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Blair Castle, Perthshire, Scotland
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Atholl Gathering and Highland Games 27th May 2012
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The Duke of Atholl / VIDEO: Atholl Highlanders' Parade 2010
12th Duke of Atholl
As Duke of Atholl, he has the right to raise Europe's only legal private army, named the Atholl Highlanders (a unique privilege granted to his family by Queen Victoria after visiting Blair Atholl in 1844).
Bruce George Ronald Murray, 12th Duke of Atholl (born 6 April 1960) is a South African-born hereditary peer in the Peerage of Scotland and Chief of Clan Murray. As Duke of Atholl, he has the right to raise Europe's only legal private army, named the Atholl Highlanders (a unique privilege granted to his family by Queen Victoria after visiting Blair Atholl in 1844).
The elder son of John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl and Margaret Yvonne née Leach (now styled the Dowager Duchess of Atholl), matriculated at Jeppe High School for Boys Johannesburg in 1979. He was educated at Saasveld Forestry College before serving his two years' National Service with the South African Infantry Corps.He is currently a volunteer member of the Transvaal Scottish Regiment, holding the rank of Lieutenant. Previously he managed a tea plantation, but then ran a signage business producing signs for commercial buildings. He was commissioned into the Atholl Highlanders in 2000, being appointed as Lieutenant Colonel. Upon the death of his father on 15 May 2012, he succeeded to all his father's titles, becoming the 12th Duke of Atholl.
The Duke first married on 4 February 1984 at Johannesburg Lynne Elizabeth Andrew (born Johannesburg, 7 June 1963) and they divorced in 2003.
Together they had three children, two sons and one daughter:
Michael Bruce John Murray, Marquess of Tullibardine (born in Louis Trichardt, 5 March 1985)
Lord David Nicholas George Murray (born in Louis Trichardt, 31 January 1986)
Lady Nicole Murray (born in Duiwelskloof, 11 July 1987); married to Peter Piek.
He married Charmaine Myrna (née du Toit) in 2009.
11th Duke of Atholl
John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl (19 January 1929 – 15 May 2012) was a South African-born hereditary peer of the Peerage of Scotland, hereditary Clan Chief of Clan Murray, and Colonel-in-Chief of the Atholl Highlanders. As Duke of Atholl, he commanded the only legal private army in Europe.
The Duke was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, as the only child of Major George Murray (1884–1940) and Joan (d. 2000), the daughter of William Edward Eastwood, of South Africa. They were married on 17 January 1928. His father was killed on active service in the Second World War.
He was the grandson of Reverend Douglas Stuart Murray, Rector of Blithfield, Staffordshire, who was the grandson of the Right Reverend George Murray, who was the son of the Right Reverend Lord George Murray, the second son of John Murray, 3rd Duke of Atholl.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, a leading South African University.
After taking his degree, Murray worked as a land surveyor.
On 15 December 1956 in Pretoria, he married Margaret "Peggy" Yvonne Leach (born Louis Trichardt, 8 July 1935), the only daughter of Ronald Leonard Leach of Louis Trichardt, Transvaal, South Africa (Pretoria, 31 August 1910 - Louis Trichardt, 18 December 1964) and wife (Lovedale Park, Louis Trichardt) Faith Kleinenberg (Louis Trichardt, 20 July 1913 - Louis Trichardt, 11 June 1968) and paternal granddaughter of Charles Ronald Leach (Whittlesea, 26 March 1887 - Eshowe, 7 December 1953) and first wife Louise Adelaide Zeederberg ( - Whittlesea, 5 June 1922).
They had three children:
Lady Jennifer Murray (born 8 February 1958), who married firstly Iain Purdon in 1979 (divorced 1985) and secondly Martin Glodek. By her first husband she has two children:
Grant Clive Purdon (born 1981) and
Charlene Purdon (born 1983).
Bruce Murray, now 12th Duke of Atholl (born 6 April 1960), who was educated at Saasveld Forestry College and in 1984 married Lynne Elizabeth Andrew, the first daughter of Nicholas Andrew, of Bedfordview, South Africa. They have three children:
Michael Bruce John Murray, Marquess of Tullibardine (born 5 March 1985), who is a sports science student at the University of Pretoria. The 12th Duke lives in South Africa and is a volunteer member of the South African Defence Force (Transvaal Scottish Regiment) as well as an officer of the Atholl Highlanders.;
Lord David Nicholas George Murray (born 31 January 1986); and
Lady Nicole Murray (born 11 July 1987), who is married to Peter Piek.
Lord Craig John Murray (born 1963), who in 1988 married Inge Bakker, the second daughter of Auke Bakker, of Bedfordview, South Africa. They have two children:
Carl Murray (born 1993) and
Shona Murray (born 1995).
On the death of his kinsman George Murray, 10th Duke of Atholl, Murray succeeded as 11th Duke. However, the day before the death of the 10th Duke, it was announced that he had given his ancestral seat of Blair Castle and most of his estates to a charitable trust, thus effectively disinheriting his heir. He had been unimpressed when his heir had indicated he had no desire to leave South Africa for Scotland. The new Duke thus inherited little but the titles and the right to raise a private army.
Atholl continued to live in South Africa, while making annual visits to Scotland. He died on 15 May 2012 in a South African hospital at the age of 83. He was succeeded in his titles by his elder son, Bruce Murray, Marquess of Tullibardine.
The Last Dukes, BBC Two
Dukedoms are created by the monarch for reasons ranging from a grateful nation rewarding a major war leader to a king acknowledging his illegitimate son. The last dukedom to be created was by Queen Victoria. As they gradually become extinct, what will become of those that remain? Do they still have power and wealth? What is it to be a duke in the 21st century?
Answers come from a surprising variety of extraordinary characters - the Duke of Marlborough and his aunt, born Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill, who remembers being brought up in Blenheim Palace with 36 indoor servants, and the Duke of Atholl, who until 2012 was a rural South African sign-maker called Bruce Murray - on succeeding to the dukedom he now heads the only private army in Europe - the Atholl Highlanders.
The Duke of Montrose is a Scottish hill farmer and a politician, one of the few dukes who still sit in the House of Lords. The Duchess of Rutland made dozens of people redundant when she took over Belvoir Castle, but is determined to make it an efficient business.
The Duke and Duchess of St Albans don't have a stately pile, but do have their coronets and coronation robes. The duke's heir Charles Beauclerk is fascinated by the history of mental illness in the family. And if Camilla Osborne had been a boy, she would have become the 11th Duke of Leeds. But she wasn't and the dukedom is now extinct. Where does that leave her?
