Émile Zola

Just off to your right, there’s a little street that might not look like much at first glance. But guess what? The famous Émile Zola spent some of his life here. Did you know that this great writer was one of Paul Cézanne’s closest friends? Émile Zola was born in Paris in 1840, just a year after Cézanne. They were practically the same age when Zola’s family moved to Aix-en-Provence in 1843. His father, François Zola, was a civil engineer assigned here to build a water supply system that would bring drinking water all the way from the famous Sainte-Victoire mountain. Zola and Cézanne became friends in middle school and would often take walks in this mountain together. They kept in touch throughout their lives. From a very early age, Émile had a passion for literature. He wrote his very first novel when he was just in sixth grade! Unfortunately, he failed his high school exams and went through a rough patch having no job for a while. But then, he managed to make contact with the famous publisher Louis Hachette. He worked for him for four years before publishing his first book, “Les Contes à Ninon”, with another publisher named Hetzel. Zola then began to write articles for a number of newspapers, which helped him build a name for himself and share his passion for literature and politics. He became a true exponent of naturalism, the literary movement that seeks to describe reality exactly as it is, without idealizing things, based on extensive research and documentation – a movement which, as you will have gathered, was prone to condemn the shortcomings of society and politics without any censorship. Émile Zola is best known for his involvement in the Dreyfus affair, a huge scandal back in the day. Yet he had already begun exposing the shortcomings of the Second Empire long before that. In fact, this was the main topic of his 20-novel series, “Les Rougon-Macquart”, including the famous “Germinal”. He was even sentenced to one year in prison for his open letter “J’accuse”, in which he addressed the then President of France, Félix Faure, and accused his government of antisemitism and a judicial error that led to the conviction of an innocent man. The impact of this letter on France and the rest of the world was to establish Zola as one of the world’s most influential authors. So, there you have it! A little detour into the life of this famous French writer who many would never associate with this city, even though he lived here for years. Next stop: Vendôme Pavilion!