Michel-Gabriel Paccard Michel-Gabriel Paccard Michel Gabriel Paccard (1757–1827) was a Savoyard doctor and alpinist, citizen of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Born in Chamonix, he studied medicine in Turin. Due to his passion for botany and minerals, he met Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, who initiated the race to be the first to ascend Mont Blanc. Gaston Rébuffat wrote "Like Saussure a devotee of the natural sciences, he has a dream: to carry a barometer to the summit and take a reading there. An excellent mountaineer, he has already made several attempts." Paccard had a first, unsuccessful, attempt in 1783 with Marc Theodore Bourrit. In
Jacques-Michel Hurel de Lamare for private audiences, where he enjoyed greater acclaim. He married into wealth in 1815, after which he mostly retired from performance, dying in Caen in 1823. His performance skills were legendary in their time, praised by François-Joseph Fétis among others. He does not appear to have been gifted as a composer, however, and it is not clear whether any works of his survive. Several works were published under his name during his lifetime, including four cello concertos, but these were likely composed by his close friend Daniel Auber. Jacques-Michel Hurel de Lamare Jacques-Michel Hurel de Lamare (1 May 1772 –