Inside the World of Die for Me

by Amy Plum

  But Deux Magots was in a good location: near Kate’s and Vincent’s houses on the boulevard Saint-Germain. Plus, it was the hangout of notable figures like Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, Pablo Picasso, and James Joyce. The history buff in me couldn’t resist including it in my book.

  To atone for my lying, I wrote a scene in Until I Die that was later cut, where Ambrose and Jules take Kate and Georgia to Angelina and there is a whole discussion about who has the best hot chocolate in Paris. You can read it in the Deleted Scenes section.

  Addresses:

  Les Deux Magots: 6 Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 75006 Paris

  Angelina: 226 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris

  LOUVRE MUSEUM (MAP #25)

  Kate and Vincent went there to look at paintings. Also referenced when Gold said he helped evacuate the museum’s paintings during World War II.

  Amy says: I had to send Kate and Vincent to the Louvre—it’s one of my favorite places on earth. I have a membership and go often—sometimes to look at art, sometimes to sit and write. When I go with friends, I always take them to the Raft of the Medusa room. You pass the Mona Lisa, then take a left at the next room, and there you are, with all these enormous French paintings that are so famous that they’re immediately recognizable. I focused on The Raft for Kate and Vincent’s date because of its death-and-dying theme.

  In If I Should Die, I place Theodore Gold inside an event that has always fascinated me: the evacuation of the Louvre’s paintings in September 1939, before the Nazi invaders arrived. I’ve read that the Mona Lisa was moved from hiding place to hiding place, traveling all over France so that Hitler’s art procurers couldn’t find it.

  Address: rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris

  THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART (MET)

  The giant thymiaterion was kept in Theodore Gold’s secret collection of revenant art in the archives of the Met.

  Amy says: When I decided that Gold kept the revenant-themed art collection in the secure environment of the Metropolitan, within reach of conservation materials he would need to keep them in perfect condition, I figured he hid the pieces in a separate locked room. Then I realized he would need a whole floor to accommodate the volume of artworks that a couple of millennia would have produced. I decided to hide it underground. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a private viewing of that collection!

  Address: 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028

  MOUZAIA NEIGHBORHOOD OF BELLEVILLE (MAP #26)

  Where Geneviève and Philippe lived. After his death, other Paris bardia moved in with her and it became a group home.

  Amy says: I first saw this neighborhood when I was invited to a party a few years ago. When I turned off the boulevard onto a street lined with little houses, I was completely stunned. Houses in the middle of the city! I had lived in Paris for years and never knew it existed.

  I wanted Geneviève to live there, so her history became shaped by the history of the neighborhood. The little houses were built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century for working-class people. I made her husband, Philippe, a car mechanic, and placed them there before World War II. The fact that many Jewish residents from this neighborhood were taken to Drancy during the roundups helped me form Geneviève’s backstory.

  Address: the streets around rue de Mouzaia, 75019 Paris

  NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (MAP #8)

  This is the art museum on the upper floors of the Pompidou Center, where Kate spotted Jules after he was killed in the Métro.

  Amy says: If you had to divide Paris’s major art museums into eras, the Louvre would be the oldest, the Musée d’Orsay next (with mainly nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art). The Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection picks up where Orsay leaves off but doesn’t reach into contemporary, which you could find at the Jeu de Paume.

  The Museum of Modern Art is where you go to see artists from when Jules studied and created art in Paris, both before and after he died. I remembered having studied that Fernand Léger was wounded in a mustard gas attack in World War I, and I was already familiar with his painting of robotic-looking soldiers playing cards. I decided that Jules’s backstory would involve saving Léger’s life, and that he would be one of the soldiers depicted in the painting. I could have sworn that I saw The Card Players at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, but it turns out that it’s in a museum in the Netherlands. In any case, Jules overheard Léger saying that the man who saved him was in that painting, and he can’t help himself from returning again and again to study it. (Did I mention that revenants were obsessive?)

