When most people take a trip to Paris, they check out the usual sights—Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, along with a few more museums, gardens, and cathedrals. If they’re feeling adventurous, they may take the 30-minute train ride outside of Paris to see Versailles, or hop on the metro to Parc de la Villette and stroll down the canal. All I know is that I’ve never seen the Sewer Museum on any Paris tourism guides.
Of course, this didn’t stop us from venturing beneath the surface at the Musée des Égouts on Tuesday. Although the museum is not a prime tourist destination, I was surprisingly looking forward to the excursion. I had never imagined that someone could get so excited about sewers!
The sewers play an important role in Les Misérables, as they facilitate Jean Valjean’s escape from the failing barricade later on in the novel. Hugo spends a little under 20 pages diving into the intricacies of the Paris sewer system before detailing Jean Valjean’s rather graphic trek through said sewers.
Contrary to the weariness I experienced while reading some of Hugo’s other lengthy tangents, I was thoroughly entertained by the sewer chapters. I couldn’t help but picture Hugo doing loads of research on sewers, searching through maps and history books to aid his quest for sewer-related knowledge. It was quite funny to picture this, but at the same time, the message he conveyed through the exploration of the sewer system was very profound. He spoke on the progress we have made in terms of public waste management, and the general idea of progress is explored in the rest of the book.
In his chapters on progress, Hugo cites specific dates when large steps were made toward the improvement of the sewer system.
“In 1806 he lowered the floor of the Ponceau and, creating new routes everywhere, in 1809 he extended the sewers under Rue St-Denis to the Fontaine des Innocents, in 1810 under Rue Froid-Manteau and la Salpêtrière, in 1811 under Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Pères, Rue du Mail, Rue de l’Écharpe, Place Royale, and in 1812 under Rue de la Paix and Chaussée-d’Antin.”
At the Musée des Égouts, there was a fascinating timelapse video that showed a map of the sewers as the years went by. It was interesting to see the lines grow and diverge, becoming denser and denser over time. Having read Hugo’s history of the sewers, I had a rough understanding of how the system evolved prior to entering the museum, but the museum helped fill in the gaps. All I could think about was how much Hugo would have loved this museum—and how unfortunate it was that I found no references to Les Misérables down there!
Hugo also spent time describing the darkness of the sewers. They were a place of filth, a sort of criminal underworld. Reading this section reminded me of the River Styx, a key feature of Greek mythology. The Styx was said to separate the world of the living from the Underworld, which closely aligns with the text. Marius was barely hanging on to his life down there, and Jean Valjean’s quest to save him ended with exiting the sewers and returning him to the surface, aka the land of the living.
This connection to the Styx was reinforced by Jean Valjean’s walk through the sinkhole. When he was nearly at the point of collapse, with his head barely above the mud and water, Jean Valjean reached solid ground. The whole “Achilles’ heel” metaphor stems from the myth of Achilles, who was dipped in the Styx by his mother. He was fully submerged, except for his heel, which became the one spot on his body where he was vulnerable. One idea for this vulnerability is that humans cannot be fully invincible, as that would breed chaos. Throughout the novel, Jean Valjean survives so much and escapes so many difficult situations that I began to think of him as this invincible figure. I began to assume that no matter what obstacle he faced, he would somehow survive. It is important to remember that beneath the strength, he was still human. If we dig further into the idea of an Achilles heel and assume that Valjean’s walk through the sinkhole was a dip in the Styx, it actually makes sense that his face is his weak point. Try as he might to escape Javert, Javert almost always recognized Valjean by his face.
When Valjean exits the sinkhole, it is as if he has undergone some transformation. “He stood up, shivering, chilled, stinking, bowed beneath this dying man he was carrying, dripping all over with filth, his soul filled with a strange brightness” (1161). All of the words leading up to the part about “a strange brightness” greatly contrast the end of the sentence. He is in the most miserable situation I can imagine, and yet he feels bright. This optimism speaks to Valjean’s resilience, which he has shown time and time again throughout the novel. Although his physical strength may not have been renewed, “his willpower was not [gone]” (1162). This bears some resemblance to the myth of Achilles, as Achilles gained a sense of confidence stemming from the invincibility the Styx granted him. While I’m sure Hugo did not intend to connect the “sewer sequence” to the River Styx, I still think it’s an interesting parallel to draw.
Overall, I loved getting to see a small section of the sewers, as it gave me a better idea of what Valjean would have been walking through. It did not smell as bad as I expected, which was a big win. Additionally, the museum just so happened to be across the river from the spot where we assume Valjean would have emerged from the sewers. So many great connections!
As my time in Paris comes to an end, so do my blogs. I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the city through the lens of our two novels over the past month. I will be sure to pay closer attention to locations mentioned in books that I read in the future to see if I can map any of them!