After the end of the Parisian concert season, Thalberg travelled as tourist in the Rhineland. In the beginning of June 1840 he attended a music festival directed by Louis Spohr in Aachen. He got an invitation from the Russian Tsarina and performed at a court-concert in Ems, but this was his only concert during his stay in the Rhineland. According to a note in the "Revue et Gazette musicale" of 2 August 1840, p. 410, Thalberg's friend, the violinist Charles Auguste de Bériot, would get married two days later in Elsene (Ixelles). His bride was a young lady Maria Huber, born in Vienna, from Germany. She was an orphan and had been adopted by Prince von Dietrichstein, Thalberg's father. It may therefore be presumed that Thalberg wanted to take part in the wedding celebration. During previous visits to the Rhineland he wanted only to relax. He also taught Bériot's son, the pianist Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot.