Mystery
A PECULIAR PARIS APARTMENT Jean-Emmanuel Deluxe on the startling discovery of a perfectly preserved belle epoque timelock capsule in Paris With gratitude for the help of Raechel Leigh Carter
T
he French of today are mesmerised by Michel Houellebecq’s depressive purr. There are even lost Gallic souls who sadly believe it when President Macron – a big fan of the ‘Iron Lady’ – proclaims that there is no such thing as French culture. It’s ironic that we need Americans like Michelle Gable, with her rose-tinted bestseller A Paris Apartment, to remind us that, at the end of the 19th century, sophisticated ladies like Marthe de Florian were all the Parisian rage. The whole of the Parisian social elite gathered in her boudoir, where they could view her painted likeness captured for eternity by the most fashionable portraitist of the day, Giovanni Boldini. Believe it or not, the following story is true. In 2010, auctioneer Maitre Olivier Choppin de Janvry
“Through the grey fog of dust and the saturated atmosphere, a bright life could be imagined. An existence frozen in time, not unlike the hands of time on the dial of the small golden alarm clock, situated in the middle of hairbrushes and mignonette perfumes” 146