  Address: Place Georges-Pompidou, 75004 Paris

  OPÉRA GARNIER; THE PARIS OPERA (MAP #27)

  Vincent bought Kate opera tickets for her birthday in Die for Me. They go there to see Prince Igor in Until I Die.

  Amy says: One year in the 1990s, I bought a subscription to the Opéra Garnier. That guaranteed me the same seats for three separate performances—in the box that Vincent gets for Kate. Each time I went, I shared the box along with nine other people, and the setting and decor were exactly as I described them. During the intermissions I would buy a glass of champagne and wander around, gaping at the beauty and thinking about the others who had walked the same path as me, glass in hand, for over a hundred years of operas and ballets.

  I once paid for a private tour of the Opéra Garnier for my mother, a few friends, and myself. A historian took us through rooms that are usually closed to the general public. She told us stories of how, in the early days of the opera, the dancers received gentlemen callers in private rooms, and the glitterati of Paris hid behind masks to join in elaborate parties with the dancers—parties including activities for which they wouldn’t want to be recognized! She also took us underground and showed us a trapdoor leading to the sewers beneath the building—the Phantom’s escape.

  Address: 8 rue Scribe, 75009 Paris

  PAPY’S ANTIQUITIES GALLERY (MAP #28)

  Kate visited Papy here several times throughout the books. This is where she discovered the book L’amur immortel.

  Amy says: I found this gallery when I first moved to Paris, long before I began working in the art and antiques world. It’s such a private-looking, upscale place that I was afraid to go in the first few times I passed by. And when I finally did, I couldn’t believe you could find treasures dating back over a millennia outside of a museum. It was a revelation to me that just anyone off the street (okay, anyone with a bit of money in their pocket) could own a bit of the ancient past. This gallery, along with the Cluny Museum of medieval art, gave me a taste for the ancient world: one that I pursued with an MA in art history.

  For Die for Me, I changed the inside of the gallery to make it more dramatic—tripling the space and adding the larger-than-life statues that face one another. I stopped by the gallery when Die for Me was published and told them that I had used their shop in the book. They were so happy that they allowed me to do something strictly prohibited: They let me take a selfie inside the store.

  Address: La Reine Margot, 7 Quai de Conti, 75006 Paris

  PASSAGE DU GRAND CERF (MAP #29)

  The location of the bardia-numa battle in which Geneviève was killed and her body kidnapped and Louis crossed over to the good side.

  Amy says: Paris is full of these passages, which are basically alleyways between buildings that have been covered with a roof (usually glass), lit with beautiful old lamps, and tiled to make them pedestrian-only. They are like Paris’s version of a mall, but much more sophisticated—minus the fountains, food courts, and mood music. They usually have shops on the ground floor, and apartments or offices on the upper floors.

  Grand Cerf is in one of the prettier passages and is bordered on either end with smallish streets—which, in my opinion, made it the perfect place for a battle. The arrival of Charles and his German kindred was a complete surprise to me—I hadn’t planned it in advance. The passage made it visually exciting, and I love the way they cle
aned up and had it looking like nothing happened within minutes of the battle being over.

  Address: 145 rue Saint-Denis, 75002 Paris

  PÈRE LACHAISE CEMETERY (MAP #30)

  The place where Philippe was buried. Kate wandered away from the funeral and saw Nicolas for the first time.

  Amy says: I went to Père Lachaise on my first visit to Paris—like most young Americans—to see Jim Morrison’s grave. At that point, a stone bust of Jim still perched above his gravestone. (It has since been stolen.) The whole area had been trashed by partiers and arrows drawn on nearby graves to lead visitors to the rock star’s final resting place. My second visit, years later, was to see the other celebrity graves: Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, and many others.

  I have always loved graveyards for the same reason I love antiquities. Just under the ground, right beneath you, is the physical trace of something that existed in history that no longer exists. Tangible evidence that something preceded this very moment. That there are a million stories waiting to be discovered. Or made up.

