Chateaubriand’s birthplace

You may have noticed that everything around here now seems to bear the name Chateaubriand—the street, the square, the cafés, the hotels. That’s because this is where he was born. Walk up to the blue gate at the corner of the Hôtel France et Chateaubriand. It opens onto a small inner courtyard where the writer’s birthplace still stands. Above the steps you’ll see his family’s coat of arms, proof of their Breton noble roots, along with their motto: “My blood has stained the banners of France.” It was here, on September 4, 1768, that the author of Memoirs from Beyond the Grave was born—the great precursor of French Romanticism. He served several times as ambassador, became Minister of Foreign Affairs, and under King Charles X joined the ultra-royalist camp, which supported the restoration of the monarchy through the Capetian line. His first major publications already revealed his counter-revolutionary leanings and his staunch defense of the Ancien Régime. But his towering masterpiece was, of course, Memoirs from Beyond the Grave, published after his death. The early volumes recount his childhood and his development within Saint-Malo’s bourgeois society, while the later ones offer his reflections on the many historical periods he lived through. The work is regarded as a masterpiece of autobiography, and his prose had a profound influence on French literature. And to finish, remember that Chateaubriand was every bit a son of Saint-Malo—he was also a great traveler, forever setting off in search of adventure.