Berlioz in Paris
Café Le Cardinal
At the far end of the rue de Richelieu, on the corner with the Boulevard des Italiens, the Café Le Cardinal (called after Cardinal Richelieu, whose bust is displayed on the outside) was one of the places frequented by Berlioz from an early date, and he alludes to it several times. He mentions in his Memoirs (ch. 18) how in winter 1827-8 the shock he experienced on discovering Shakespeare made him wander aimlessly for hours on end through the streets of Paris and in the neighbouring plains, until he would drop asleep through sheer exhaustion – one such occasion was at the "Café du Cardinal ... where I slept for five hours, to the great alarm of the waiters who did not dare to come near me for fear of finding me dead".
The Café is mentioned several times in the
composer’s correspondence. A letter to his friend Humbert Ferrand dated 29 June
1829, two days before Berlioz entered the competition at the Institut for the
Prix de Rome, was written at a table of the Café near the Boulevard des
Italiens (Correspondance
générale, no. 130; hereafter CG for short). Later, in a letter of 17 February
1851 Berlioz writes to a friend, Ferdinand
Hiller, suggesting they meet at the Café
du Cardinal (CG no. 1384; the letter is in the selection edited by Hugh Macdonald, no. 254).
And in 1865, in a letter to his son Louis dated 11 July, he relates that the day
before he met there the Irish composer Balfe and they had dinner together (CG
no. 3025).
The start of the rue de Richelieu
The flat at no. 96 occupied by Berlioz in 1828-1830 is a few
hundred yards away, on the left side.
Boulevard des Italiens circa 1898
This picture was originally published in John L. Stoddards Lectures, Volume V – Paris La Belle France and Spain, by John L. Stoddard (Balch Brothers, 1898), in our own collection.
© 2000-2006 (unless otherwise stated) Michel Austin and Monir Tayeb for all the photos, engravings and information on this and other Berlioz in Paris pages
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