Georges Simenon was a Belgian writer, author of more than 400 novels, 20 books of memoirs, and numerous articles, including those about Odesa in the 1930s. His works have been translated into over forty languages; 52 feature films and 24 television films have been based on them, as well as several theatrical productions. He was a member of two academies, an honorary member of several universities, and a recipient of numerous international awards.

Travels and Writing
From 1928 to 1946, Simenon travelled throughout Europe and Africa, visiting France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Poland, Latvia, Turkey, and the USSR, including Odesa and Batumi. He financed his journeys with fees from publishing his journalistic reports. For the writer’s 100th anniversary in Lausanne, 3,000 of his own travel photographs were discovered, part of which was published in Belgian researcher Frédéric Bonmariage’s book Simenon. The Writer, the Photographer (Brussels, 2006).

Visits to Odesa
Documents, letters, and memoirs confirm that Simenon visited Odesa twice — in 1933 and 1965. On 20 May 1933, the French journalist Simenon arrived from Istanbul aboard the Italian steamer Quirinale. He was accompanied by his wife, Alison Hughes-Hall, and tourist Ada Mindlin.

They stayed at the Londonskaya Hotel; Georges occupied room 35 and travelled around Odesa in a Lincoln car provided by Intourist. The writer was fascinated by the lives of ordinary people and often photographed groups of locals who gathered around him. On 25 June 1933, he departed Odesa aboard the Georgia steamer en route to Batumi.

In 1934, twenty-three of his articles about Odesa were published in the French weekly Jour. Impressions from the trip formed the basis of his novel Les Gens d’en face (The People Across the Street, Paris, 1934), set in Batumi and depicting the oppressive atmosphere of the Stalinist regime.

His second visit to Odesa took place in 1965, this time with his children and grandchildren. Simenon left warm impressions of the city: “I was struck by the streets lined with flowering trees and, in the suburbs, little houses — very cheerful and colourful.”

Connection with the Odesa Literary Museum
From 1978, the writer maintained regular correspondence with the Odesa State Literary Museum, sending books and personal belongings — including a pipe similar to the one smoked by Inspector Maigret. In a letter dated 10 April 1978, he wrote that he “would gladly return to the Soviet Union and to blooming Odesa, where I have been twice,” but doctors forbade him from travelling.

Later Years
Georges Simenon died on 4 September 1989 in Lausanne, leaving behind a monumental literary legacy that influenced the development of the European and global novel of the 20th century.