Loved worldwide as the author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, in France Victor Hugo has the status of a demi-god. Understand why as you enter his world on this expert-guided visit, which reveals Hugo as an emblem for 19^th-century France, in all its turbulence and complexity.

The apartment on Place des Vosges was Victor Hugo’s home for 16 years, and birthplace to poetry, plays, and the first draft of Les Mis. Discover its treasures – it holds 50,000 of Hugo’s letters, his stand-up desk, and the “Chinese Lounge” filled with furniture designed by Hugo for his mistress during his long exile on the island of Guernsey. Learn how the apartment was sacked in the 1848 Revolution which saw Hugo take a seat on the Legislative Assembly – only to be forced into exile three years later as the Revolution fell into dictatorship.