So what happened to Jean Valjean after he fell into the ocean? We will find out all in due time. But first Victor Hugo takes us back to Montfermeil and turns our attention toward Cosette’s plight.
Victor Hugo begins this section of the story by discussing the water situation in the town of Montfermeil. Montfermeil was a sprawling village on the outskirts of Paris by the time Victor Hugo wrote this story. If you look at Montfermeil on Google Earth now, you will see that much has changed since Victor Hugo’s day. Montfermeil is just outside the A86 perimeter highway (Paris’s version of I-285). All of the towns in the area which Hugo mentions (Gagny, Lagny, Chelles, etc.) are still there, but they have long ago been overtaken by the outward growth of the Paris metropolitan area. There is virtually no green space between these communities (except for a few parks); it has all been built up. As a matter of fact, these communities are deep inside the city of Paris and very close to its center, just as Buckhead, Decatur, and Virginia Highlands are very close to downtown Atlanta.
If you look near downtown Montfermeil, you will find a church called Sts Peter and Paul, which may be the church that Victor Hugo talks about. You will also find a park named after Jean Valjean. (This may be the area where Cosette had to go to draw water.)
In 1823, when the story was taking place, Montfermeil was simply a small town in the woods, a haven for retirees who wished to live quietly and in luxury without having to spend a great deal. There was just one problem: Water was hard to come by. This was because Montfermeil was situated on a high plateau, far away from the nearest sources of water. If you lived on the end of town where the Thenardiers’ inn was located, the nearest source of water was a small spring located deep in the woods, a couple of miles outside of town. Continue Reading »