History
History
First known as the Cité de l'Etoile, it connects the rue d'Armaillé and the place de l'Etoile.
In 1854, the Cité de l'Etoile becomes Avenue d'Essling, named after the battle between the French and the Austrians at the gates of Vienna in 1809.
This avenue extends from the Rue de Tilsitt to the Rue Anatole de la Forge. One can still see the difference in architecture between the upper and lower part of the avenue.
In 1867, Avenue Essling was extended to Rue des Acacias and continued below by Rue d'Armaillé.
The construction of 27 Avenue (Essling) Carnot dates back to 1872.
It was not until 1880 that the name 'Carnot' was definitively attributed to it in homage to Lazare Carnot, mathematician, and French Statesman.
Initially a boarding house, the establishment quickly became a hotel in the 1920s. It was requisitioned by the Germans during the Second World War and then by the Americans after the Liberation of Paris.
Why ELSA? Let's go back in time...
When Louis ARAGON was born, his mother ran a boarding house on housed 20, Avenue Carnot.
In the 30's, Elsa TRIOLET became and remained Louis ARAGON's muse. And so, the circle is closed...
Louis Aragon and his mother
Crossed biographies
Louis ARAGON was born in 1897 in Paris.
His mother, Marguerite TOUCAS-MASSILLON, ran a boarding house at 20 Avenue Carnot - Paris 17th arrondissement between 1899 and 1904 when the family left the capital to settle in Neuilly sur Seine.
Elsa Triolet
As early as 1908, ARAGON begins to show an interest in words and poetry.
After obtaining his baccalaureate "Latin-sciences", ARAGON starts studying medicine in 1916.
In 1917, he is incorporated as an auxiliary doctor at the Val-de-Grâce in Paris.
In 1918, he is sent to the front and experiences the violence of the fighting. He is awarded the Military Cross.
When he returns from the trenches, ARAGON devotes himself to writing poetry and novels by joining the DADA movement which appeared in Paris in 1919.
In 1924, with his friend André BRETON, Louis ARAGON launches surrealism.
In 1927, he joins the French communist party.
In 1928, Louis ARAGON meets Elsa TRIOLET. She will be his muse.
The jewels of Elsa Triolet
ARAGON becomes a journalist for L'Humanité while Elsa creates jewelry for the Parisian haute-couture between 1929 and 1932.
Together they make several trips to Moscow and the USSR.
Elsa and Louis marry on February 28, 1939. They will remain together until Elsa's death in 1970.
When the Second World War breaks out, ARAGON is drafted again before going to England and returning to France.
During the German occupation, he and Elsa become intellectual resistance fighters thanks to their writing. In 1942, ARAGON publishes 'Les Martyrs' about the execution of 27 hostages in Chateaubriant.
Elsa Triolet and Louis Aragon
In 1945, Elsa TRIOLET is the first woman to receive the Goncourt Prize for 'Le Premier Accroc coûte deux cents francs' (The First Hook Costs Two Hundred Francs), which recounts the role of women in the Resistance.
In 1946, Elsa TRIOLET attends the Nuremberg trial which she recountes in 'Les Lettres Françaises'.
After the war, they both plunge into writing, drawing their inspiration from their experiences of the war, their travels in the USSR and in the Eastern Bloc countries.
The Algerian War and the end of colonization inspire ARAGON to write one of his most beautiful collections of poems, including 'Aimer à perdre la Raison', 'L'Avenir de l'Homme est la Femme' (which became 'La Femme est l'Avenir de l'Homme' in song) published in 1963.
Elsa dies in their house (Le Moulin de Villeneuve) in June 1970.
After the death of his muse and beloved, ARAGON changes his life, continues his political fight, and continues to write, again and again. 'Les Adieux' will be his last collection of poems published in 1980.
Louis ARAGON dies on December 24,1982 in Paris and is buried next to Elsa at the Moulin de Villeneuve.