  I once took a boyfriend to Père Lachaise to video me reading from Until I Die in front of Abelard and Héloïse’s tomb. After taping, he kept trying to press me up against mausoleum walls to kiss me—a total make-out session in the middle of a graveyard. He turned out to be a psychopath. Figures. The moral of the story: Do not make out with guys in graveyards. It is a sure sign that they are bad news.

  Address: 16 rue du Repos, 75020 Paris

  PICASSO MUSEUM (MUSÉE PICASSO) (MAP #31)

  Where Kate bumped into Jules and Vincent (and Ambrose, volant) soon after meeting them. She and Vincent had coffee in the museum’s café and had their first real conversation.

  Amy says: This is one of my favorite small museums in Paris. It is based in the Marais, not far from Jules’s studio, making it too tempting for him to stay away for very long. He visited pretty often on his own, hiding this obsession from his kindred.

  Picasso was a pivotal figure of the Paris art scene in the twentieth century, and this museum contains works spanning his long career: both paintings and sculpture. It’s the perfect place to go and zone out and soak in the beauty, like Kate did.

  Address: 5 rue de Thorigny, 75003 Paris

  PLACE DAUPHINE (MAP #32)

  Where the reception was held after the revenant wedding, during which Vincent gave Kate the signum bardia.

  Amy says: I used to have picnics down by the water’s edge at the western tip of the Île de la Cité. You can’t get much more scenic than this, just below the Pont Neuf, with a front-row view of the Pont des Arts. However, when I said it was Place Dauphine in the book, I should have said Square du Vert-Galant. The Place Dauphine is just east of this park and is not at all a good place for a picnic . . . or a wedding reception!

  Address: western tip of the Île de la Cité, 75001 Paris

  PONT DES ARTS (MAP #33)

  The site of Vincent and Kate’s first kiss.

  Amy says: One of Paris’s only footbridges, the Pont des Arts is considered one of the most romantic places in Paris. This status was cemented by the famous “love locks” attached to the bridge’s railing.

  Online sources say that the love locks began in 2008, but I remember seeing a few of them in the 1990s. Eventually there were so many locks attached to the bridge that they became a hazard: One of the bridge’s parapets collapsed under their weight in 2014. In 2015 the City of Paris had them removed.

  I think it’s fair to say that I didn’t know about the bridge’s reputation back in the mid-1990s when I wandered across late at night with a handsome Brit I had fallen in love with. Overcome by the beauty around us, we kissed, and I used that magical scene as the basis for Kate and Vincent’s first kiss.

  Address: spans the river Seine from the Louvre Museum to the Institut de France.

  RUE DES ROSIERS (MAP #34)

  Where Georgia and Kate met for a falafel and talked about Kate’s search for the guérisseurs.

  Amy says: When I lived in the Marais in the 1990s, I went to rue des Rosiers for falafel. It is a historic street in the center of the old Jewish neighborhood: the site of World War II Jewish roundups and Nazi torture chambers. Though most of the Jewish shops that were there in the 1990s have now been replaced by clothing stores, a few are still there.

  There are four falafel restaurants clustered beside and across from one another, all selling the same thing, and there’s been a long-running debate as to which is the best. I sent Kate and Georgia to the one with the green facade (L’As du Fallafel). However, a friend who lives on rue des Rosiers told me that the one across the street with much shorter lines is actually better. You’ll have to go decide for yourself!

  Address: L’As du Fallafel, 32-34 rue des Rosiers, 75004 Paris

  RUE FOYATIER (MAP #35)

  Kate and Georgia followed Arthur up these stairs to Sacré-Coeur Basilica.

  Amy says: One of the most famous “streets” of Paris, it’s composed of nine flights of stairs with a total of 222 steps going all the way to the top of Montmartre. It’s one of those postcard-perfect scenes of Paris that almost anyone in the world would recognize. How could I leave that out of a story set in Paris?

