Balzac in Issoudun
"Venez donc à Frapesle, il y a quelque chose dans l'air d'éminemment calme et rafraîchissant"
"Come to Frapesle, there is something in the air making it refreshing and calm"
Zulma wrote to Balzac. The well-known writer answered to the invitation of her friend, and has come three times in Issoudun.
Beggining of April 1834
Balzac comes to relax in Zulma Carraud's house, in Frpesle. The artist ruins his health in his work. He arrives in Issoudun in a state of "annihilation", he suffers from "atony". On the 10 of April, feeling better, he wrote the Miss Hanska "feeling no strenght and no thoughts" he cried "like a baby".
The following year
On the next year, in August the writer is back to Frapesle you a couple of days.
February-March 1838
He is in Issoudun. He stays for three weeks where, before joining George Sand in Nohant, " We talked for three days since 5 in the evening after diner to five in the morning, until i knew her, and mutually, during those three talks than the four last years". Balzac came to Issoudun to relax, also to get away from his mortgagee. He wrote some text in "César Birotteau".
As a welcome - and souvenir - the Tourist Office edited a little a product range called #Très Honoré, to be found ICI.
The Friends
If the city of Issoudun holds a particular space in the novel and the life of Balzac, it is also because it gave him two of his most dearest friends : Zulma Carraud et Auguste Borget. Armand Pérémée, local archeologue and historian, journalist in Paris was his principal resource for history and the topography of the city.
The Novel
La Rabouilleuse
Taking advantage of his knowledge of the city, Balzac will make it the principal frame of one of his novel : « La Rabouilleuse », written some years later. You can find the novel in the shop of the Tourism Office or enjoy the audio on our podcast.
The city in the Novel
Balzacian sites
L'allée de Frapesle
Fitted out at the beginning of the 19th century, it was already liked by walkers at the time of Balzac which he wrote about in his novel.
La source de la Rabouilleuse
To know more on "La Rabouilleuse" and our podcast
Parc Flore Brazier
The most literary and romantic park of the city : Flore Brazier's park, the one we nickname La Rabouilleuse in the novel. Open to public in 2025, it holds the name of one of the main character.
On the other side of Frapesle Alley is the watersource de La Rabouilleuse.