Modern Times: The Last Dukes, BBC Two, review: 'over-egged'
The film’s insistence that British dukes are a dying breed felt exaggerated, says Gerard O'Donovan
By Gerard O'Donovan10:01PM GMT 26 Oct 2015
The decline of the English aristocracy is a current TV obsession. Downton Abbey has spent much of its swansong series frothing about it. Modern Times: The Last Dukes took a more contemporary view, exploring the 21st-century lives of members of the nobility’s highest rank below royalty and their imminent “extinction”.
Things got off to a somewhat predictable start with a peek at the splendours of Blenheim Palace, seat of the dukes of Marlborough since 1722. Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill recalled how being a duke’s daughter put her “top of the pile” to be a maid of honour at the Queen’s coronation in 1953. And how she and her parents had never even spoken of it because, in those days, one “had lots of very grand things that happened all the time”. How times have changed.
Bruce Murray’s experience was rather different. Until recently a sign-maker from an “obscure provincial town” in South Africa, in 2012 he inherited the title of 12th Duke of Atholl, along with a private army and an obligation to dress up in a kilt at Blair Castle once a year.
Strangely, the vexed question of primogeniture – dukedoms can only be passed down through the male line – didn’t ruffle many feathers in Michael Waldman’s film. The three daughters of the Duke of Rutland, for instance, were perfectly content that their younger brother Charles would inherit everything, including the stunning Belvoir Castle.
The Duchess of Rutland and her daughters Lady Eliza Manners, Lady Alice Manners and Lady Violet Manners (Photo: BBC/Spun Gold TV)
In the meantime the other dukes featured – of Montrose, St Albans and Marlborough – all seemed to be perfectly content with their lot. And while perhaps not rolling in the vast wealth and grandeur they might once have considered a birthright, they didn’t seem to be doing too badly. Curiously no mention was made of the thriving Duke of Westminster, one of the UK’s wealthiest landowners.
The 8th Duke of Montrose, in Robes for State Opening of Parliament in his House of Lords Office (Photo: BBC/Spun Gold TV)
As such, charming and fascinating as these glimpses into the still-privileged lives of others were, the film’s dogged insistence that British dukes were “a dying breed” did feel over-egged. At the outset we learnt that in 1953 there were 28 non-royal dukes. Now, 62 years on, there are 24. At that rate of attrition it could take centuries for the rank to die out. Rumours of extinction, one couldn’t help feeling, were greatly exaggerated.
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Message from Jeeves / Revista DOZE.
Revista DOZE , published an article / profile , kindly giving me the opportunity to express my views and definitions around aesthetics, style , the principles of my garderobe and its connection with the decor of my interiors, the fundamental differences between the Gentleman and the Dandy, enfin, my aesthetic philosophy of Life and its role in the great mystery of Existence.
Greetings Jeeves / António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho / Architectural Historian
PHOTOS: Michael Floor.
Link to the site where you can read the article online
PHOTOS: Michael Floor.
Link to the site where you can read the article online
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Jeeves will be away ... for a period of 10 days.
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JEEVES is BACK!! / "Remains of the Day"
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Florence Foster Jenkins - Queen of the Night by Mozart.
Florence Foster Jenkins (July 19, 1868 – November 26, 1944) was an American socialite and amateur operatic soprano who was known and ridiculed for her lack of rhythm, pitch, and tone; her aberrant pronunciation; and her generally poor singing ability.
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Two days following the Carnegie Hall concert, while shopping at G. Schirmer's Music Store, Jenkins suffered a heart attack. She died a month later, on November 26, 1944, at the age of 76 at her Manhattan residence, the Hotel Seymour in New York City.
Born Nascina Florence Foster in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Mary Jane (née Hoagland 1851–1930) and Charles Dorrance Foster (1836–1909). She had one sibling, a sister named Lillian, who died at age 8 in 1883. She dropped her first name and went by her middle name, Florence, during her formative years. Her father was a lawyer, and his family was wealthy and owned land near Back Mountain, Pennsylvania.
Jenkins received piano lessons as a child and, after becoming a child prodigy pianist, performed all over the state of Pennsylvania, appearing in Sängerfests and even at the White House during the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes.
Upon graduating from high school, she expressed a desire to go abroad to study music, but her wealthy father refused to pay the bill, so she retaliated and eloped with Dr. Frank Thornton Jenkins (1852–1917) and they moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were married around 1885.
Shortly after their marriage, Jenkins contracted syphilis from her husband and Dr. Jenkins was never mentioned again. It is not known whether they obtained a divorce or separated, but she kept his family name as her own.
Shortly after their marriage, Jenkins contracted syphilis from her husband and Dr. Jenkins was never mentioned again. It is not known whether they obtained a divorce or separated, but she kept his family name as her own.
Jenkins earned a living in Philadelphia as a piano teacher, but after suffering an arm injury, she had no means to support herself and lived in near poverty. She was very close to her mother, Mary, who came to Foster's rescue and the two eventually moved to New York City around 1900. It is then that she decided to become a singer. In 1909, she met a British Shakespearean actor named St. Clair Bayfield (later her manager) and they later legalized the relationship in a common-law marriage that would last the rest of her life.
When her father died in 1909, Jenkins inherited sufficient funds to begin her long-delayed career in music. She took voice lessons and became involved in the musical social circles of New York City, where she founded and funded her own club, The Verdi Club. She became a member of dozens of women's clubs – literary, historical, etc. and she became Director of Music for many of these, as well as their producer of tableaux-vivants.
The best-known photograph of Jenkins shows her wearing angelic wings. This costume was designed for a tableau-vivant she produced, based on the painting Stephen Foster and the Angel of Inspiration by Howard Chandler Christy. It was also said that in every group of tableaux-vivants that she produced for the clubs, she would always be the main character in the final tableau of the group. She began giving recitals in 1912, when she was in her early 40s. Her mother Mary died in New York City at the Park Central Hotel in 1930, after which Jenkins inherited additional resources to continue her singing career.
From her recordings it is apparent that Jenkins had little sense of pitch or rhythm, and was barely capable of sustaining a note. Her accompanist, Cosmé McMoon, can be heard making adjustments to compensate for her tempo variations and rhythmic mistakes. Her dubious diction, especially in foreign languages, is also noteworthy. In retrospect, her difficulties have at least partially been attributed to her ongoing battle with syphilis, which caused progressive deterioration of her central nervous system. The ravages of her disease were compounded by side effects from poisonous mercury and arsenic treatments—the only therapy available for syphilis at the time. No effective treatment existed until the discovery of penicillin; by the time it became generally available, Jenkins' disease had progressed to the tertiary stage, which is unresponsive even to antibiotics.
