The Paris Architect

Colonel Schlegal makes plans with Adele over the phone, eager to have the beautiful, French aristocrat on his arm for an upcoming military event. As he hangs up, he returns to torturing Monsieur Deligny—the captured man Manet mentioned earlier. Schlegal takes sadistic enjoyment in torturing Deligny by electrocuting the man’s genitals, even turning the circuitry on and off to produce screams in a familiar melody.

While torturing people, Schlegal always hopes “to meet some really brave men, but to his disappointment, they always broke down and talked” (83). Deligny is no different, giving the Gestapo an address to search. For his confession, Schlegal cordially thanks Deligny as he and his three officers leave for lunch. However, he turns the circuitry back on before leaving: “The screaming could still be heard as they reached the street four flights below” (83).

Celeste has noticed that Lucien is bringing home expensive black-market goods but knows better than to ask questions. She tells him she is going to try to buy some toilet paper—a luxury item during the Occupation—but instead goes to give a young girl, Sandrine Richet, math lessons. On the way, Celeste thinks about her unhappiness—how she had been “punished with the loss of her child and then the abandonment of her father” (86). She also considers her failing marriage and how her love for her husband simply evaporated. When the lesson is over, Sandrine’s father tells her to go to the park.

Lucien points out how dangerous it is to build more hiding places, but Manet insists that all they need is “advice” and reminds him that the “guests” would be thankful in the amount of 15,000 francs. Enticed by the money, Lucien goes to the country house to brainstorm, and he becomes more tempted by the prospect of deceiving the Nazis: “He found himself enjoying the challenge of outwitting the Germans, realizing it was a more powerful lure than the fifteen thousand francs” (90).

Lucien excitedly comes up with the perfect solution for the house. The four steps that split the level of the home can be hollowed out and replaced on hinges so they can be latched into place from underneath. Manet is thrilled at the idea, but Lucien reminds him, “‘This is absolutely the last job I’m doing’” (92).

Lucien attends Adele’s fashion show, partly to avoid her wrath and partly to see the beautiful Bette again. Though the movie stars and models in attendance attract his eye, he finds Bette to be singularly captivating; he has fantasized about her since they met.

The show features many interesting pieces, especially given the use of expensive fabrics like lace, silk, and leather, which were exported to Germany in the early days of the Occupation and difficult to find at present. Lucien is only able to share a few words with the lovely Bette before his mistress calls him over, but he is pleased to learn that she remembers him. 

A Jewish man named Cambon is gunned down by Gestapo in his hiding place. Captain Bruckner, the man who shot him, respects that Cambon managed to shoot one of the other officers in the leg. Bruckner’s longstanding respect for French culture and history makes him scornful of the French who denounce each other and report on their neighbors.

Bruckner rounds up the other building inhabitants, arbitrarily shooting one to emphasize how harboring a Jewish person results in death, even for those who know nothing about the matter. Despite watching a middle-aged woman get shot in the head, none of her neighbors panic. Bruckner considers it strange:

Like all Parisians, they seemed to accept that death was inevitable and that it would come at any hour of the day. It was odd that the French were so dignified in death but in life acted like shits squealing on each other (103).

Lucien hesitantly appears at Major Herzog’s apartment for dinner and is pleasantly surprised by the tasteful décor and artwork. Herzog mentions that he hopes his art collection will expand when Janusky is finally caught and his possessions are redistributed to the Germans. Herzog insists that Lucien address him by his first name, Dieter, and Lucien is unsettled by the contrast between the German’s love of art and acceptance of brutality:

It bothered Lucien that a German could value such beautiful things—like an ape appreciating a string of rare pearls or an ancient Grecian red-and-black vase. They were monsters without a shred of decency, yet they could hold the same things in high esteem as a Frenchman could. It didn’t seem right (109).

Through good taste and generous flattery, Dieter quickly becomes Lucien’s new best friend.

The country house where Miriam and Sol are hiding is raided by Nazis, but the couple makes their way to the hiding place just in time. Shivering in fear, they desperately try to hold back their cries as a Nazi stands mere centimeters above their heads, issuing orders and smoking a cigarette while Schlegal waits downstairs. The Nazis tear the house apart looking for them; they get close when Sol soils himself out of fear, causing a strong smell. However, when they do not find the Geibers, they conclude the couple escaped out the back door and set off to find them.

For the moment, the Geibers are safe and plan to wait two hours before leaving the hiding spot: “While they waited, their bodies began to ache from being frozen in the same position. Geiber was lying in his own feces, but he wasn’t ashamed; all that mattered was that they had survived” (117).

The factory’s rigorous building schedule means Lucien needs help. He hires Alain, an architect just out of college with no qualms about flattering Lucien to get the job. Lucien suspects that he has connections to avoid being conscripted into mandatory service, but he is more excited by the skills and modesty Alain offers.

