad I don’t use it all the time” but he actually only uses it for stuff you could easily just look up. It’s very awkward and no one really knows how to get him to stop.

Cosette: Vaguely on the internet, not particularly active on social media but would probably have a small personal instagram. I also get the sense that she would really enjoy Pinterest and would also have an extensive physical media collection, like CDs and vinyls, in lieu of streaming services of any kind. Also definitely has her own landline rotary phone.

Éponine: Has a private Instagram that somehow has an insane amount of followers where she posts vague aesthetic photos with mildly dramatic captions that are very often about Marius and everyone but him is aware of this. She definitely has an incredibly cracked early iPhone that is barely hanging on to life and can only be charged if you hold it at the right angle.

The Thenardiers: I’m lumping them together because I have only one thing to say about them: they use any and all generative AI models to write scam letters and make shitty flyers for the inn and are constantly making new Yelp accounts to write bad reviews for other businesses.

Enjolras: Understands the importance of technology in the modern day as a form of organizing resistance, however also refuses to personally use social media platforms or own a smartphone for the sake of his own morals. He has a flip phone that he never answers and everyone always jokes that it would be easier to send him carrier pigeons than to text him.

Gavroche: Definitely not an iPad kid, but at about 12 he might have an old phone that he can only text a few people on. If he was any older I’d say he’d be a hit on tumblr. He also takes pictures of everything and has approximately 50,000 photos in his camera roll.

Grantaire: Has an Instagram where he, much like Éponine, posts vague pictures and his art while waxing poetic in the captions and all of the comments are either his friends telling him to shut up or random people who don’t know him being very confused. Definitely is on tumblr and is always vagueposting about Enjolras or just doing classic shitposting. He also would occasionally post interactions he has with gavroche being like “this kid I know said the craziest shit today” and they always get hundreds of notes of people being like “this kid is not real there’s no way”

Courfeyrac: Not super active on social media but is incredibly tech savvy. The ABCs unofficial IT guy. If anything they are organizing requires social media promotion of any kind, he somehow manages to get it seen by an insane amount of people. He is one of the few people who actually texts Enjolras. He also has a camera roll full of memes and reaction images.

Combeferre: Definitely on Reddit just for r/entomology. He also will correct people’s misinformation but is nice about it. Mostly. Watches YouTube video essays about literally any topic. Occasionally texts like a Shakespeare character.

Prouvaire: Has approximately five billion notes in his notes app at all times. Had to be convinced to get social media, posts very cryptically. Like it’ll be a photo of a crack in the sidewalk with no caption, but if you ask him it actually has an incredibly deep and beautiful meaning. Or it was just a nice picture. Has a tumblr where he posts writing but no one he knows irl is aware of this.

Lesgles: Has the most cracked, beat-up android you have ever seen. It is a genuine miracle the thing works. Tried to have an instagram but it kept getting hacked so now he’s on tumblr. Texts with a combination of very proper grammar and many non functional letters on his keyboard.

Joly: On webmd constantly, he doesn’t often convince himself he has any rare diseases, but keeps trying to figure out if he has asthma. (He does not) Also on Wikipedia like it’s a social media. Has a camera roll full of pictures of various bumps and or scratches he has had over the years.

Bahorel: Absolutely frequents Reddit and argues with people about things he knows nothing about until they figure out he has no idea what he’s talking about. Other than that he was made to swear off social media after he threw his phone at a wall over an argument on twitter.

@orbitingapollo requested Joly and Bossuet together