Baudelaire & le Club des Hashiscins on Ile Saint-Louis

Charles Baudelaire... Season #6 Episode 2 In honor of the moody month of February, we visit Ile Saint-Louis, retracing Baudelaire's drug-induced dreams. So, first, an appropriately louche portrait of Baudelaire in 1855 by the great photographer Nadar; next, a map of the beautiful Ile Saint-Louis--our route goes along that central main street, from West to East. The first mansion on our route is the Hôtel de Lauzun - where Revolutionary "it girl" Thérésa Cabarrus Tallien lived. This is Jean-Louis Laneuville's portrait showing her imprisoned, with her hair cut short--of course, fashionista survivor that she was, this became a new fashionable hairdo (and would look absolutely on-point today, too.) Next, the Hôtel Lambert; for splendid photos of the Lambert's former interiors, visit this Town & Country article. And around the corner is the fabulous location of the Hash-eaters Club: the Hôtel de Chenizot, in a vintage photo attributed to 19th-century painter Louis Édouard Fournier. It's possible, considering he was an illustrator & lived in Paris.) The interior of the mansion is beautifully described here. Baudelaire dedicated his Fleurs du Mal (those are the author's scribbled notes all over the front page of the first edition!) to this fashionable gent, writer Théophile Gautier (portrait by Auguste de Châtillon, 1839)