Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Seven Visits to Paris
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Seven Visits to Paris is an article written by Wladimir V. Bogomoletz published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 10, may 2000).
This article reconstructs Arthur Conan Doyle's seven documented visits to Paris from 1876 to 1925, placing each trip in its biographical and historical context. It relies on published reminiscences, biographies, newspapers, and references to provide a factual chronological overview and suggest directions for further research.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Seven Visits to Paris
Period postcard showing the Hôtel Regina on the left hand side of what was then the Place de Rivoli (now Place des Pyramides). The hotel entrance is situated at n°2 Rue des Pyramides. Note the golden statue of Joan of Arc in the centre. (Author's collection)
Period postcard from the early 1920s showing the main entrance of the Hôtel du Louvre, as seen from the south end of the Avenue de l'Opera. (Author's collection)
Advertisement published in Le Figaro of 6 September 1925 related to the play Sherlock Holmes presented by the theatre company 'Les English Players' (Author's Collection)
To the best of our knowledge, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited Paris on seven occasions: summer 1876, spring 1891, spring 1894, autumn 1907, spring or summer 1916, spring 1921, and autumn 1925. (1) These visits to the French capital occurred at very different periods in Conan Doyle's private and professional life. The time spent in Paris on each occasion, in contrast to his other extended trips. abroad, seldom exceeded a few days. This is probably why biographies of Conan Doyle generally contain only brief allusions to this topic, and why Conan Doyle himself rarely wrote at length about any of his visits to Paris.
The aim of this paper is to attempt a sequential and factual. 'reconstruction' of Conan Doyle's seven visits to Paris, based essentially on his own published reminiscences (2-5) and on a selection of standard biographies. (6-10) Leading French daily newspapers, as well as the Paris editions of The Times and The New York Herald, were scanned for any potential information on Conan Doyle's visits to Paris, particularly those occurring in 1907, 1916, 1921, and 1925. We also looked at several documents related to people, places, and sites in Paris which may have been mentioned in relation to any of Conan Doyle's visits to the French capital.
First Visit to Paris in 1876: A Feldkirch Freshman
Conan Doyle's first visit to Paris took place in the summer of 1876, when he was aged 17. After spending one academic year in Feldkirch — the Stonyhurst Jesuit school branch in Austria — he returned to Edinburgh to begin his medical studies. He stopped on the way in Paris, at the request of his godfather and grand-uncle Michael Edward Conan. In his late autobiography Memories and Adventures, (2) Conan Doyle stated that he had never before met this important relative (whose sister Marianna Conan had married ACD's grandfather, 'H. B.'), but had corresponded with him.
A literary, music, and theatre critic for The Morning Herald, Michael Edward Conan had moved to Paris in 1854 as a freelance journalist. In 1864, he became the Paris correspondent of The Art Journal. By the time his godson visited him, Conan had lived for twenty-two consecutive years in Paris and was considered one of the leading British personalities of the French capital. He had a house at 65 avenue de Wagram, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, south of the Place des Ternes. This lower section of the Avenue de Wagram had been opened up in 1853 and was a part of the suburban village of Neuilly, until the latter was annexed to Paris in 1860.
According to Conan Doyle's own account, (2) 'after a rather lively supper in Strasburg' (presumably with other Feldkirch students), he arrived in Paris with only two pence in his pocket. Leaving his trunk at the railway station — this must have been the Gare de l'Est in the 10th arrondissement — ACD walked along the river Seine, most likely by the Boulevard de Strasbourg and the Boulevard de Sébastopol. He then walked along the right river bank in a westerly direction, came to the foot of the Avenue des Champs Elysées, went up as far as the Arc de Triomphe and then down the Avenue de Wagram. This represented about seven kilometres on foot, 'on a hot August day' as ACD recalled.
In Memories and Adventures, (2) written some forty-eight years after his first visit to Paris, ACD stated that he had spent some weeks with his uncle there.
