1905 - 1908: Paris, Levallois-Perret, 11 rue Chevallier

The industrial suburb of Levallois-Perret in the north-west of Paris was the location of the automobile business at which Ravel's father and brother worked. After the boulevard Péreire, the family moved here in the summer of 1905 to 11 rue Chevallier (the street is now renamed rue Louis Rouquier). During the three years that he was living here, Ravel wrote the song cycles Histoires naturelles and Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, Gaspard de la nuit, and the Rapsodie espagnole, as well starting work on his first opera L'Heure espagnole. Ravel's father Joseph died in October 1908, and in the following month Ravel and his mother and brother went to live in the avenue Carnot.

The pied-à-terre apartment which Léon Leyritz fitted out for Ravel in art-deco style in 1930 was at 16 rue Chevallier, close to where his brother Edouard now lodged with the Bonnet family. Today a modern building stands on the site of no. 16, and Ravel's association is marked by a plaque on the wall. Its text however ("The composer Maurice Ravel lived here from 1905 to 1937") indicates some confusion about the exact location of Ravel's addresses in this street. Letters which Ravel wrote between 1905 and 1908 are addressed from "11 rue Chevallier"; his brother Edouard returned to the rue Chevallier some time after 1919 - but to which address? There is no indication that either of them had any residence in this street in the intervening years.

www.maurice-ravel.net