Rowan Atkinson as Maigret

Detective Chief Inspector Maigret

If, like me, you like Rowan Atkinson in the role of the French Detective Chief Inspector or DCI Maigret you will enjoy the TV drama episode, called: Maigret's Dead Man, often repeated in the US and UK. If you can’t wait for the next showing, then read the new Penguin translation that came out in March 2016 or at least take a free sneek preview on Google Play Books here:

It is a perfect story for movie-induced tourism fans and for literary tourism fans alike because of the precision of the opening scene in Paris looking across the river Seine. Maigret is aloft in his office at number 36, Quai des Orfèvres. On the telephone, a man is speaking, he says he is not far from the police headquarters of the Police Judiciaire; the mysterious caller explains his location in the telephone booth of a bar:

- Just across from your office. A minute ago I could see your window. Quai des Grands-Augustins. There’s a small bar, you’ll know it, it’s called Aux Caves du Beaujolais.

The street or quayside that runs along the left bank of the Seine is easy to find, Quai des Grands-Augustins. You probably already know the Quai but do not realise it; it is the one that joins the « Boul’Mich’ » at right angles just before you cross the river on the Pont Saint-Michel.

But this is where the fun begins for literary place detectives. Which bar is Simenon using for Aux Caves du Beaujolais in the novel? It might be a wine bar that he remembers from his time living in Paris. The French word for wine cellars, caves suggests that. Is it perhaps, Le Bistro des Augustins at 39 Quai des Grands Augustins, Paris, France? It is still a bar à vins, a wine bar.

The French original might offer more clues to help pinpoint the exact spot of the opening scene. Maigret et son mort can be downloaded from Google Play Books, too, even the free preview. If you find that wine bar, from the novel or films, please let me know.

Journaling

If I were journaling my notes from this Maigret novel, then I would look in detail at that call to Maigret, 'Just across from your office. A minute ago I could see your window'. It is a call in the sense of a telephone call, but the words also hail the police detective in the sense of interpellation from critical theory. This hailing creates the identity of the hailed, the recipient of the call. It tells the readers of the story who Maigret is, and defines his responsibilities, or at least society's expectations of him.

For the literary detective, too, a close reading of this hailing, will quickly establish an exact spot that must be found during fieldwork. It also raises the question of how this place relates to the author's own time in the city. Did Georges Simenon spend time in Paris? And where? It's known that he had a boat moored on the Seine, so this bar may have been one of his observation plateaus when writing. Simenon was not Maigret but he could stare across at the police headquarters on the other side of the river and build his scenes from there. Was Simenon then, the dead man of the book's title? If I answer that I will give away too much. And I have taken Christie's Mousetrap Oath.

To Cite this Article:

Mansfield, C. (2022). 'Rowan Atkinson as Maigret.' Totnes: Travel Writers Online ISSN 2753-7803 <online> https://travelwritersonline.blogspot.com/2022/11/rowan-atkinson-as-maigret.html

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