After the interview, Alain’s Uncle Hermann, a Gestapo officer, picks him up. Alain happily reveals that he got the job and thanks his uncle for the tip. Hermann explains that he knew that Lucien was hiring because his boss, Schlegal, is sleeping with Lucien’s mistress. Alain thanks his uncle, who inquires if his neighbor has “‘a heeb look to him’” (122). Alain offers to make inquiries into his neighbor’s ethnicity.

Manet surprises Lucien with a Citroën car. Since cars are a luxury item, permits are intensely regulated, and petrol is rationed, so Lucien is shocked. Manet insists that he will need it to get to the various job sites and hands him his permit and ration card. Immediately, Lucien fantasizes about impressing his mistress with the luxury car, which has a leather interior.

Lucien asks if Manet would like a ride anywhere or to go to lunch. Instead, Manet asks for some advice for an apartment upstairs. As they make their way up, Lucien realizes that Manet is going to ask for another hiding place design, but the thought of Adele and the Citroën overpower his fear of the Gestapo.

Quickly, Lucien settles on the idea of creating a false back in the fireplace since it is only meant to be a temporary measure. There was another option for a false wall, but Lucien is firm as he derives greater pleasure from trickier ideas. Manet defers to his expertise, considering his designs have “‘already saved two lives’” (127). Lucien is startled by this information but proud to learn that the Gestapo were standing on his hiding place and still could not discover it. As he drives away in his brand-new car, he thinks about the people he saved:

That wasn’t what this was supposed to be about. This was supposed to be about fitting an object of certain dimensions into an enclosed space with adequate clearances, rather like placing an object inside a box to be mailed. All for twenty-seven thousand francs and the opportunity to design a huge factory—to show the world that he really could do a great design. And now this wonderful car. And the unexpected pleasure of fooling the Germans. He almost wished Manet had said nothing about the people involved. He didn’t want to think of them (128).

Pierre, a 13-year-old Jewish boy, is hiding in an attic to smoke a cigarette away from the watchful eye of his caregiver, Madame Charpointier, when the unthinkable happens. Nazis raid the house, rounding up Pierre’s younger siblings, Jean-Claude, Isabelle, and Phillipe. Madame Charpointier’s insistence that the children are Christian and their Hail Mary prayer recitations fall on deaf ears. Pierre watches from the attic window, powerless, as the French policemen drag his siblings into a car and a German soldier shoots Madame Charpointier in the head. As the cars drive away, Pierre struggles to process what just transpired.

Grieving, Pierre gathers what belongings he can, including one toy of each of his siblings:

Just touching these things reminded him of his last image of his brothers and sister, and the pain inside his chest intensified. Maybe this was what grown-ups meant by a broken heart. He’d always thought it was a silly expression (133).

Pierre collects his cat, Misha, and what little money Madame Charpointier had tucked away before walking across the roofs of the adjoining buildings, wondering how long it would be until the Nazis take him.

Serrault, a Jewish man preparing to hide in Manet’s apartment, watches as Lucien measures the hiding spot in the fireplace. He startles Lucien but assuages his worry by revealing the yellow star on his coat, though Lucien is unnerved by the danger of speaking to him. Serrault insists that Lucien is a righteous man and asks if he has heard of Nicholas Owen, who created hiding places for priests during the persecution of Catholics in Elizabethan England. When Lucien asks what happened to Owen, Serrault says he was tortured to death in the Tower of London. Lucien responds, “‘That’s a great story […] I knew it would have a happy ending’” (139). With his parting words, Serrault insists that Owen was a righteous man—just like Lucien.

Lucien grows irritated with Alain’s know-it-all tendencies and insistence on chiming in with suggestions. Eventually, his irritation boils over, resulting in a crude threat. Lucien regrets his outburst, but soon enough, he has something to regret more: a sketch for his hiding place was mixed in with the factory designs. As Herzog examines the sketch, Alain notices Lucien freeze in fear. Lucien says the design is for another job, dismissing Alain’s questions and locking the sketch in his desk.

Alain’s dissatisfaction with Lucien’s treatment comes to a head as he breaks into the office after hours to find the drawing that had unsettled the architect so severely. He breaks into the desk and cannot imagine what about a fireplace would be so upsetting. As he considers it, Lucien returns, prompting Alain to hide in a closet.

Lucien retrieves the drawing from his desk and calls Manet. He suggests that they delay the fireplace project but insists that nothing has gone awry; eventually, he agrees to deliver the drawing the following day. Lucien draws another design and then burns the original one. Alain is riveted by this mysterious behavior and determines to get to the bottom of it: “It had to be something quite dangerous to call for all this intrigue. Why all this fuss about a fireplace?” (247).