Cenotaph by Émile Zola

The white marble monument on the Avenue de Saint-Ouen features a relief of a woman grieving beside a desk. Émile Zola lived nearby at Rue Ganneron, and this stone structure marks the spot where his friends and admirers gathered after his death in nineteen oh two. Carbon monoxide from a blocked chimney flue killed him in his sleep, sparking theories that political enemies who opposed his defense of Alfred Dreyfus had sabotaged the hearth. The sculptor Philippe Besnard captured Zola’s enduring presence here.