Conan's original home at 65 Avenue de Wagram still exists. It now houses the drawing offices of a firm specialising in the design of luxury villas. The building consists of ground, first, and second floors plus one attic room, with small windows overlooking the Avenue de Wagram.
It is of interest to note that in Conan Doyle's tale of terror, 'The Leather Funnel', the main character of the story, Lionel Dacre, lived in a small house on the same side of the Avenue de Wagram as that of Conan's house.
Second Visit to Paris in 1891: On the Way to Becoming an Eye Specialist
Conan Doyle's second visit to Paris occurred in March 1891, some fifteen years after his first sojourn in the French capital. On this occasion he was accompanied by his first wife, Louise, and was on his way back to England, via Italy, after spending approximately two months in Vienna.
At that time, Conan Doyle was aged 32, married to Louise (Hawkins) since 1885, and the father of two-year-old Mary Louise. He had been a general medical practitioner in Southsea for nine years. and had recently decided to embark on a career as an eye specialist, hence his visit to Vienna where he was supposed to train in ophthalmology. From a literary viewpoint, the first two Sherlock Holmes stories, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four, had been published in 1887 and 1890 respectively, and Micah Clarke had appeared in February 1889.
According to Memories and Adventures, (2) his stay in Paris was very short, but he did have time to meet with Professor Landolt, who was a famous eye specialist. (11) It is reckoned that Conan Doyle arrived in Paris on 19 March and was back in London on 24 March. (12) We have no indication as to where ACD and his wife stayed in Paris during their second visit.
Third Visit to Paris in 1894: Returning from Switzerland
In April 1894, Conan Doyle visited Paris again with his wife Louise. They were returning to England from Davos in Switzerland, where Louise had spent about four months trying to improve her health, which was badly affected by tuberculosis.
At the time of this third visit, Conan Doyle was aged 36, and the proud father of a second child, Alleyne Kingsley, born in November 1892. ACD had now completely abandoned the medical profession — after his failed attempt to become an eye specialist in London and had turned to a full-time and successful literary career. Since his last visit to the French capital in March 1891, he had been busy writing up Sherlock Holmes's Adventures and Memoirs, the stories having been published in The Strand Magazine between July 1891 and December 1893. He had also, of course, 'killed' Sherlock Holmes in 'The Final Problem' in December 1893, causing great distress and consternation to his reading public. The White Company and The Refugees had also been published, and ACD was developing his interest in Spiritualism, joining the British Society for Psychical Research in November 1893.
As a result of this third visit to the French capital, Conan Doyle wrote a short piece entitled 'Paris in 1894: A Superficial Impression'. (3) This article dealt essentially with ACD's observations and remarks on the national characteristics of the French people. One paragraph is of particular interest, because it may contain a clue as to Conan Doyle's hotel accommodation in Paris at that time: '... We sat in the Grand Café of the Louvre and tried to count the red-ribboned gentlemen [reference to the recipients of the Legion of Honour] as they passed. ...' ACD was probably referring to the Hôtel du Louvre and its café-restaurant. (1)
An Interlude: the first Sherlock Holmes stories translated into French (1894-1907)
At the time of his third visit to Paris in 1894, and despite his successful literary output, Conan Doyle was still an unknown writer where most of the French reading public were concerned. Not withstanding, seven months later, on 13 November 1894, the Paris daily newspaper Le Temps published the first instalment of a detective serial entitled Détective Amateur. It was the first translation into French of one of Conan Doyle's works and, more importantly, a Sherlock Holmes adventure (A Study in Scarlet). This introduction of the French public to Sherlock Holmes and his creator would be followed by a French translation of The Sign of the Four in 1896. Between 1902 and 1905, a large number of the Sherlock Holmes short stories, particularly those contained in The Adventures and The Memoirs, as well as The Hound of the Baskervilles, were translated and published in book form in France.
