A few months after the last letter to Louise, Balzac rented a
temporary apartment in Sèvres, persuading his brother-in-law
to sign the lease. There, he hid from his creditors and
contemplated his new property. It was the first he had ever owned and
it stirred his imagination like a fresh ream of paper. The original idea
had been to find some peace and quiet; he nearly succeeded too well.
Ask anyone at the station for Les Jardies, he told friends, few of whom
were able to find it at the first attempt. Not, as his young friend, the
novelist and journalist Léon Gozlan would have it, because the real
Les Jardies was somewhere else, but because sarcastic locals were in
the habit of referring to the plot as 'M. de Balzac's vineyard'. ¹

When visitors finally arrived, they found a double gate at the foot
of a steep mound just a few yards from the station. There was a bell
and a black marble plaque bearing the words 'Les Jardies'. The gate
opened on to a construction site. On top of the mound could be seen
the skeleton of what Balzac hoped would be his home for the next ten
years. There were also some glum-looking constructions stuck in a sea
of mud — sheds and stables, the maisonette for the Viscontis and a
cottage for an old couple, M. and Mme Brouette, who had served the
Balzac family at Villeparisis. Balzac thus had a gardener whose name
means 'wheelbarrow.' It all looked highly improbable. When Frédérick
Lemaître was taken on a tour of the property he carried two stones
with him which he placed at his feet to prevent him from sliding down
the hill. ² Balzac remained metaphorically unmoved. He saw quite a
different scene: 'a pump to be swathed in clematis and other climbing
plants, a pretty well . . . silence, and another 45,000 francs of debt!' ³
He decided to grow vegetables and convert the stables into a cow-
shed so that he could supply the dairy needs of the surrounding
countryside. ⁴ There would be a lake and an irrigation system. ⁵ He

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