3-039-043 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene at night in front of the Grand Theatre at Bordeaux, 1871. Franco-Prussian War. 'This large and handsome building is situated in the Place de la Comédie, upon which debouch seven streets, five of these being the most important and frequented in Bordeaux...The Allées de Tournay...are formed by a double row of shops and cafes...These allées are a continuation of the Place de la Comedie, upon which stand the two principal cafes, in these times crowded from morning till midnight with eager politicians and military men of all grades and corps, while the most frequented clubs are in its immediate neighbourhood...Playbills, notices of public meetings, Government bulletins, and telegraphic despatches are usually stuck up under the portico of the theatre or on the columns that support it. Upon the opposite side of the square a broad strip of pavement in front of the Café du Bordeaux and some adjoining shops has been selected by the newsvenders as their chief station...all about the pavement skirmishing newsboys dart, impeding the passage and deafening the passengers with cries, both shrill and hoarse, of second and third editions and bulletins wet from the press. The Place de la Comédie is to Bordeaux what the Boulevard des Italiens is to Paris'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.