Despite the vocal and musical inaccuracies of her performances, which took place mostly at small salons or recital halls, Jenkins became popular for the amusement she unwittingly provided. Audience members sometimes described her technique in an "intentionally ambiguous" way that may have served to pique public curiosity; for example, "Her singing at its finest suggests the untrammeled swoop of some great bird." Her audiences were by invitation only, and until her final performance at Carnegie Hall, no professional music critics ever reviewed her performances in the legitimate press. Favorable articles and bland reviews in musical publications, such as The Musical Courier, were most likely written by her friends, or herself.
Jenkins' lifelong need to perform began when she was seven years old, and she reportedly remained firmly convinced of her talent throughout her life. She compared herself favorably to the renowned sopranos Frieda Hempel and Luisa Tetrazzini, and dismissed the abundant audience laughter during her performances as "hoodlums ... planted by her rivals." She was aware of her detractors, but never let them stand in her way: "People may say I can't sing," she said, "but no one can ever say I didn't sing."
Her recitals featured a mixture of the standard operatic repertoire by Mozart, Verdi, and Johann Strauss (all well beyond her technical ability); Lieder by Brahms; Valverde's "Clavelitos" ("Little Carnations"– a favorite encore), and songs composed by herself or accompanist Cosmé McMoon.
Jenkins often wore elaborate costumes that she designed for herself, sometimes appearing in wings and tinsel, and, for "Clavelitos", throwing flowers into the audience from a basket (on one occasion, she hurled the basket as well) while fluttering a fan and sporting more flowers in her hair. After at least one "Clavelitos" performance the audience demanded that she sing it again, compelling McMoon to collect the flowers from the audience for the encore.
While riding in a taxi, it collided with another car and Jenkins let out a scream. She then discovered that she could sing "a higher F than ever before", and sent the cab driver a box of expensive cigars.
In spite of public demand, Jenkins restricted her rare performances to clubs and the Grand Ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel where she would give a recital annually in October. Attendance was limited to her loyal clubwomen and a select few others; she handled distribution of the coveted tickets herself, carefully excluding professional critics. At the age of 76 she finally yielded to public demand and performed at Carnegie Hall on October 25, 1944. Tickets for the event sold out weeks in advance and numerous celebrities attended, such as dancer and actress Marge Champion, song writer Cole Porter, composer Gian-Carlo Menotti, actress Kitty Carlisle and soprano Lily Pons with her husband, conductor André Kostelanetz (who composed a song for Jenkins to sing that night). Since this was her first "public" appearance, newspaper critics could not be prevented from attending. Their scathing, sarcastic reviews devastated Jenkins, according to Bayfield.
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"Marguerite" Directed by Xavier Giannoli / Catherine Frot Meilleure actrice Cesar 2016
Marguerite is a 2015 drama film directed by Xavier Giannoli and written by Giannoli and Marcia Romano, loosely inspired by the life of Florence Foster Jenkins. Set in the Golden Twenties, the film stars Catherine Frot as a socialite and aspiring opera singer who believes she has a beautiful voice. The film is an international co-production between France, the Czech Republic, and Belgium. Marguerite received eleven nominations at the 41st César Awards, winning for Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, and Best Production Design.
Directed by Xavier Giannoli
Produced by
Artemio Benki
Olivier Delbosc
Marc Missonnier
Written by
Xavier Giannoli
Marcia Romano
Starring Catherine Frot
Music by Ronan Maillard
Cinematography Glynn Speeckaert
Edited by Cyril Nakache
Production
companies
La Banque Postale 8
Canal+
CNC
Eurimages
Fidélité Films
France 3 Cinéma
France Télévisions
Scope Pictures
Sirena Film
Distributed by
Memento Films Distribution (France)
ArtCam (Czech Republic)
Release dates
4 September 2015 (Venice)
16 September 2015 (France)
24 September 2015 (Czech Republic)
Running time
128 minutes
Country
France
Czech Republic
Belgium
Language French
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Marguerite Official Trailer 1 (2015) - Catherine Frot, André Marcon Movi...
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Adeline, Countess of Cardigan and Lancastre
Adeline, Countess of Cardigan and Lancastre
Adeline Louisa Maria, Countess of Cardigan and Lancastre (December 24, 1824, to May 25, 1915), was the second wife of English peer James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan and later the wife of the Portuguese nobleman Don António Manuel de Saldanha e Lancastre, Conde de Lancastre. She was the author of scandalous memoirs, My Recollections, published in 1909, under the name Adeline Louisa Maria de Horsey Cardigan and Lancastre, though strictly speaking she was not allowed by the rules governing the British peerage to join her former and current titles together. Her book detailed events and people coupled with gossip concerning the establishment of Victorian England. After her marriage to the Earl of Cardigan in 1858, Queen Victoria had refused to have her at court because Cardigan had left his first wife.
Adeline was born near Berkeley Square, London, the first child and only daughter of Admiral Spencer Horsey Kilderbee and his wife, Lady Louisa Maria Judith (daughter of John Rous, 1st Earl of Stradbroke). From 1832, her father took the surname "de Horsey", after his mother's maiden name. Her younger brothers were Algernon Frederick Rous de Horsey and William Henry Beaumont de Horsey. She made her entry into society in 1842, and became engaged to Infante Carlos, Count of Montemolin, the Carlist claimant to the Spanish throne, in 1848.
Rumours spread after she was frequently seen riding without a chaperone in the company of seventh Earl of Cardigan, who famously led the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, and was a friend of her father. The Earl was still married to the former Mrs. Elizabeth Tollemache Johnstone, whom Cardigan had married in 1826, after she was divorced by another army officer, Lt. Col. Christian Johnstone, although Cardigan was separated from his wife since 1837. Criticism from her father caused her to leave home in 1857. After a period in a hotel, she took a furnished house in Norfolk Street, Park Lane, and became the Earl of Cardigan's mistress. After the Earl's wife died in July, 1858, the couple sailed away together on the Earl's yacht and married in Gibraltar on September 28, 1858. She was shunned by polite society, but was an accomplished musician and horsewoman, and acknowledged as a leading courtesan. She was left a life interest in the Cardigan estates on her husband's death in March, 1868.
