Located in the Pas-de-Calais district of Northern France on the English Channel, Boulogne-sur-Mer is among the busiest and most beautiful seaports in France.
A popular vacation spot due to its sea bathing, Roman ruins, luxury hotels and a famous casino, it was visited by many notable musicians throughout the 19th-century: Richard Wagner, Camille Saint-Saëns, Nicolo Paganini and Giacomo Meyerbeer are known to have vacationed there. In addition, Adam Liszt, father of Franz Liszt, died there in 1827 while he and his 16-year-old son were traveling, and was buried at the Cimetière de l’Est just outside the city.
Boulogne-sur-Mer was the birthplace of several famous men and women, including Auguste Mariette, one of the foremost Egyptologists of the 19th-century and founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo; Guillaume Duchenne, pioneering photographer and neurophysiologist of the human face; Frédéric Sauvage, marine engineer and early developer of boat propellers; Pierre Claude François Daunou, statesman and historian; Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, famed literary critic;
and Benoît-Constant Coquelin, noted actor who appeared on Broadway with Sarah Bernhardt and his brother Ernest Coquelin.
This article is reproduced with permission from the authors.