Maison de Victor Hugo, place des Vosges

The writer’s apartment on the place des Vosges

The Maison de Victor Hugo, at no. 6 on the place des Vosges, is a museum of the City of Paris in the former Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée. The writer lived here from 1832 to 1848, in a second-floor apartment of 280 m².

Photo: dalbera, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What changed in 2026

The main change is the price. The collections are usually free, but from 11 June to 22 November 2026 the whole museum is ticketed during the exhibition “Hugo et l’architecture”; booking is strongly recommended. After that date the museum is expected to return to free collections, which we will re-check.

Photo: Romainbehar, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The ground floor also changed hands: the café Mulot closed on 19 June 2026 and the café Papapa, with a garden, opened on 1 September 2026.

Planning the visit

The house closes on Mondays. Bags are not left in the rooms: the cloakroom is free, with a maximum bag size of 40 × 30 × 20 cm. Combine it with the garden of the square, open until 7.30 p.m. up to 24 October and earlier in winter, and with the Carnavalet Museum, which is free for its permanent collections. The Hôtel de Sully and its garden open onto the square on its south-west side. Our guide to Le Marais shows how the square fits among the other sites.

Photo: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From a rented flat to a museum

Hugo lived in the Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée for sixteen years, from 1832 to 1848, in a rented apartment of 280 square metres on the second floor. The house became a museum through a gift: Paul Meurice, a friend and the executor of Hugo’s will, gave the collections to the City of Paris in 1902, the centenary of the writer’s birth, and the museum was inaugurated on 30 June 1903, according to Wikipedia. Paris Musées has run it since 1 January 2013, and it carries the Musée de France label.

What not to miss

• The drawings. Hugo made about 3,000, and 600 are shown in rotation, according to Wikipedia. Which ones you see depends on the date of your visit.
• The library. The house holds around 11,000 works about Hugo.
• The apartment itself. The visit is to the second floor where the family lived from 1832, after leaving the rue Jean-Goujon.
• The place des Vosges outside. The house is at no. 6 of the square, and Wikipedia lists among its other residents Madame de Sévigné, born at no. 1 bis in 1626, Marion Delorme and Bossuet.

Planning around the 2026 exceptions

From 11 June to 22 November 2026 the whole museum, permanent collections included, is paid because of the exhibition Hugo et l’architecture. The ticket prices are not shown on the museum’s page, so check them on its site; under-18s are free. We expect free admission to the permanent collections to return after 22 November 2026 and will re-check. In the paid period the museum strongly advises booking for individual visitors, and bags must be left in the free cloakroom (maximum 40 × 30 × 20 cm). The house received 342,052 visitors in 2025, according to Wikipedia, so book ahead in the paid period. The museum was closed from 15 April 2019 to 5 November 2020 for works that added an educational workshop, a tea room and a planted courtyard.

Getting there

Bastille (lines 1, 5 and 8) is the nearest station, about 245 metres away in a straight line. Chemin Vert (line 8) is about 295 metres away, Bréguet-Sabin (line 5) about 332 metres and Saint-Paul (line 1) about 381 metres.

Combining the visit with a walk

From the house, these distances are straight lines taken from our coordinates, and each time assumes a 1.3 detour factor and a pace of 80 metres a minute.

• Place des Vosges: 72 metres, about 2 minutes.
• Hôtel de Sully and its passage to the square: 184 metres, about 3 minutes.
• Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis church: 321 metres, about 6 minutes.
• Village Saint-Paul: 345 metres, about 6 minutes.
• Carnavalet Museum: 346 metres, about 6 minutes.
• Picasso Museum: 594 metres, about 10 minutes.

At Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, Wikipedia records that Hugo gave the two shell-shaped holy-water fonts at the wedding of his daughter Léopoldine in 1843.

The house in figures

• 16 years in the apartment, from 1832 to 1848, on the second floor of no. 6 place des Vosges.
• 280 square metres of rented rooms, the apartment that now forms the core of the visit.
• 3,000 drawings by Hugo, of which 600 are on view in rotation.
• 11,000 works about the writer in the library.
• 1902 and 1903: the gift to the City of Paris, then the inauguration on 30 June 1903.
• 342,052 visitors in 2025, according to Wikipedia.
• 11 June to 22 November 2026: the whole museum, permanent collections included, is paid because of the exhibition Hugo et l’architecture.

Sources are those listed under the practical information and the facts above; the museum’s own site remains the reference for any change after 5 October 2026.

Where to stay near the house

Two five-star hotels stand on the square itself: Le Pavillon de la Reine, 179 metres from the museum, and Cour des Vosges, 187 metres. Closer to the museum stand the unclassified Hôtel de la Place des Vosges (79 m, the nearest of our hotels), the three-star Hôtel de la Herse d’Or (118 m) and Hôtel Bastille Spéria (139 m), and the one-star Sully Hôtel (145 m). The distances are straight-line, calculated from coordinates. A longer ranking is in hotels near the place des Vosges.

Partner activities

GetYourGuide lists a guided tour that includes the house, and Tiqets an entry ticket at €11; neither is checked for dates or prices. As the collections are normally free, the tour is the only one of the two that is not a plain entry ticket.