Robert Ross Revisits Hôtel d’Alsace
“The Best Franc’s Worth I Ever Had”.
As noted in my recent article Last Rites, Oscar Wilde died in the Hôtel d’Alsace on the Rue des Beaux Arts in Paris, on November 30, 1900. One of the few people present on that occasion was Robert Ross.
When Ross revisited the Hôtel d’Alsace in 1908, Wilde’s old digs had a new proprietor. Departed was his former landlord and friend Jean Dupoirier along with, regrettably, a previously reliable link to Wilde’s past.
History Replaced By Mystery
Of course, change is to be expected. In 1963 the Hôtel d’Alsace was renamed L’Hôtel and has since undergone extensive and quite recent renovation. Consequently visitors today are often unsure about the configuration of Oscar’s original rooms. Surprisingly, however, that had long been the case before any remodelling.
What was not expected was the disoreintation Robert Ross experienced in 1908. Here is how he recounted that confusing visit for the weekly tabloid magazine The Bystander:
Some ten years ago I chanced to be present at the death of Oscar Wilde in Paris. It was in a little hotel in the Latin quarter. Last July I learned that the room had been turned into a show place, and that a franc was charged by the proprietor for seeing it. Out of curiosity I went, and found three Americans and a German at the hotel entrance, sightseers with the same objective.
The former patron had left. With much ceremony we were invited to sign our names, and pay our entrance money. We were then harangued by the new patron, who gave an entirely fantastic and sensational account of the death at which myself, the former proprietor, and a friend were the only persons present. I have nothing to complain of in the narrative. He provided me with a halo, under the weight of which I still totter.
I was given the undreamed honour of a title. I had become the “Vicomte de Rosse,” a scion of one of the oldest families in Middlesex; but I will skip that. We were then ushered into the WRONG room, and shown the wrong bed, on which le pauvre poète breathed his last.
I was given the undreamed honour of a title. I had become the “Vicomte de Rosse,” a scion of one of the oldest families in Middlesex; but I will skip that. We were then ushered into the WRONG room, and shown the wrong bed, on which le pauvre poète breathed his last.
It was the best franc’s worth I ever had. The German burst into tears, and the Americans told me it was the “bulliest” thing they had seen in Paris.
They invested in some false relics, which I shall see, I hope, one day in some American museum of “Old Paris.”
The Bystander, November 16, 1910. [see Footnote for original]
© John Cooper, 2026
Beaucoup changé…
Footnote: Images of Robert Ross:
The two rare images of Robert Ross (coincidentally accompanied by similar captions) appeared in the following publications:
(left) The Illustrated London News, December 12, 1908, 4
(right) The Australian Star, February 6, 1909, 7. (renamed The Sun in 1910)
Footnote: Ross’s original article in The Bystander:
