Café du Croissant

The Cafe du Croissant stands at the corner of rue Montmartre and rue du Croissant as a quiet witness to a turning point in world history. On the evening of July 31, 1914, the leading French socialist and anti-war activist Jean Jaures was sitting inside for a working dinner. He was working to prevent the looming conflict in Europe by organizing a potential general strike against the war. At 9:40 p.m., a nationalist student named Raoul Villain fired two shots through an open window of the cafe. One bullet struck Jaures in the head, killing him instantly and effectively ending his campaign to keep France out of the coming catastrophe. Just three days later, France was at war.