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IntroductionBerlioz’s visits to Grenoble were primarily in connection with his family. His maternal grandparents lived in Meylan near Grenoble (now a suburb of the city), as did his mother before her marriage to Dr Louis Berlioz in February 1803. Berlioz’s older sister Nanci went to live in Grenoble after she married Camille Pal, a lawyer working in that city. Madame Estelle Fornier (née Dubœuf), Berlioz’s first love and stella montis, also lived for many years in Meylan where Berlioz as a young boy of 12 first met her. Also, in March 1821 Berlioz was made bachelier ès lettres at Grenoble.
After Berlioz went to Paris in October 1821 to study medicine, where he later settled, he paid a number of visits to Grenoble to see his sister and her family (15-23 January 1831; 18 September 1864; 25-29 August 1865), and a pilgrimage to Meylan in 1848 (Mémoires, Chapter 58). However, his last visit to Grenoble in August 1868 was an official one. It was also the last trip he made outside Paris.
In 1903, a hundred years after Berlioz’s birth in La Côte Saint-André, the city of Grenoble celebrated his centenary in style by, among other things, erecting a statue of his on the Place Victor Hugo. There is also a Hector Berlioz Street in Grenoble.
Berlioz’s visit in 1868
The centenary of Berlioz’s
birth in 1903
The centenary of Berlioz’s
birth in 1903 – official postcards
Rue
Hector Berlioz
Berlioz’s Grenoble
Grésivaudan
Valley
See also: The Country of Berlioz
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Related pages on this site:
Berlioz Biography
Berlioz
Photo Album
The Hector Berlioz Website was created by Monir Tayeb and Michel
Austin on 18 July 1997;
Berlioz in Grenoble page created on 11 December 2008;
updated on 1 February 2009; enlarged on 6 December 2009, 15 November 2011, 11 December
2012, and 15 January 2013.
© Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin for all the pictures and information; all rights reserved.
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