Chocolat de Paris

The art of chocolat is a high calling in Paris, with chic boutique chocolate shops all around town catering to the chocophile in search of new sensations. The best Paris chocolate shops are still generally small, family affairs, where techniques and recipes have been handed down through generations - and sometimes over the centuries. Their secret is simple: quality ingredients and painstaking workmanship. Shortcuts and easy methods are shunned.

Robert Linxe, proprietor of the Maison du Chocolate on the fashionable Rue du Faubourg St. Honore, is Paris's undisputed king of chocolate. His wares are very fine chocolates by which one may easily judge the others. All are made by hand, by Linxe and his assistants, in the basement of this former wine and spirits shop.


Taste them and you know what the French demand in chocolates: They are dark and strong, but not overwhelming, and neither bitter nor sweet, but a perfect compromise of flavors, shining with the glow of extra cocoa butter. They are unfussy and neat, and, best of all, they are smooth, with no hint of grit or grain.

The Faberge Imperial Pansy Egg

 

The House of Faberge produced it's most famous eggs for Alexander III and Nicolas II of Russia. These eggs are made of precious metals or hard stones decorated with combinations of enamel and gem stones. Of the 50 made, 42 have survived.

The 1899 Pansy Egg pictured here is formerly known as the "Spinach Jade Egg", is made of nephrite, silver-gilt, diamonds and enamels. This egg stands on golden twisted leaves from which five enameled pansy flowers and buds emerge. The top part of the egg can be opened to reveal the surprise, a gold tripod on which is located an heart lined in diamonds and surmonted by the imperial crown with eleven scarlet medallions decorated with monograms. By pressing a button the tiny medallions are all opened, and portraits of each member of imperial family become visible.

Originally presented by Nicholas II to Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna in 1899, this egg was one of the ten Eggs sold by the Antikvariat to the Hammer Galleries, New York in 1930.  In 1947, Matilda Geddings Gray, oil heiress, from New Orleans, Louisiana purchased this egg for her neice, Mrs. Matilda Gray Stream as a wedding anniversary present. The Pansy Egg is one of the few significant Imperial Eggs to remain in a private collection.

The House of Faberge recreated this exquisite egg in Limoges porcelain which retails today for an affordable $4000.

Ronsard's Rose

Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) was one of the stars of the Pléiade, French humanists who were inspired by classical culture. His poetry is wonderfully musical, sensuous, pagan and romantic. His most famous sonnet, "Mignonne, allons voir si la rose", set to music, sung and recited by generations of schoolchildren, is an ode to Cassandra, the daughter of a wealthy Italian merchant. The theme is basically to enjoy your youth, as your life and youth is as ephemeral as the rose. Hence, live life today - Carpe Diem.         

This most diverse, accomplished, and influential poet of Renaissance France is the inspiration for the Ronsard Limoges pattern painted on porcelain as well as the Eden Ronsard Rose, a climbing, large old fashioned  double rose in pastel pink, cream and yellow.                       

Sevres

Sevres porcelain is widely known to be both the French porcelain of royalty and the royal porcelain of France. King Louis XV, known as the most notable art patron in modern history, became the major customer and joined as a shareholder of the factory in 1745. The factory had a goal to deliver a superior product in order to compete with the early Meissen, Berlin, and other continental porcelains. By 1752, the king became the major shareholder. He deemed that this porcelain to be designated as royal, or Manufacturer Royale du Porcelaine. He conducted annual sales from his palace grounds at Versailles, encouraged his court and other royalty to buy his product, and even restricted other porcelain factories from using gilding or colored grounds on their porcelains.

When the operation ran into financial troubles in 1759, King Louis XV acquired the factory as royal property. The king took over the manufacturing operations, and considered himself the principal client and salesperson of these extraordinary porcelain creations. The factory was moved to the village of Sevres southwest of Paris; a location near to the palace of Versailles and close to the home of Madame de Pompadour at the Chateau de Bellevue. From that time the porcelain became officially known as Sevres porcelain.

The earliest Sevres had graceful shapes and soft colors. Sevres pieces produced from 1750 to 1770 were decorated with brilliant colors and heavy gilding. Many of these pieces had richly colored backgrounds and white panels painted with birds, flowers, landscapes, or people. Sevres is also noted for its fine figurines of biscuit (unglazed porcelain). The Sevres factory introduced hard-paste porcelain in the 1770s and soft-paste porcelain production ended in 1804.

The artists decorating many modern day Limoges boxes were inspired by the early intricate patterns and elaborate gilding of the Sevres era, thus the creation of pattern commonly known as Sevres. Pictured  is a modern example of a Limoges box from Limoges Imports - a footed urn. Also pictured is an example of what may have inspired the pattern: a Sevres Beau Bleu Dejeuner c1780, which sold for $6000 at Christies, New York in May 2008.

The Glamorous Game of Roulette

There are many theories as to the origin of roulette. There are rumors that the game was invented in China and popularized in Europe by traders who were trading with the Chinese. However, most agree that the game did begin in France. In French, the word roulette means "small wheel". The idea of a spinning wheel with numbers may be old but evidence suggests that the first Roulette wheel was invented by the mathematician Blaine Pascal in 1655, who was supposedly inspired by his fascination with perpetual-motion devices. In 1842, fellow Frenchmen Francois and Louis Blanc added the "0" to the roulette wheel in order to increase house odds. Some call roulette the "King of Casino Games", probably because it was associated with the glamour of the casinos in Monte Carlo.

During the 20th century, roulette has remained a hugely popular casino game. From Las Vegas to France, roulette has retained its mystique as a glamorous game for high rollers.