M. Béraud du Châtel

Renée Saccard's father whom we never see outside of his home on the Isle Saint-Louis. He was the last in a line of a bourgeois family that could trace its roots back to the 14 th century. He had been a stern magistrate but resigned in 1851 as he had no desire to take part in the trials of those who resisted Napoleon III's coup d'état. His wife had died giving birth to his second daughter, Christine. He was never close to his daughters and left them to the care of his sister and in Renée's case a boarding school. However, on Renée's death it was her father who cleared her debts.