The Paris Novel

Stella and Lucie set out to search for Victorine’s baptismal record. At the first church, Lucie tells the priest that she’s searching for her great-grandmother. The priest brings them a ledger, but Victorine’s name is not there. He directs them to another church. For weeks, Stella and Lucie visit churches in the third arrondissement; Lucie enjoys it, saying that it’s like a treasure hunt. Finally, they go to a church called Sainte-Elisabeth de Hongrie for a free concert and, upon asking the priest, find Victorine’s birth record containing her birth date and her parents’ names, occupations, and address. Stella is elated, and they go to the Bibliotheque Nationale to tell the librarian, who brings them books on the area where Victorine was born, describing it as one of the poorest districts in Paris at the time. Intrigued by Stella’s research, the librarian has already made other inquiries and says that Stella must now find Victorine’s death certificate, which could point them to where she lived at the end of her life.

Stella and Lucie go to Hotel de Soubise to view the archives. The man who works there finds Victorine’s records, which state that she died in 1927 at 83 years old and that she lived in a suburb of Paris called Colombes.