"He is the greatest thief, yes but he is a gentleman…"
Arsène Lupin, this carefree and dandy-looking thief, stealing from the Parisian aristocracy thanks to his formidable charm is a "big-hearted thief ", a hero wearing a monocle, a black cloak and a top hat who travels through time and stretches across generations. Created by the author, Maurice Leblanc, he first appeared in his novels and then was brought to life in a radio series and became part of the audience's daily life who took an avid interest in this evening programme broadcast on France Inter in the 1960s. It was on TV, played by the actor Georges Descrières, that his popularity took off in the 1970s. The cinema also praised this "true gentleman" in many feature films, the last one of which starred Romain Duris with a spectacular sequence in the cathedral of Rouen.
The author, who came from Rouen, published the first short story The Arrest of Arsène Lupin in 1905 in the magazine Je sais tout, which would be published as a book two years later.
Arsène Lupin's crimes often take place in the Pays de Caux, the haunt of the gentleman thief and his author. Come and solve his riddles too: in Etretat, where the treasure of the kings of France is hidden in The Hollow Needle, in Tancarville in The Lighthouse of Tancarville, at Jumièges Abbey in The Countess of Cagliostro... his plots make for extraordinary route plans.
But it is of course in the renowned resort of Etretat that you will better experience the atmosphere of Maurice Leblanc's novels: Visit the Clos Lupin, the author's splendid house and follow Arsène's route in The Hollow Needle.
Arsène Lupin, a well-known hero and a friendly seducer, is a master of disguise and commits theft with audacity, style and sophistication: a true gentleman-thief.