  Address: rue Foyatier, 75018 Paris

  SACRÉ-COEUR BASILICA (MAP #36)

  The site of the battle between Violette and the sisters.

  Amy says: When I imagined the scene of the fight with Violette, I knew that Vincent was going to fall to his death. So I had to find a place in Paris that was high enough. Montmartre was one of the only hills left in the city when Haussmann renovated the city, and Sacré-Coeur is perched right at the top. But there is no cliff you could actually fall from, and no space that could be hidden enough for a battle to take place. So I took artistic liberty and created the hidden courtyard to the east of the basilica. I modeled it to fit my needs, circling it with avenging angel statues specifically so that Vincent could break the sword out of one of their hands. So, I’m sorry . . . if you try to take flowers to the spot where Vincent died, you’ll have a very hard time finding it!

  Address: 35 rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018 Paris

  SAINTE-CHAPELLE (MAP #37)

  The Gothic chapel where the revenant wedding took place.

  Amy says: This is one of the lesser-known monuments that you simply must see when you visit Paris. I can’t do any better than Kate’s description—like standing in a Fabergé egg—although in a previous draft, I described it as the inside of a jewelry box. It is much smaller and more intimate than the nearby Notre-Dame, and there is no way anyone would be allowed to have a wedding there. However, classical concerts take place on a regular basis. So if you want to experience a revenant wedding, just visit when a string quartet is scheduled to play, close your eyes, and imagine the bardia celebration.

  Address: 8 boulevard du Palais, 75001 Paris

  THEODORE GOLD’S APARTMENT

  Jules, Kate, Bran, and Papy go to Gold’s apartment in New York in search of the thymiaterion mentioned in one of Bran’s books.

  Amy says: There are some extraordinary buildings lining Fifth Avenue in front of the Met. When I lived in New York, I visited the Met often. I gazed at these buildings and thought, “What I wouldn’t give to live in one of those beautiful places and just have to cross the street to immerse myself in the myriad of ancient worlds that exist inside.” When I wrote about Theodore Gold, and knew he was an antiquities collector, I thought the location would be perfect for him. And then when I discovered that he ran a secret revenant archive in the basement of the Met, which he would probably access after-hours, the location made even more sense.

  I figured I might as well decorate his apartment with some overflow from the collection. The whole thing was a serious case of wish fulfillment for me.

  Address: Located on the top floor of an apartment building facing the Met, Fifth Avenue, New York City

  VILLAGE SAINT-PAUL (MAP #38)

  Where Vincent and Kate went on their firs
t date and where he bought a necklace for Charlotte before spotting Lucien.

  Amy says: When I lived in Jules’s studio, the Village Saint-Paul was right around the corner from me. The first time I went there, I was exploring my neighborhood and just stumbled across it. It was a revelation, because at that point it wasn’t mentioned in any travel books and was still a hidden treasure.

  I love wandering through the shops and looking for unique presents. I once bought an eighteenth-century clock there, bartering the shop owner some translation services to get him to lower the price! It’s a great place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the Marais and have a few moments of tranquility while browsing some amazing antiques.

  Address: along the rue Saint-Paul, 75004 Paris

  VILLEFRANCHE-SUR-MER

  Jean-Baptiste’s favorite home-away-from-home was here—a Le Corbusier–style house that he had built in the 1930s. Charlotte and Charles moved there after they were expelled from La Maison. When Charles ran away, Geneviève lived there with Charlotte.

  Amy says: Villefranche-sur-Mer is a town in the south of France, on the Mediterranean, very close to Italy. I drove through it years ago, and returned during a vacation to check it out. I found the perfect modern house perched on the cliff face over the water, took pictures of it, and described it in the book as looking more like a contemporary art museum than a home. For me, there is no question that it was Jean-Baptiste’s house in the south. I almost expected to see him wander out onto the balcony in his dress pants, cotton shirt, and silk ascot.