After she was widowed,the Countess of Cardigan received a number of marriage proposals, one of which came from Benjamin Disraeli, whom she had known all her life. She reported that although she liked him very well, he had one drawback - his bad breath. She decided not to marry Disraeli and shortly after, while holidaying in Paris met and became engaged to a Portuguese nobleman, Don Antonio Manuelo, Count de Lancastre, a descendant of John of Gaunt. They were married at the Roman Catholic Chapel, King Street, Portman Square on the 28th August 1873. Against usual custom, she merged her former title as an English dowager countess with her new title as wife of a Portuguese conde, and styled herself the Countess of Cardigan and Lancastre. When first married the couple lived in England however the Count, who suffered from chronic bronchitis was unable to tolerate the English fogs and winter weather. He was also bored by country life, preferring to live in Paris. In 1879 however the Countess realised she needed to return to England as her estates were suffering from her absence. The marriage lasted until the Count's death from bronchitis in 1898 and, although the Countess regularly travelled to the continent to visit her husband, they did not live together after 1879.
Her title as Countess of Lancastre caused displeasure to Queen Victoria, who liked to travel incognito in Europe as "Countess of Lancaster."
She became more eccentric in old age. As a widow, she scandalised society by wearing thick make-up and organizing steeplechases through the local graveyard "and became everyone's idea of a merry widow." She kept her coffin in the house, she would often lie in it, asking for opinions on her appearance. Eventually her profligate spending led to bankruptcy which forced the sale of many of her clothes, carriages and horses. She was often seen, locally, cycling clad in her first husband's regimental trousers. She smoked cigarettes in public at a time when it was considered improper for a lady to do so. She died at Deene Park and was buried near her first husband in the Deene parish church.
A character who may have been very loosely based on her was portrayed in the 1968 film, The Charge of the Light Brigade.
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How To Be Chap by Gustav Temple
How To Be Chap
Published on March 15th, 2016
The Chap has created the greatest tome on how to become a Chap, ever. How To Be Chap is published by Berlin-based English-language publisher Gestalten, whose stable already includes such chappish titles as I Am Dandy and From Tip To Toe – The Essential Men’s Wardrobe.
How To Be Chap is a sumptuous, heavily illustrated coffee table book spanning the first fifteen years of the Chap’s existence, as a magazine, a lifestyle, a social group, a series of events and protests and ultimately a collection of extremely well-dressed and amusing people. Large-format photographs document such key events in the history of this cult movement, from the very first Chap protest, Civilise the City in 2001, to the most recent, the Give Three-Piece a Chance protest outside Abercrombie & Fitch on Savile Row.
How To Be Chap sets out to document and record every area of a Chap’s life, from what he has for breakfast to where he goes on holiday. The modern-day Grand Tour is recommended, in which a Chap must acquire essential gentlemanly accoutrements from various locations around the globe. The key Chappish writers, from both sides of the Atlantic, are all profiled, along with the top ten cinema films a Chap should have in his collection. His home, his pets, his marriage and his approach to childcare are all examined in thorough detail, with lavish photography and illustration throughout.
Photographs and text revisit the Chap’s many fashion plates, taken in such diverse locations as Gunpowder Mills, Essex and Brighton’s Peter Pan crazy golf course. The key figures in the Chap movement, from Vic Darkwood to Fleur de Guerre and Michael Attree, are profiled, along with Chap interviewees such as Sir Patrick Moore, Chris Eubank and Gilbert & George. If you have followed the Chap for the last 15 years and wish to reflect on those years and what they meant to you, or if you are new to the term “Chappish” and wish to inform yourself, you will not find a more suitable tome than this.
10 Questions with Chap Expert Gustav Temple
The Co-Editor of Our New Book Explains How to be Chap
Posted by Gestalten—03/2016
Style authority Gustav Temple co-founded the British magazine The Chap in 1999 to celebrate the classic English gentleman and save our world from sartorial collapse. In our recent release How to be Chap, for which Temple served as co-editor, we follow the definitive Chap expert as he explores how a chap dresses, where he goes on vacation, which sports he plays (cricket) and which ones he doesn’t (everything else). Get to know Gustav Temple in our interview below and in our new book How to be Chap.
You have edited the eponymous Chap magazine for years. How and when did you decide to write a book?
Having produced The Chap for fifteen years, I thought it was time to set the whole story down in book form. It has been a very eventful 15 years, filled with public events, protests against contemporary culture, the growing of the chap Olympics, and the many people who have passed through the pages of The Chap either as photographed models or in written form.
Is a person born a Chap or can you become a Chap?
Anyone can become a Chap. The book points out the differences between gentlemen of the past and the modern-day chap and how accidents like birth, blood, nationality, race, and even gender make no difference whatsoever towards becoming a Chap.
How long have you been a Chap?
Since the day I first looked around me at the world and thought, “These people aren’t very well dressed. Someone needs to take a good look at gentlemen’s clothing from the past to the present and make sure nothing is thrown out in the rush for everyone to become trendy and cool.” That must have been when I was about 12.
What can you tell us about the Chap Olympiad?
It is an annual celebration of sporting ineptitude. It is a competition in which the losers and pathetically non-athletic in life can shine for one day—as long as they are extremely well-dressed. The Chap Olympiad rewards immaculate trousers, well-groomed hair, and perfectly-knotted cravats rather than sporting prowess. The events are impossible to win unless one uses caddish cunning and aristocratic skullduggery.
What is the best thing about being a Chap?
Knowing that you are dressing in a way that is both timeless and setting higher standards for the future; knowing that your presence is likely to be welcomed and even celebrated wherever you may go; knowing that you are making a difference to society—a social and sartorial difference.
Can you tell us some Do’s and Don’ts for Chaps?
The Do’s: always wear at least one article of clothing made from tweed; try to be polite to all people at all times; practice raising your hat and one of your eyebrows rakishly—keep everything else on your face and your clothing absolutely still; shake hands when it seems most inappropriate—for example with your doctor or dentist.
The Don’ts: wear sports clothing unless you are doing sport; participate in any sport other than cricket; leave the house with an open-collared shirt; modify your behaviour according to whom you are speaking to—treat everyone with equal good manners and respect; accept low standards; set foot in Starbucks or McDonalds; dress down for an occasion—always dress up and aim to be the best-dressed person there.
How does a typical day for a Chap look?
A Chap’s day begins rather late, for he usually rises no earlier than midday. After breakfast, it is time to go in search of the day’s first cocktail. Events after that can sometimes become rather blurred, but he will eventually end up in the premises of one or more of his tailors—and possibly his glove maker, depending on the time of year. In the winter, a Chap spends a lot of time choosing a new umbrella.
