Abstract: In the writings published by Victor Hugo before his exile, the streets are downplayed. Paris, which the poet inevitably decided to flee, is mainly described through its river and certain select monuments: the Colonne Vendôme, the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre-Dame... The chiffonnier himself only makes one appearance, exalted into a great allegorical figure of Charity. But the figure of the wandering poet, the future “rôdeur de barrières,” nonetheless emerges little by little under the July Monarchy.
