"And so, when she was in a happy mood because she was going to see the Reine Topaze, or when her eyes grew serious, troubled, petulant, if she was afraid of missing the flower-show, or merely of not being in time for tea, with muffins and toast, at the Rue Royale tea-rooms, where she believed that regular attendance was indispensable, and set the seal upon a woman’s certificate of ‘smartness,’..."
La Reine Topaze: 1856 opera Carnaval de Venise, composed by Victor MASSÉ
Rue Royal Tea-Rooms...Si la musique de Victor Massé n'est guère tenue en estime aujourd'hui, il faut croire que ce sentiment était déjà partagé par certains de ses contemporains. En témoigne cet extrait de Du côté de chez Swann de Proust ; le personnage de Swann (grand bourgeois très cultivé) s'irrite de ce que sa maîtresse Odette de Crécy (demi-mondaine absolument dénuée de goût en matière artistique) souhaite aller voir un opéra de Victor Massé intitulé Une nuit de Cléopâtre, opéra qu'il juge consternant :
- « Ce n'est pas de la colère, pourtant, se disait-il à lui-même, que j'éprouve en voyant l'envie qu'elle a d'aller picorer dans cette musique stercoraire. C'est du chagrin, non pas certes pour moi, mais pour elle ; du chagrin de voir qu'après avoir vécu plus de six mois en contact quotidien avec moi, elle n'a pas su devenir assez une autre pour éliminer spontanément Victor Massé ! »
"Under the Second Empire, cafes developed and became more and more luxurious. They attracted Parisian high society. Along with the chic restaurants around the Madeleine, they became the showcases of the capital..."
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"Upon his death, he left Blanche regent and guardian of his children. Of her twelve or thirteen children, six had died, and Louis, the heir — afterwards the sainted Louis IX — was but twelve years old. The situation was critical, for the hard-won domains of the house of Capet seemed likely to fall to pieces during a minority. Blanche had to bear the whole burden of affairs alone, to break up a league of the barons (1226), and to repel the attack of the king of England (1230). But her energy and firmness overcame all dangers."
...A lively topic for Brichot's dinner conversation...
Chronicles of St.-Denis: The miniature at left shows Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy, being presented with the Chroniques by Abbot Guillaume Fillastre, on 1 January 1457. They were sold at auction.
Suger , the abbot of St.-Denis, (c. 1081 – 13 January 1151) was one of the last French abbot-statesmen, a historian, and the influential first patron of Gothic architecture.
