I hear so often about that research rabbit hole and I admit I have fallen in myself, usually when reading old newspapers. I’ll find so many fascinating stories, yet not exactly what I’m looking for, and four hours later I’ll realize I hadn’t made any progress. It happens.
More common in my experience is the research hamster wheel. I’ll think I know exactly where to look for something, but that source leads me to another, who never replies, but that’s ok because their data is online, except for the information I want, which has to be accessed in person, unfortunately it’s in another country, but they suggest I try another source. Sometimes, I just find myself going around in circles.
Generally, this process takes a long time so I keep writing the book while I’m requesting information, believing that if I just keep trying, I will trip over the detail I’m trying to find, or it will just drop into my lap. Sometimes, that is exactly what happens.
One example of this miracle is the Sûreté, as it was called when my novels take place. Later it was the Prefecture de Police or just the 36. (Trente-six in French) This is an iconic building on the Île de la Cité in Paris housed the Criminal Investigative branch of the police from the 1880s. In the two books I’m writing that take place in Paris, there is an Inspector, who has an office in that building. Unfortunately, the building has been closed to visitors since about 2019 and is now under construction, so there was no chance I could get in and take a look around.
At first, I tried the internet, looking for photos, but found nothing particularly helpful. (The photo above is an office in the building overlooking the Seine) A French source suggested I try the library, and again, I found plenty of photos of police officers, even criminals, but nothing that really helped me with the building. Newspapers were the same. Then one day, my whining paid off. Someone suggested I watch the series, Maigret, which was based on the books by Georges Simenon about a French criminal investigator. It was on Britbox. It wasn’t the same as walking through the building might have been, but it wasn’t bad! I had the descriptions I needed.
The second example is the Sarah Bernhardt Theater, which was also under construction when I traveled to Paris. However, I had the floorplan of the theater along with a file of photographs, lined up at one of the Paris libraries. I had an appointment to view the documents two days before I was scheduled to return to the US. The morning of my appointment, I received an email that the library would be closed due to an unexpected event. It turned out that Queen Camilla of England, was visiting the library with the First Lady of France. I couldn’t reschedule in time, so I left without seeing what the theater would have looked like in 1900. (The image below is after a remodel in 1968)
Back home, writing the book, I continued consulting the library for information and a few days ago, I found a film called A Visit to the Sarah Bernhardt Theater. It was from the 1930s, which is fine, because it wasn’t renovated until 1968. Eureka! This discovery was solid gold! Whoever took the film walked us backstage, on the stage, through the dressing rooms, the theater itself and the lobby. It’s perfect. So while sometimes research puts me on a hamster wheel, going nowhere, it is also true that the longer I look, the luckier I get!
