Madame Bovary

The village of Ry owes its fame to its connection with one of the greatest novels in French literature, Madame Bovary (1856).

“What are you writing? Have you chosen a subject? Is it still Don Juan? Is it the story of Madame Delamare, which is quite beautiful?”
(Letter from Maxime Du Camp to Gustave Flaubert, written in 1851 and published in an article in Mercure de France in 1952).

This real-life event, which took place in Ry in the 1840s, served as the inspiration for the plot of Gustave Flaubert’s novel.

Today, the legacy of Madame Bovary is deeply rooted in the village of Ry, which seems to embody the novel’s setting, with iconic locations such as the Delamare house, Maître Guillaumin’s office, and Homais’ pharmacy.

Several tourist routes invite you to follow in the footsteps of Emma Bovary: a digital walking tour through Ry and the Bovary circuit, which you can explore by bike or car through the surrounding countryside. A theme that offers a unique way to discover the heritage of our region.