Fontaine Jean-Valjean, Public fountain in Montfermeil, France.

The Jean-Valjean fountain is a semicircular basin built of stacked, rough-hewn grey stone blocks, its flat top edge laid in visible horizontal courses. Behind it rises a rock face with a dark recessed hollow on the right and a single bright green plant growing from the upper left. The basin holds a shallow pool of murky greenish-brown water.

The fountain was known as the Fontaine Buisson, or Fontaine de l'Abîme, named after Léger Buisson, a bourgeois landowner who held land there in 1680. It took the name Jean Valjean after the publication of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, and may be the fountain where Cosette fetched water at night. It was destroyed in 1968 during construction of the Résidence des Perriers, then restored soon afterwards.

The fountain was long called Fontaine Buisson, after Léger Buisson, a bourgeois landowner who held land there in 1680; it was also known as the Fontaine de l'Abîme. It took the name Jean Valjean only after Les Misérables appeared, and it may be the fountain where Cosette fetched water at night.

The fountain is located in the town center of Montfermeil and can be reached easily on foot. You can visit anytime to see the place and explore its connection to the story.

The name Fontaine de l'Abîme, or Fountain of the Abyss, recalls the dark hollow visible in the rock face behind the basin. The pool itself holds murky greenish-brown water, not drinking water, so the spot is best read as a literary landmark rather than a working water source.