WHO IS JULIETTE

1777-1849

Jeanne Francoise Julie Adélaide Bernard, otherwise known as Juliette, was above all a celebrity known throughout Europe, famous for her beauty and virtue. The daughter of sollicitor Jean Bernard, she was born in Lyon. At fifteen she married the well known banker Jacques Rose Récamier.

Juliette was also intelligent, well read and affectionate. A good dancer, she also sang and could play both the harp and the piano. Her beauty and kindness helped build her reputation as an exceptional woman. It was said that she was able to charm, entertain or dispense with the over ardent without making enemies.

At the Abbaye-aux-Bois, where she held her salons for over thirty years, her influence on literature and politics was well known.

Among the innumerable regular visitors were notable characters such as René Chateaubriand, her only real love, Germaine de Stael, her best friend, André Marie Ampère, Auguste de Prusse, Lucien Bonaparte, The Duchess of Devonshire, Pierre Simon Ballanche, Talma...

Learn all about Juliette. On the animation to the right, click the images to find out who were her friends, her lovers, her peers. Explore the places that she lived in and visited.