Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay permanently stationed in Paris except in time of war. In 1776 de Launay succeeded M. de Jumilhac as Governor of the Bastille. As was the custom with many senior positions under the Ancien Régime, the marquis purchased the office of governor from his predecessor as a form of investment. The thirteen years that he spent in this position were uneventful, though on 19 December 1778 he reportedly made the mistake of failing to fire the cannon of the Bastille as a salute on the birth of a daughter (Madame Royale) to King Louis XVI. In August 1785 he was given
Bernard Gavoty the côtes de Provence. Bernard Gavoty Bernard Gavoty (2 April 1908 – 24 October 1981) was a 20th-century French organist, musicologist and music critic. After being a pupil of Louis Vierne, Bernard Gavoty entered the Conservatoire de Paris where he had Denise Launay, Michel Boulnois, Antoine Reboulot, Félicien Wolff and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, among others as classmates in the organ class. He held a very special place among the students of Marcel Dupré at the Conservatoire. Indeed, a brilliant speaker, endowed with a perfect speech, knowing how to elegantly write, he made numerous lectures, especially for the , and was a