What can you tell us about the Chap-led protest of Savile Row’s Abercrombie and Fitch? Why was the store’s opening important?
The opening of Abercrombie and Fitch on Savile Row signified both the end of an era—300 years of bespoke tailoring on one London street—and the beginning of a new era of big chain stores dominating the entire world. We felt that somebody had to take a stand against this and make the point that capital cities benefit from tourism precisely because they have unusual things to offer tourists like Savile Row—not because they have a few chain stores selling ripped T-shirts and overpriced hoodies for middle-aged men.
What surprising interests align themselves with being a Chap? What might surprise someone about Chaps?
It might surprise someone to see how diverse chaps are. They might expect to see a load of middle-aged white men in tweed jackets, but the truth would be a lot more variety both in types of people and their clothing. We believe that the Chap style is actually far more varied and individual than the way most people dress today. Someone encountering a group of Chaps for the first time would be struck by how different each Chap or Chapette looks. They might also be surprised at how decadent they are; because Chaps adopt the social and dietary habits of 50-100 years ago, this makes them seem rather hedonistic by today’s standards.
What advice would you give to youngsters thinking of being Chaps themselves?
Firstly, I would advise them of course to read How to be Chap from cover to cover, where they will get all the sartorial, social and lifestyle tips they will need in order to conduct a complete overhaul of how they currently live. Secondly, they will have to throw all their hoodies, T-shirts, jeans, trainers, and baseball caps into the dustbin. Thirdly, they will have to learn to avoid all high-street shops and locate the nearest tailor’s premises, as well as the nearest selection of vintage shops in which their clothes can be bought. If they are women, they will have to learn quite complicated skills with make-up and hair styling—but there are plenty of examples to copy in the book, which features just as many photographs of splendidly-attired ladies as it does of gentlemen.
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10 Ways To Be Parisian with Caroline De Maigret
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How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are / Caroline De Maigret / VIDEO: On French Style And How To Dress Well | Inside The W...
From four stunning and accomplished French women -- at last -- a fresh and spirited take on what it really means to be a Parisienne: how they dress, entertain, have fun and attempt to behave themselves.
In short, frisky sections, these Parisian women give you their very original views on style, beauty, culture, attitude and men. The authors--Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan, Caroline de Maigret, and Sophie Mas -- unmarried but attached, with children -- have been friends for years. Talented bohemian iconoclasts with careers in the worlds of music, film, fashion and publishing, they are untypically frank and outspoken as they debunk the myths about what it means to be a French woman today. Letting you in on their secrets and flaws, they also make fun of their complicated, often contradictory feelings and behavior. They admit to being snobs, a bit self-centered, unpredictable but not unreliable. Bossy and opinionated, they are also tender and romantic.
You will be taken on a first date, to a party, to some favorite haunts in Paris, to the countryside, and to one of their dinners at home with recipes even you could do -- but to be out with them is to be in for some mischief and surprises. They will tell you how to be mysterious and sensual, look natural, make your boyfriend jealous, and how they feel about children, weddings and going to the gym. And they will share their address book in Paris for where to go: At the End of the Night, for A Birthday, for a Smart Date, A Hangover, for Vintage Finds and much more.
How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are will make you laugh as you slip into their shoes to become bold and free and tap into your inner cool.
Caroline de Maigret on Her New Book, How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are
Sarah Mower
SEPTEMBER 2, 2014 6:00 AM
by SARAH MOWER
De Maigret, in a Rag & Bone T-shirt and Chanel trousers, at home in Paris’s Pigalle neighborhood with her son, Anton.
Sittings Editor: Azza Yousif
Hair: Tomoko Ohama; Makeup: Alice Ghendrih
In an ideal world, I would be Caroline de Maigret. During the hustle of the shows, she’s one of the few women I bother to stare at—a 39-year-old loping around in the sort of mannish clothes I love (jackets, shirts, and pants galore). Karl Lagerfeld co-opted her as one of Chanel’s ambassadors; Lancôme has just asked her to package her mystique into a makeup line. Part aristocrat, part rock chick (she and her partner, Yarol Poupaud, own Bonus Tracks Records, a music-production company), she’s the living epitome of a Frenchwoman of substance—far more riveting with age and experience than she was earlier in her career as a model in New York in the nineties.
Now she’s authored one of those snatch-uppable books of the “French secrets” genre: How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are: Love, Style, and Bad Habits (Doubleday), co-written with three of her girlfriends—writer Anne Berest, journalist and screenwriter Audrey Diwan, and movie producer Sophie Mas. It’s a compendium of essays on everything from dealing with men and ignoring fashion to being melancholy, the art of nakedness, and what to shut up about. I opened it, and two pearls of wisdom smacked me in the eye on the first page alone. One: “Don’t be afraid of aging.” And two: “Always be fuckable”—even when you’re standing in line to buy a baguette. Oh, my goodness. We were in for an interesting conversation.
I met de Maigret during Paris Couture Week at the Hôtel Amour, not far from the place she shares with Poupaud and their eight-year-old son. She arrived, hair still slightly damp (Parisians never blow-dry—and like to claim they cut their hair themselves), wearing a perfect navy velvet blazer, a white shirt (three buttons undone), skinny blue jeans, and Stan Smiths. The jacket, she said, was “Thomsen—she’s a young Parisian designer who doesn’t have shows. It’s never too much, but it always has this little twist.” The shirt? She shrugged. “Céline, I think.” It’s a central tenet of Parisian dressing that, although one looks impeccably on point, label-flashing is out.
Another first principle, she advises me, is to grasp the essential idea that you never know when something will happen to you. “I believe you should always be ready to meet someone, whether it is your favorite writer or the man of your life. I don’t mean just physically ready—you’ve read, you’ve listened to music. You see—realistic, but still romantic.”
It’s the sort of thing passed down to her by her mother, a former French swimming champion. “It’s the best advice I’ve ever had: always to be proud.” I nodded weakly. Where I come from, just across the English Channel, mothers instruct us never to be caught out without “decent” underwear—“in case you get knocked down in the street.”
De Maigret, who spends one week each month in New York, is also a sharp observer of cultural differences. “Looking for perfection, as Americans do, is a lack of self-confidence,” she said. “I’m always surprised how guilty women feel not to be perfect. It must be hard to live every day.”
