It was really a handsome room.
"Guess how much we pay here ?" Gervaise would ask of every visitor she had.
And whenever they guessed too high a sum, she triumphed and delighted at being so well suited for such a little money, cried: "One hundred and fifty francs, not a sou more! Isn't it almost like having it for nothing!" The street, Rue Neuve de la Goutte d'Or, played an important part in their contentment.

Gervaise's whole life was there, as she traveled back and forth endlessly between her home and Madame Fauconnier's laundry.
Coupeau now went down every evening and stood on the doorstep to smoke his pipe.

The poorly-paved street rose steeply and had no sidewalks.
Toward Rue de la Goutte d'Or there were some gloomy shops with dirty windows.

There were shoemakers, coopers, a run-down grocery, and a bankrupt cafe whose closed shutters were covered with posters.

In the opposite direction, toward Paris, four-story buildings blocked the sky.