Gaspard Monge in Beaune, Côte-d'Or (21)

The mathematician and politician Gaspard Monge (1746-1818) was born in Beaune, where this prominent statue stands in a square. He died in Paris in a building which has been demolished, 31 Rue de Bellechasse in the 7^e arrondissement, the site of which records his death there, and also the fact that Alphonse Daudet lived there with his wife Julia from 1985 to 1897.

13 Rue de Bellechasse, 7e arrondissement, Paris

'ÉDIFIÉ À L'EMPLACEMENT D'UNE MAISON OÚ MOURUT
GASPARD MONGE
CET IMMEUBLE FUT HABITÉ, DE 1885 À 1897, PAR
ALPHONSE DAUDET
ET SON ÉPOUSE. VEUVE, ELLE Y TINT SALON ET Y REÇUT
MARCEL PROUST
IL ÉCRIT, PARLANT DES DEMEURES QU'IL AIMA
"JE N'EN SAIS PAS D'AUSSI PLEINE DE PASSÉ. DE
PENSÉE, D'AUSSI PIEUSEMENT CONSACRÉE PAR LE
SOUVENIR QUE LE 31 RUE DE BELLECHASSE."
DANS CETTE MAISON EST MORT, EN 1936, L'HISTORIEN
JACQUES BANVILLE'

 

As it says above, this impressive plaque is at 31 rue de Bellechasse, 7e arrondissement, Paris. It was built on the site of a house where the mathematician Gaspard Monge lived, and Alphonse Daudet and his wife Julia lived here from 1885 to 1897. Alphonse's widow kept a salon here, where she received such eminent writers as Edmond de Goncourt, Maupassant, Rachilde, Émile Zola, Édouard Drumont, and Marcel Proust, the last of whom remembered the place very fondly. Julia was one of the first people to read Proust's work.