Still, there was a glint in her eye as she continued: “There is no woman in Paris who has ever had surgery. Not one.” And then: “There is no guilt in lying about little things. Like dieting, like surgery. We just don’t talk about these things.” She shrugged. “It’s boring.” In the view of de Maigret and her circle of friends, “We don’t want people to think we have spent an hour doing our hair when we should be reading.”
I liked her even more as she delivered some parting words about French sexual politics: “Let the man be a man and the woman be a woman,” she said. “We have to understand rights, but at the same time we want gallantry. It’s manners, but he also makes you feel like this desirable woman, and he feels like a man.” Then she leaned forward. “There’s also something about not pleasing men. It’s about doing whatever you want, and he has to follow.”
Caroline de Maigret's book
La Ville Lumière
An excerpt from How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are: Love, Style, and Bad Habits
1:00 p.m.: First Date at the Café de Flore
She picks up the menu. Each time, the same thought crosses her mind: In her hands, this is more of a geographical map, an intimate and chaotic path through the jungle of her culinary neuroses, than a restaurant menu. She will have to battle her way without stumbling, and without looking like she’s asking herself too many questions.
Smoked salmon
No, wrong choice. She’ll just end up using the salmon as a pretext for eating all the blinis and crème fraîche. Her greed could end up on her hips.
Does this man sitting across from her realize how difficult it is to be a woman in this city? Probably not. But she doesn’t want to judge him too quickly.
Haricots verts salad
The problem with a first date is that her every gesture will take on a particular meaning. He’s watching her as if he’s filming her, recording her movements forever: the way in which she loses her phone in her large handbag, and that message on her voice mail she can’t help listening to in front of him. He is analyzing her. Disorganized, a tad nervous, compulsively sociable. One day, later on, he will find out that she weighs herself every morning, but for now, he must believe that her figure is simply nature’s gift. Better to choose a real dish, giving him the hackneyed image of a bon vivant and letting him believe that this is her approach to all the great pleasures of life.
Warm duck confit?
Her finger, somewhat nervously, scrawls down several lines on this damned menu. The waiter is coming over, and she knows she will have to come to a decision. And so she figures she will brave the danger with an act of courage. She will choose something adventurous:
“Welsh rarebit,” she says.
She reads out the foreign words so casually you’d think she’d done it a hundred times before. The man opposite her looks up, surprised, and she savors the effect. Of course, she has no idea what she’s just ordered. On the menu, in small print, it says: “a specialty made from cheddar, beer, and toast.” Inwardly she smiles: inedible. No matter, she will talk enough for him not to notice that she’s ignoring her plate. The waiter then turns to the man.
“I’ll have the same, please,” he says.
In a flash, the whole scene crumbles. A sheep, a follower. Suddenly she realizes that his conversation has been peppered with banalities for the past half hour. She now knows she’ll eat two bites, then find a reason to leave before the hour is up. And she will never see him again. Adieu.
Adapted from the book How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are: Love, Style, and Bad Habits © Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan, Caroline de Maigret, and Sophie Mas. Published by Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
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The Escape and Evasion Maps.
Escape and Evasion Maps, also called silk maps or cloth maps, are maps made for servicemen to be used in case of capture or being caught behind enemy lines. Developed during World War II, these maps were used by many American and British servicemen to escape from behind enemy lines. These maps could be used without a rustle or crackling. They could also be hidden inside cloth uniforms, such as in a seam or inside a collar, that wouldn't betray their existence during a frisking or inspection. The silk maps could also be used to patch clothes, filter water, make a sling for an injured arm or to make a bandage. They could also be used to blow the nose. "The Allies needed to be able to print their clandestine maps on a material that would be hardier than paper -- material that wouldn't tear or dissolve in water and that would be light enough for the user to pack into a boot or cigarette packet at a moment's notice. (Silk maps, which have long been in use among militaries, have the added advantage that they don't make noise as they're being held or stored -- an important attribute, when you're a prisoner in search of escape.)”
The British were the first to use cloth maps during World War II. They produced a rather odd series of burlap maps for the Royal Air Force on canvas backing. Teams of women used colored burlap thread, and created realistic landscapes of the areas of interest. These maps helped familiarize the pilots and navigators with terrain feature when on bombing runs over the continent. A good team could complete a ten foot square of canvas and burlap in about three days.
Most of the American maps supplied by the Army Map Service from World War II were actually printed on rayon acetate materials, and not silk. However, because of the silky texture of the materials, they were referred to by the more familiar textile name.
"When you look at these maps the unusual materials are perhaps the first thing you notice. During WWII hundreds of thousands of maps were produced by the British on thin cloth and tissue paper. The idea was that a serviceman captured or shot down behind enemy lines should have a map to help him find his way to safety if he escaped or, better still, evade capture in the first place. A map like this could be concealed in a small place (a cigarette packet or the hollow heel of a flying boot), did not rustle suspiciously if the captive was searched and, in the case of maps on cloth or mulberry leaf paper, could survive wear and tear and even immersion in water. The scheme was soon extended to cover those who had already been captured, although a certain amount of ingenuity was required to get the maps into the POW camps."
Many of these maps were also used in clandestine wartime activities. Several of these maps, for example, were issued to Oliver Churchill, a member of the Special Operations Executive or SOE, for his activities in Italy.
"After Christopher Hutton got the cartographic source, he needed a medium on to which he could printed the maps, such that they were quiet to unfold, would not disintegrate when wet, and maintained their integrity when folded at the crease line and could be concealed in very small places. After many attempts to print on silk squares, he was about to give up. Then he thought of adding Pectin, a form of wax, to the ink such that it does not run or wash out when put in water, or even sea water. Clayton Hutton printed escape maps on silk, man-made fiber and tissue paper. The tissue paper was very special, in that it was not made from wood pulp like conventional paper, but from Mulberry leaves. This hybrid paper had the texture of onionskin and extreme durability. You could ball of this tissue paper, put it in water and soak it, and then flatten it out without creases. All the integrity of a new map was there, no data faded or disintegrated and you could fold it up in such a fashion that it would occupy a very small space, such as inside a chess piece or inside a record."
There were many difficulties in printing maps on cloth that are not present with printing on paper. Also, the inks used had to be permanent to sun, water, chemicals, etc., so they wouldn't fade and make the map useless. The finished products were able to withstand immersion in salt water for extended periods as well, and were mildew resistant.
Printing on paper was well known, but printing on cloth had special problems. The ink would run on the cloth, or the cloth would crease during the preparation or printing process, or the ink would smear. However, many board game companies were used to printing on linen and other cloth materials, which would then be glued to cardboard portfolios for their game sets. So the government turned to them for help.