Fourth Visit to Paris in 1907: A Second Honeymoon
On 19 September 1907, the Paris edition of The New York Herald carried on its front page an article entitled 'Celebrated English Novelist and His Bride', along with pictures of 'Sir Arthur and Lady Conan Doyle'. The article referred to Conan Doyle's marriage to Jean Leckie which had taken place at St Margaret's, Westminster the previous day. The article also contained the information that 'the honeymoon will be passed on the Continent'. The same newspaper dated 21 September confirmed on page four that the couple had arrived in Paris: 'Sir Arthur and Lady Conan Doyle are at the Hotel Regina.' The couple spent only two days in Paris — 21 and 22 September-before moving on. (12)
The Hôtel Regina was, and still is, located along the Rue de Rivoli in the first arrondissement, at the corner of la Rue des Pyramides and the Place des Pyramides. The latter was called Place de Rivoli until 1932. The Hôtel Regina was opened in 1862 (Fig. 1).
Conan Doyle was now 48, had toured America, visited Egypt, and participated in the Boer War in South Africa. He had been knighted in October 1902. His first wife, Louise, had died on 4 July 1906. Since his last visit to Paris in April 1894, his literary output had included, in addition to the Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard and several other stories, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) and The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905).
On 20 December 1907, two months after Conan Doyle's honeymoon visit to the French capital, a play simply entitled Sherlock Holmes opened at the Théâtre Saint-Antoine in Paris. (13) This was a French adaptation of William Gillette's original play. The leading part was played by Firmin Gémier, who was also the director of the Théâtre Antoine. The play was highly successful, being praised by most theatre critics, and ran for 338 performances until 13 September 1908. In December 1915 the play was again performed in Paris, this time at the Théâtre Nouvel-Ambigu, and ran for several months. Harry Baur, who, incidentally, had played Moriarty in the earlier staging of the play, was cast in the leading role.
Fifth Visit to Paris in 1916: War Time in Paris
In 1916, probably early in June, Conan Doyle again visited Paris, this time on his return from the Italian front. (4) On his arrival he learnt of the death of Lord Kitchener, who had been on a secret mission to Russia and was drowned when H.M.S. Hampshire was torpedoed off the Orkneys between the 5th and 6th of June. ACD found Paris 'deserted, grey, and lifeless, the Hotel Crillon a desolation of nailed-up boards and barbed wires'. (8)
The original building of the Hôtel de Crillon was part of a pair of two edifices overlooking the Place de la Concorde and erected under the instruction of King Louis XIV in the late 1750s. (14) In 1788 it became the property of the de Crillon family. In 1907 the building was bought by the same company that already owned the Hôtel du Louvre, the Hôtel Terminus (part of the railway station Gare Saint Lazare), and the Palais d'Orsay in Paris. In the spring of 1909, and after some transformation, the Hôtel de Crillon was opened to the public. During the First World War it was requisitioned, and housed the British and American Armies' headquarters. Since Conan Doyle had earlier visited the British and Italian armies' lines with the blessing of the British War Office, it is very likely that it was arranged for him to stay in the Hôtel de Crillon.
While in Paris, ACD met the elderly French statesman George Clémenceau, who was seventy-five years old at the time. The meeting between the two men had been arranged by Robert Donald, editor of the Daily Chronicle in London.
Later, ACD left Paris by train for Châlons-sur-Marne on his way to visit the French army front in Argonne. He was accompanied by Robert Donald, and must have used the Gare de l'Est once again.
Sixth Visit to Paris in March 1921: Back From Australia
In March 1921, on his return from Australia with his wife Jean and the children, and on the way back to England, ACD stopped off in Paris. He recorded the events of this sixth visit in his book The Wanderings of a Spiritualist, published later the same year. (5)
Of all the newspapers published in the French capital, and despite Conan Doyle's fame as a writer at that time, only the Paris edition of the New York Herald, dated 24 March 1921, reported his arrival: 'Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, has arrived in Paris from Australia where he spent five months lecturing on spiritualism and has left again for Biarritz.' The next day, 25 March 1921, the New York Herald indicated that 'Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has gone to Biarritz to visit his brother-in-law Mr Hornung of 'Raffles' fame. Lady Doyle is remaining at the Hotel du Louvre. E. W. Hornung died in Saint Jean-de-Luz in the Pyrénées and ACD arrived too late and only in time to be present at his funeral'.
