When you walk down the narrow cobbled lane flanked by windowless stone walls that is the Rue Berton, it's like walking back in time. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire described it as one of the most picturesque corners of Paris, and had undoubtedly hardly changed since the time Balzac fled from here to avoid inconvenient visitors. So you see, number 24 Rue Berton was the home of Honoré de Balzac. Today, all that is left is a small doorway, but an important one: as Apollinaire suggests, it was through this emergency exit that the French writer rushed out to avoid his creditors when they came knocking on the front door. So if you owe money, you now know what to do… 24 rue Berton, 75016 Paris
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