The cloth maps were sometimes hidden in special editions of the Monopoly board game sets sent to the prisoners of war camps. The marked game sets also included foreign currency (French and German, for example), compasses and other items needed for escaping Allied prisoners of war. "To develop that kit, MI9, the British secret service unit responsible for escape and evasion, conspired with John Waddington Limited, the U.K. manufacturer of Monopoly. "It was ingenious," Philip Orbanes, author of several books on Monopoly, told Heussner. "The Monopoly box was big enough to not only hold the game but hide everything else they needed to get to POWs."
Hutton was also responsible for the delivery of escape kits to POWs. The Geneva Convention allowed prisoners to receive parcels from families and relief organisations. These were dispatched through a number of fictitious charitable organisations, created to send parcels of games, warm clothing and other small comforts to the prisoners. One of the major problems of captivity was boredom, and games and entertainments were permitted, as the guards recognised that if the prisoners were allowed some diversions, they would be less troublesome. Games manufacturer Waddingtons helped by supplying editions of its Monopoly board game, and other games. Although to date, no examples of any such monopoly boards have surfaced, it is therefore doubtful if the operation to use monopoly as part of escaping tool for POW escapees ever took place. No samples were kept for record purposes in either Waddington or the War office archives and the pictures of such boards currently available are all modern reproductions. Snakes and ladders, table tennis, chess sets and playing cards were used to smuggle in escape kits with hidden maps and other equipment.
Escape maps were also printed on playing cards distributed to Prisoners of War. Only two decks are known to survive from this period. "During World War II, the United States Playing Card Company joined forces with American and British intelligence agencies to create a very special deck of cards. This deck was specifically created to help Allied prisoners of war escape from German POW camps. This deck of cards became known as the “map deck.” It was made by hiding maps of top-secret escape routes between the two paper layers that make up all modern playing cards. These decks, when soaked in water, could be peeled apart to reveal hidden maps that allowed escaping prisoners to find their way to safety. Due to the nature of the war and the prosecution of war crimes thereafter, the map decks remained a closely guarded secret for many years after the war ended. The secrecy surrounding them was so high, that no one really knows how many were produced or how many have survived."
Red Cross parcels were not used because of concerns the Germans would stop these reaching the prisoners if they discovered items hidden in them. The escape kits are credited with helping 316 escape attempts from Colditz Castle, which saw 32 men make it back home.
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INTERMEZZO "Remains of the Day"
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Le Chateau de Champchevrier / VIDEO : Chateau de Champchevrier (reportage France 3)
Le château de Champchevrier est un château de la Loire privé et situé sur la commune de Cléré-les-Pins à 25 kilomètres à l'ouest de Tours et à 15 kilomètres au nord de Langeais.
Au cœur d'un site harmonieusement boisé, le château de Champchevrier est un château historique habité par la même famille depuis 1728, héritière de Jean-Baptiste Pierre Henry de la Ruë du Can, baron de Champchevrier en 1741, et qui résonne encore de son passé royal.
Au Moyen Âge, une forteresse était construite sur ce site, attestée dès 1109
Sur ses ruines au xvie siècle, on éleva un pavillon de style Renaissance dont on peut toujours distinguer aujourd'hui les fenêtres à meneaux caractéristiques. Louis XIII y résida quelques jours en 1619.
Plus tard, sur la façade nord-est, on lui adjoignit un bâtiment xviiie siècle et on construisit la terrasse.
Le site a été classé monument historique en 1945 puis le château a été classé avec ses communs et son parc en 1975.
En val de Loire, au coeur d’un site boisé, se trouve le château de Champchevrier, habité par la même famille depuis le début du XVIIIe siècle.
Sur les fondations d’une ancienne forteresse, la famille de Daillon a construit, au XVIe siècle un élégant logis Renaissance. Cent ans plus tard, est adjoint à ce logis un château de style classique, avec sa terrasse bordée de balustrades ouvrant sur un parc et des douves en eau.
Le domaine est acheté par Jean-Baptiste de la Rue du Can, qui par lettres patentes du Roi Louis XV devient Baron de Champchevrier. Les propriétaires actuels en sont les descendants directs.
Il est traditionnel qu’un château comme Champchevrier héberge des hôtes de marque au premier rang desquels le roi qui a ici son appartement. C’est Louis XIII qui est venu le premier inaugurer « la chambre royale » et c’est François de Daillon, gouverneur du frère du roi, qui l’accueille. C’est certainement le seul château où un roi a « dormi sur la paille ». Les archives de son médecin personnel en font foi. Elles nous apprennent que le roi est arrivé à six heures et demi, a regardé l’étang, a dîné et, « ne pouvant dormir sur un matelas de satin , a fait quérir de la paille fraîche, se met en chemise de dessus et s’endort jusqu’à trois heures et quart. Levé, vêtu, goûté…il prend son arquebuse, va à la basse cour et s’en va tirer des pigeons… » Il n’avait que 18 ans.
Aujourd’hui cette chambre est décorée d’un mobilier Louis XVI dont l’histoire est également originale. Les archives nous racontent qu’en 1787 et 1788 la baronne de Champchevrier et ses deux filles décident de développer la culture du mûrier et l’élevage du ver à soie. Elles récoltent 580 cocons, qu’elles confient à une manufacture de Tour. Celle-ci tisse la soierie et la châtelaine pourra ainsi recouvrir le lit et son baldaquin et tout les fauteuils d’une ravissante soie framboise.
Dans la salle-à-manger actuelle, ou «salle des portraits », le sol est en marbre d’Italie, et les boiseries Louis XV d’un jaune très pâle sont ornées de chinoiseries, animaux exotiques, singes, perroquets et fruits, dans les tons sépia. Une petite porte cachée dans la boiserie ouvre sur le vieux monte-charge qui fonctionne encore de nos jours.
Au fond de la pièce se trouve un grand poêle en céramique datant de 1780, dont le conduit est en forme de canon de marine orné de dauphins et de boulets rattachés par des chaines. Fabriqué par les poêliers du roi, Il était à l’origine une commande royale pour le château de Richelieu et reste une pièce unique.
Dans les deux grands salons, on peut admirer un très beau mobilier d’époque Régence, et un ensemble de tapisseries exceptionnelles : la suite des « Amours des Dieux » et la suite du « Voyage d’Ulysse », d’après des cartons de Simon Vouet, et une autre suite de tapisserie de Beauvais représentant des verdures.