Conan Doyle apparently enjoyed what was probably his second stay at the Hôtel du Louvre, under this hotel's 'friendly and comfortable roof'. The original five-sided building of Second Empire style, located in the centre of Paris, had only opened as a hotel in 1887. (1) Today, the Hôtel du Louvre is practically the same as it was when ACD visited it in 1894 and 1931 (Fig. 2). ACD used the location of the Hôtel du Louvre in the Sherlock Holmes story 'The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans', first published in 1908.
While in Paris, ACD visited the Institut de Métapsychique International, a famous institution among Spiritualists, the director of which was Prof. Gustave Geley. (15) He also gave a lecture in French. which was attended by Prof. Charles Richet, (16) Camille Flammarion, (17) and 'a number of other men of science'. ACD also had sittings with the famous lady mediums Carrière and Bisson.
During their stay in Paris, Conan Doyle and his wife and their son Denis went on a two day tour organised by Thomas Cook. They visited the Aisne battlefields around Soissons and Berry-au-Bac, where heavy fighting had taken place in 1917 and 1918. The tour included the so-called 'Route of the 1,000 taxi-cabs' and 'Le Chemin des Dames'.
In the afternoon of Easter Monday, 28 March 1921, ACD attended the tenth Anglo-French rugby match (kick-off was 3 p.m.) at the Stade des Colombes, outside Paris. England won 10 to 6 (England had beaten France in all previous nine games). The match was attended by a large crowd, its number varying from 30,000 (the Paris edition of the New York Herald) to 60,000 (Le Journal). Also in attendance were some high French authorities such as Marshall Ferdinand Foch, General Maxime Weygand, and others, as well as the British Ambassador Lord Hardinge. All of the Paris newspapers. carried reports of the game, but none mentioned the presence of ACD.
On 5 March 1921, forty medical students from Edinburgh University (half being women) arrived in the evening at the Gare Saint Lazare in Paris. They were to spend one month in the obstetrical wards of three hospitals: Tournier, Beaudelocque, and La Pitié. The reason behind their stay in Paris was an apparent lack of delivery facilities for medical students in Edinburgh. Their venue was extensively reported in the French press. On 22 March, under the auspices of the Paris Assemblée Générale des Etudiants, a gala evening was held in honour of the Scottish Medical students. Even if Conan Doyle saw mention of the event in the French newspapers, there is no record that he tried to meet them.
Seventh Visit to Paris in 1925: Spirits Galore
Conan Doyle's last visit to the French capital took place in the early part of September 1925. On this occasion he appeared as President of the International Spiritualist Congress, also being held in Paris. At that time, ACD was sixty-six, and was certainly an international celebrity, both as a literary man and as a staunch champion of the Spiritualist cause. The French press did not miss this opportunity to inform readers about the venue of the International Spiritualist Congress, as well as the active participation of the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Several articles with pictures were published.
On Saturday 5 September, Conan Doyle and his wife arrived at the Hotel Regina. The opening session of the meeting of the International Spiritualist Federation was held on Sunday 6 September, in a lecture room located in the Rue Copernic. Earlier on in the morning, ACD was interviewed by the newspaper L'Intransigeant. On Monday 7 September, in the hall of the Sociétés Savantes in the Rue Danton, ACD gave his first public lecture in French, illustrated by slides purporting to represent spirits. This first lecture turned out to be a disaster, as reported by several newspapers. The Paris edition of the New York Herald had a somewhat sarcastic title-'Mischievous Spirits End Conan Doyle's Lecture' — and went on: '... Sir Arthur calls off meeting after projecting lantern fails — Blames 'sabotage' for disappointing crowd of thousands....'
