So I think I found the inspiration for Marinette’s bakery/house!
While researching for a fanfic I’m currently working on, I wanted to see just where Mari’s house is so I could accurately describe locations/distances and things. Her house is supposedly located at 12 Rue Gotlib, 21st arrondissement according to the wiki.Â
Both Rue Gotlib and the 21st arrondissement are fictional; Paris only has 20 arrondissements and Rue Gotlib is named after Marcel Gotlib. Alright then, so far there were no real leads.
Then I came across another post on tumblr by @mirabug55 which noted something interesting. They posted an analysis of her house, a part of which noted that it was next to Place de Vosges (which the Park in Miraculous is based off of). It turns out that’s a real place!!
(image from @mirabug55 , post link here)
Based on the location of Mari’s house relative to Place de Vosges, I looked at buildings that could possibly be it. And I found one!Â
Willy’s Boulangerie (located at 6-8 Rue du Pas de la Mule, according to Google Earth) is a 7-story building located on the corner of a street (with 2 crosswalks leading to it, just like the bakery). It is located, relative to Place de Vosges, exactly where Marinette’s house is and is close enough to walk (a la Gamer, but I’ll get to that later!) even if it isn’t directly adjacent as it is in the show. So not only do the location and architecture match, but the cherry on top is that it actually is a bakery. Just perfect! Â
(All Street Images © 2017 Google.  If you want to see the perfection for yourselves, click here  for the Google Street View!)
When I had spent a good hour doing all this, I reread the Miraculous Wiki page for the bakery and found out.....that the bakery was probably based off Boulangerie du Moulin de la Galette (here on Google street view). *Sigh*. Just as I was convinced, it seemed like all was lost. I read, though, that this was never officially confirmed. It’s a tumblr thread (here) by @miraculeusecoccinelle. I now definitely believe that the exterior was based off of that bakery. I mean, LOOK at it. It’s a perfect match. (when I first saw a picture of it I thought it was located at Disneyland Paris and was an official bakery model lol) The couple that runs it is even mixed French/Asian, just like Tom and Sabine! Japanese is different from Chinese, but when TV rarely shows mixed race couples, it’s close enough to be a bit more than coincidence. It’s located in the 17th arrondissement, which is closer to the fictional 21st, but still far away from Place de Vosges (which is located between the third and fourth). Another detail is that their bakery actually does appear to have a balcony (like Mari’s), while Willy’s doesn’t look like it has one.
So where does this leave my new bakery theory? The Moulin de la Galette definitely meets the physical charachteristics-coloring, font of Boulangerie, and balcony-excepting the corner location (it’s in the middle of a long street) and proximity to Place de Vosges. It’s also surrounded by trees, which is cool, but there aren’t many next to Marinette’s house. Willie’s Boulangerie doesn’t match the physical description as well, but it shares its orientation on the streets and short walk to the Place with her house.Â
My best hypothesis is that the creators of the show saw both (or more) bakeries and created a mishmosh of all of them to make Mari’s house-the design of Boulangerie du Moulin de la Galette with a slightly altered location based off of Willie’s. In reality, there isn’t any house that fits that description that close to the Place, but then again we don’t know the geography of the 21st arrondissement ;) .
Now that I’ve gotten that out, I present to you Times Miraculous Was In Place de Vosges.
(Episode images from Miraculous Wiki)
Why, hello there Volpina! (*inwardly screams* EVEN THE BENCHES ARE THE SAME! I’ve never seen a bench like this. Am I just being dumb? Are those common in France?)
Is anyone just realizing now WHY THE HECK IS ADRIEN MODELLING IN HIS NORMAL CLOTHES?! Doesn’t he have to model, like, a different outfit from the one he wears LITERALLY EVERY DAY?Â
I mean, no disrespect to Louis XIII, but seriously, this park would be better with superheroes.
Told you we were getting back to Gamer!Â
And it’s also from Mr Pigeon!Â
Hope this has given all of you some food for thought! Of course, I don’t own Miraculous Ladybug or any of the other characters! For the official Miraculous Ladybug tumblr, click here!Â
