Anne Lister was very fond of the apartment she shared with Maria Barlow on the fifth floor of the 15, Quai Voltaire. So was Eugène Delacroix, who painted there the Liberty leading the people and George Sand in a man’s costume.
In December 1824, Anne Lister and Mrs Barlow, both staying in a pension at no. 24 in the Place Vendome, agree it is not a safe place anymore. The two women are evidently getting closer day by day and Maria is the target of rumours claiming she received men in her room. After some argument with the de Boyves, the owners of the house, the decision is made :
“Mrs. Barlow was determined to leave the house, which I thought much the best plan for all parties — Madame de Boyve said it would hurt Mrs. Barlow’s reputation — I replied I did not think so.”
Anne Lister’s diary, 10th of December 1824 SH:7/ML/E/8/0097.
Anne too gives Madame de Boyve notice of leaving the house, because her servant, Cordingley, is uncomfortable. In reality, the idea of living together had come up regularly in the conversations between Anne and Maria in the past few weeks.
After spending three months in Paris, Anne was planning to go back to Shibden before the end of the year. However she had eventually decided to extend her stay, in part and “officially” to follow a treatment prescribed by the anatomist Dupuytren to cure her venereal disease. As the two women start to look for “a new abode” in the Galignani’s Messenger and to make some visits, at Madame Galvani’s, an Italian countess and also Anne’s French and Italian teacher, they learn about “several apartments (good) to let Quai Voltaire”.
(suite…)