I was an Anaïs Nin fan after reading her many volumes of diaries. It was imperative, then, that when I visited Paris, I had to see her former house, the place she described in her writing as both a prison and a refuge. The small village was easy enough to get to but I thought I would never find her house. There were no signs, as this was certainly not a tourist attraction, but I eventually found my way. What I found was the house she had written about with longing that had a sole plaque on the wall in her honour. I tried to peak around the walls and saw some movement in the backyard before walking away. It was an uneventful trip but somehow worth it, as I got to see the house she spent a few years living in. There were rumours of it being bought by a developer and split into 3 lots for new real estate. I have no idea what ever happened with that, but I’m glad I saw the house when I did.Photo: Plaque on the outside wall of Anaïs Nin's old house
3 comments:
Hello, I am Kai from Estonia and I had a similar experience in Louveciennes in 1996, looking for the house of Anais Nin. I had to ask several people in the village to find the way. The house was then deserted and I had to climb on the fence to make photos. Of course, I had read "Henry and June", her diaries and other books of and about her. My interest is - what has become of the house, has it been restored, as someone promised?
I went in 2003. I haven't heard anything else, other than someone went in 2005 and found it to be very rundown, a "disgrace" I think they said. I don't think there's any REAL news about having the house restored, but I'm definitely not in the loop. I'll update here if I hear anything.
I found the official Louveciennes web site (in french).
It says that after almost 60 years, the house has been restored by the new owner. It doesn't say when that fact was written, but I assume the house looks very different now.
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