Despite this unfortunate experience, Conan Doyle enjoyed the Tuesday evening, as reported by the Paris Times of 9 September: '... Occupying a box at the performance of a Sherlock Holmes play at the Paris theatre last night was a large man with a ruddy, robust face, short white hair and a small straggling white moustache. His narrow eyes. seemed to be constantly filled with tears. His slightly stooped form was attired in an old-fashioned dress suit. He might have been a retired English army colonel; actually he was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, physician, author and spiritualist come to see a performance of his own work... (A remarkable description by the journalist of an ageing Conan Doyle). This was one of three performances of William Gillette's play given by the theatre company The English Players (Fig. 3).
On Friday 11 September, ACD gave a second, and more successful, lecture in French on Spiritualism at the Salle Wagram. The Paris Times of 12 September commented: '... The zeal of the uninitiated in these matters reached a climax last night in the lecture of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, at the Salle Wagram, when nearly one thousand persons who had been refused admittance stormed their way through police lines into the already crowded auditorium....'
Conan Doyle died five years later, on 7 July 1930, without returning to Paris.
The seven visits to Paris made by Conan Doyle have been somewhat neglected in various studies of him. One reason is probably that the visits to the French capital represented only very short periods of time in his life. Moreover, the visits to Paris did not have the same impact and coverage (except, perhaps, for the final one) as did ACD's other extended and exciting tours to Switzerland, America, Canada, Egypt, South Africa, and Australia. Nevertheless, it is hoped that this overview of ACD's visits to Paris may stimulate further research.
References
1. Wladimir Bogomoletz. 'Paris in the Canon (1890-1902): Facts, People and Places'. The Sherlock Holmes Journal 23:4, Summer 1998, 113-122; 24:1, Winter 1998, 17-21
2. A. C. Doyle. Memories and Adventures. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1924. Chapters 2, 10, & 11
3. A. C. Doyle. 'Paris in 1894: A Superficial Impression'. The Speaker, 21 April 1894
4. A. C. Doyle. A Visit to Three Fronts. Glimpses of the British, Italian and French Lines. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1916
5. A. C. Doyle. The Wanderings of a Spiritualist. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1921. Chapter XIII, pp. 303-317
6. John Dickson Carr. The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. London: John Murray, 1949
7. Pierre Nordon. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; L'homme et l'oeuvre. Paris: Didier, 1964
8. Charles Higham. The Adventures of Conan Doyle. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1976
9. Owen Dudley Edwards. The Quest for Sherlock Holmes. Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1983
10. Martin Booth. The Doctor, The Detective and Arthur Conan Doyle. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997
11. Edmond Landolt (1846-1926) was born and educated in Switzerland. He graduated in Zurich. Later, he came to work and settled down in Paris. He devoted his life to the study of physiologic optics, described the histologic formations of the retina known as the 'Landolt's bodies', and devised the 'Landolt ring' used to test visual acuity. He also published extensively on diseases of the eye.
12. Richard Lancelyn Green, private communication
13. Patrice Caillot. 'Sherlock Holmes au Théâtre Saint Antoine in 1907' in Sherlock Holmes et la France. Paris: Bibliothèque des Littératures Policières, 1996, pp. 64-9
14. Mathieu Braunstein, Delphine Graud, Gérard-George Lemaine. Grands Hôtels de Paris et d'Europe Centrale et Orientale. Paris: Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, 1983, pp. 38–41
15. Gustave Geley (1868-1924). French doctor who qualified in Lyons. Had a major interest in parapsychic phenomena. In 1919, he became the director of the newly founded Institut de Métapsychique International in Paris.
16. Charles Richet (1850–1935). French physiologist who was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize. Professor of physiology at the University of Paris from 1887 to 1927. Towards the end of his life he developed an interest in parapsychology.
17. Camille Flammarion (1842-1925). French astronomer and popularizer of science. He achieved international fame from the publication in 1880 of his Astronomie Populaire which was translated into English in 1907. In his later years, he published several books on psychic research.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks are due to Catherine Cooke, Richard Lancelyn Green (both of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society and The Sherlock Holmes. Society of London), Pierre Marie Faure (Société COPEFIM in Paris), and the Library Staff of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Tolbiac) in Paris.
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
