Combray: Week 2

 Orris root -- From Wikipedia

Orris root is the root of some species of iris, grown principally in southern Europe: Iris florentina, and Iris pallida. Once important in western, it is now used mainly as a fixative and base note in perfumery, as well as an ingredient in many brands of gin (perhaps most famously in Bombay Sapphire gin). Orris root must generally be hung and aged for 5 years before it can be used for perfumery. Fabienne Pavia, in her book L'univers des Parfums (1995, ed. Solar), states that in the manufacturing of perfumes using orris, the scent of the iris root differs from that of the flower. After preparation the scent is reminiscent of the smell of violets.  

 Wild-currant bush:  Photo

fer·ru·gi·nous  adj. 1. Of, containing, or similar to iron.  2. Having the color of iron rust; reddish-brown. [From Latin ferrginus, from ferrg, ferrgin-, iron rust, from ferrum, iron.] (c The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language)

Bressant style:  {From HairTalk tm @ HairBoutique.com}  I am reading a translation of Swann's Way by Proust. In a recollection of childhood, the narrator talks about a man of his acquaintance who wore his hair in the "Bressant-style." The footnote reveals that "Jean-Baptiste Prosper Bressant (1815-86) was a well-known actor who introduced a new hairstyle, which consisted of wearing the hair in a crew cut in front and longer in the back." The translator could have just as well said that the Bressant-style"is popularly known as the mullet." Short in front and long in back is hardly a "new" trend. {Fr. wiki: Il introduit une nouvelle coupe de cheveux coupés en brosse sur le devant et longs derrière, étant probablement à l'origine à la coupe mullet. On parle alors de coiffe "à la Bressant."

Jockey Club:  from Wikipedia:: The Jockey Club de Paris is best remembered as a gathering of the elite of nineteenth-century French society. The club still exists at 2 rue Rabelais, and hosts the International Federation of Racing Authorities.... During the Second Empire and the Third Republic, the gentlemen of the Jockey Club held numerous boxes at the Opera, "many little suspended salons" in Marcel Proust's phrase, where the required ballet expected in every opera was never in the first act, when the Jockey Club would habitually still be at dinner. One result was the famous fiasco of the "Paris Tannhäuser" of 1861, when Wagner insisted on inserting the requisite ballet into the first act, and the second act, with the members of the Jockey Club arriving to view their favourites in the corps de ballet, was all but hissed off the stage: Wagner never permitted another production in Paris. Proust's Charles Swann was a member, a fact that Proust more than once noted as a signal honor, given his Jewish background.

Prince Philippe, Comte de Paris: (eldest grandson of Louis-Philippe, 1838–94). Swann was his friend.

Prince of Wales: Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death on 6 May 1910. He was the first British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which was renamed the House of Windsor by his son, George V.
    Before his accession to the throne, Edward held the title of Prince of Wales and was heir apparent to the throne for longer than anyone else in history.[1] During the long widowhood of his mother, Queen Victoria, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite.
    The Edwardian period, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including powered flight and the rise of socialism and the Labour movement. Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet, the reform of the Army Medical Services,[2] and the reorganisation of the British army after the Second Boer War. He fostered good relations between Great Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker", but his work was unable to prevent the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

The aristocratic world of the Faubourg Saint-Germain/Saint-Germain-des-Prés (wiki):  This central Rive-Gauche quarter is named for its 7th century abbey of which only a church is still standing. Its commercial growth began upon the 1886 completion of its Boulevard Saint-Germain and the opening of its cafés and bistrots namely its "Café de Flore" and "Deux Magots" terraces. Its fame came with the 1950s post-WW II student "culture emancipation" movement that had its source in the nearby University. Many jazz clubs appeared here during those times, and a few still remain today.  Located near the École des Beaux-Arts, this quarter is known for its artistry in general, and has many galleries along its rue Bonaparte and rue de Seine. In all, Saint-Germain-des-Prés is an upper-class bourgeois residential district, and its quality clothing and gastronomical street-side commerce is a direct reflection of this.