Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Champagne's First Lady & An Amazing Woman!

Let me introduce you to Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. What an AMAZING woman! She built an entire empire and legacy for her heritage, that spawned an entire industry. With the aid of her salesman, Louis Bohne, she was the first to trade Champagne, internationally.

Not only did she have to break the law and commandeer ships and sneak them into Russian ports during war-risking her own freedom and inheritance; but she also had to INVENT the manner in which to bottle/cork/transport across the ocean these thousands of bottles...WITHOUT LOSING THE FIZZ!

Oh my gosh, if you read the story, which I will post the link to, next, you will be FOREVER IN AWE & INSPIRED!

CHEERS TO YOU, Barbe-Nicole` Ponsardin, and may I achieve a fraction of what you did!!

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This is a very well written, easy to read, and INTRIGUING story of her life and history of the company. One of the BEST CHAMPAGNE HOUSES in history...and still today!

You can order it at Amazon...click here.

Paris in the 1920's A Marvelous Time to Experience

If you have not yet read Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, I would highly recommend doing so.  Especially, if you are looking to escape into another time and watch the world through the eyes of a romantic.

A romantic, not only in the sensual, but in the sense of discovery and in experiencing the depth and breadth of every interlude, intake of the landscape, complexity of emotion, and the wonderful tastes of  French food and liquor! 

 How this man gives you the taste of an aperitif` is amazing!

Paris, being what it was in the 1920's was an amazing place to live, dream, and aspire. Post war,  it took the world by storm with its avant garde approach to all things expressionist.  Music, Art, Thought... It forever changed the landscape of our minds and hearts, and we can attribute much of that to the Ex-Patriot's (Fitzgerald, Stein, Picasso...) whom made Paris their home during those years.

In this autobiography, you will meet those characters for what they were, their hopes, dreams, insecurities, passions.  You will begin to understand why their work was so important, and now so revered and you will be inspired to make more of yourself. 

  A  note about his original papers...

After his death in Cuba (he lived there with wife, Mary) 

Ernest Hemingway's writings...thousands of pages of original works, notes, and letters,  were confiscated by Fidel Castro.

 Mary begged for the American governments help and  JFK intervened. He was able to negotiate the return of all of Hemingways work, to Mary. 

As a Thank You to JFK, Mary Hemingway willed ALL of the works to the JFK public library; which are now available to all of us, in their original form.

 Next time in Boston, be sure to put this on your list of interesting things to see...

Remember, live the good life...La Dolce Vita oxoxox

Shakespeare & Company-Paris, France Picture of the Week

(Monnier, Unknown, Beach & Ernest Heminway)

**Reposted from earlier 2012**

With my interest peaked by the new course I am taking about Paris in the 1920's, I give you the original Shakespeare & Company Bookstore on Paris's Left Bank!   Opened by Sylvia Beach on 17 November 1919 at 8 rue Dupuytren, before moving to larger premises at 12 rue de l'Odéon in the 6th arrondissement in 1922.  During the 1920s, it was a gathering place for writers such as Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Ford Madox Ford.^[1] It closed in 1941 during the German occupation of Paris and never re-opened.

Sylvia Beach was an American ex-patriot that helped other ex-pats achieve their artistic ambitions.  Where other bookstores did not want the likes of the poor lingering about, they found safe haven in her shoppe, where they ate and drank cheaply, and she lent them books for free.   She single-handedly funded the publishing of Ulysses, by James Joyce, when all other English and American publishers refused to do so, because of it's content. In fact, she went broke doing so and had to close the doors of the store to fund the last expense of the book.

(Here is a link to a very sweet & fun blog about Sylvia Beach and Paris :)  http://leblog1815.blogspot.com/2011/03/sylvia-beach.html

Another bookstore  "Le Mistral" was opened in Paris by George Whitman, and in Sylvia Beach's honor, he renamed it in 1964 to "Shakespeare & Company".  It is located at 37 rue de la Bûcherie, in the 5th arrondissement.  You may have seen this recently in Woody Allen's movie Midnight in Paris.    

Today, this is a true destination point in Paris, with visitors coming from all around the globe to see where the creators of classic literature of the modern era dreamt.  There is nothing like a good cup of French Java and the sweet smell of the Seine to set you right back to the ethereal desires of the 1920's...

Oh...If only Paris did not exist, I could feel more settled in my own life...