After over a year of work, Hauteville House, Victor Hugo’s residence on Guernsey, reopened on April 7th. A philanthropist’s outstanding generosity enabled the lavishly whimsical interior decoration to be restored.
The “haughty” and “august” oak tree Victor Hugo planted on July 14, 1870 overlooking the weather-beaten coast at the back of an impeccable garden no longer stands. To avoid a third political banishment after Brussels and Jersey, since 1855 the writer had been living in exile on Guernsey in the only home he owned during his lifetime. With that tree, a symbol of peace and republicanism, Hugo also planted his hopes of seeing a “United States of Europe” take root one day. Damaged by herbicides, it fulfilled its destiny. The tree lived its last moments just as the opening of the renovated Hauteville House coincided with the height of the Brexit crisis. To keep the house from meeting the same fate as the oak tree, the City of Paris, its owner since 1927, renovated it from top to bottom in record time (18 months). Guernsey is a dependency of the British Crown, so the prospect of Brexit, which was supposed to occur on 29 March, imposed a strict…
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