The Café Voltaire, a Forgotten Site of the Revolution

Contrary to legend, the journalist and deputy Camille Desmoulins did not live on the Place de l’Odéon, but at 1 rue de l’Odéon, in the same building as the revolutionary Fabre d’Eglantine. However, during the Revolution, it was here, at 1 Place de l’Odéon, facing the theater, where the famous Café Voltaire was located. Across the street, the Café Voltaire was one of the sites for resistance against the absolute monarchy. It attracted actors and writers, as well as journalists like Camille Desmoulins, who was a neighbor. It was an institution: it was not replaced until 1956 with a library named in honor of the American Benjamin Franklin, considered in 1789 as one of the founding fathers of the French Revolution. For many years, this site preserved the memory of the Revolution.