Attirée comme toujours par les greniers et par l’empreinte du temps et des générations successives, je suis montée dans les combles, et là c’est le bonheur pour une amoureuses des souvenirs ; Des dizaines de petites chambres se suivent et un immense couloir qui traverse toute la demeure. J’ouvre toutes les armoires et les malles qui regorgent de rouleaux de papier peint et de tissus du XVIIIe et du XIXe siècle : anciens rideaux des salons, linons blancs brodés, galons, franges, soies.
Dans d’autres malles et dans les placards, des boîtes de cols cassés, de plastrons amidonnés, de livrées, et encore plus précieux -des gilets d’époque Louis XVI en soie et des redingotes pourpres brodés d’or. Dans la lingerie, les draps et les serviettes brodés au chiffre de la famille de Béatrice.
Béatrice Bizard avait 25 ans lorsqu’elle est arrivée à Champchevrier. Sa belle mère était, bien sûr, la maîtresse de maison et gérait le domaine avec son fils Jacques. Petit à petit, elle a apprivoisé la grande maison dont elle a fait un point d’ancrage pour les enfants et leurs cousins. En 1995, un grand tournant a été amorcé avec lorsque Pierre et Béatrice on décider d’ouvrir le château au public durant les trois mois d’été, tout en gardant une partie privée.
Et c’est avec enthousiasme qu’ils ont organisé cette nouvelle vie.
Un rêve de châteaux en Touraine
MICHÈLE LASSEUR - SÉRIE LIMITÉE | LE 13/10/2006
Vieilles familles, nouveaux riches ou amateurs de pierres, les néo-châtelains sont rarement oisifs. Ils se donnent les moyens d'entretenir leur propriété. Beaucoup se battent même pour la rentabiliser. Petit tour de propriétés tourangelles.
« Allons chez-moi », disait familièrement François Ier à ses invités en les invitant à Chambord. N'hésitez pas, acceptez, vous aussi, moyennant quelques euros, l'invitation des derniers propriétaires privés, descendants d'aristocrates, fils de bourgeois ou homme d'affaires. Ils savent se battre pour rentabiliser leur domaine et s'échinent à maintenir en l'état toitures, murailles et allées. Seul moyen d'entretenir le château : abandonner la jouissance partielle des lieux aux touristes. « C'est un travail titanesque », résume le baron Pierre Bizard, sur tous les fronts depuis qu'il a hérité du château de Champchevrier, dans la forêt de Cléré-les-Pins. Il répare les escaliers, les charpentes, les galeries, les fenêtres. Il assure la sécurité, et... oublie ses soucis avec ses 70 chiens de meute, laquelle ouvre la chasse à courre à la Saint-Hubert. Guide au château, Nadine, son épouse, montre les sept tapisseries de la suite Les Amours des dieux. La collection serait la mieux conservée en Europe après celle de Buckingham Palace, selon le baron qui recommande : « Pas de photos des tapisseries. » Sans doute à cause des pilleurs de trésors !
Les touristes n'effraient pas Régis et Violaine de Lussac, propriétaires du château de l'Aubrière, à La Membrolle-sur-Choisille. Ils vivent toute l'année avec leurs cinq enfants dans cette bâtisse Napoléon III qui domine la vallée de la Choisille, à dix minutes de Tours. La comtesse, intarissable sur l'histoire des lieux, énumère la liste des célébrités qui y ont séjourné, comme les princesses Napoléon ou Georges Feydeau, qui y écrivit La Dame de chez Maxim en 1899. Avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, un pharmacien du nom de Dumontier l'habita. « Il a créé ici "La Jouvence de l'abbé Soury"», précise Mme de Lussac. Un pedigree suffisant pour meubler les causeries au coin du feu. Et qui fait un beau livre d'or pour une demeure vouée par nécessité à l'hôtellerie. Restait à « polir » ce bijou de Touraine pour accueillir des hôtes d'une ou de quelques nuits. Violaine a gratté toute seule les parquets de quatre chambres recouverts de moquette. Puis elle s'est attelée à la réfection des salles de bains, « cette fois avec un plombier et un carreleur ». Aujourd'hui, le couple loue huit chambres, Ronsard, Rabelais..., et quatre suites. Les hôtes raffolent des dîners aux chandelles autour de la table d'hôtes. Comtesse, vos beaux plats... aiguisent notre gourmandise. Tout est délicieux, la gentillesse est unique et le choix des desserts original : tulipes avec glaces maison à la lavande, au miel, aux coquelicots, sabayon de fruits. « D'ailleurs, venez voir mon jardin potager. J'achète au château de la Bourdaisière les plants de tomates, une quarantaine de variétés. On les mange. On les regarde aussi. »
La Bourdaisière, voilà le genre d'adresse qu'on aimerait garder secrète. « Il faut être vraiment riche pour reprendre une telle demeure », s'exclama péremptoire, Angélique Carvallo, châtelaine de Villandry venue en voisine quand les deux frères Broglie achetèrent la propriété de 50 hectares qui avait été aménagée en maison de retraite. Louis-Albert de Broglie a quitté un poste confortable à la banque Paribas pour gérer les jardins. « Je voulais faire des affaires en m'amusant », avoue-t-il. Le prince a créé un potager-conservatoire consacré à cinq cents variétés de tomates, aux laitues et aux herbes aromatiques. « Il existe plus de dix mille variétés de tomates recensées et existantes : Rose de Berne, Téton de Vénus, Amour en cage », autant de noms poétiques pour désigner ce fruit qui servait à vilipender les mauvais acteurs au théâtre. Le « prince jardinier » s'emploie donc à conserver des espèces rares et anciennes de ce légume arrivé d'Amérique centrale au xvie siècle grâce aux conquistadores. Le deuxième week-end de septembre, le cercle des « adorateurs » de la tomate se donne rendez-vous à la Bourdaisière pour des dégustations de pommes d'amour, billes minuscules, gros coeurs dorés, chapelets de petites poires, rouges, noires, jaunes... Avec son frère Philippe-Maurice, Louis-Albert propose de séjourner dans le château transformé en maison d'hôtes. Vingt chambres dans cette demeure construite selon le désir de François Ier pour Marie Gaudin, sa belle maîtresse. Elle devint ensuite la résidence préférée de Gabrielle d'Estrées, favorite d'Henri IV. Le vin est aussi à l'honneur puisque Philippe-Maurice a produit cette année 12 000 bouteilles de Château Montlouis sur 3,5 hectares. « Pas d'assemblage de cépage, uniquement du chenin blanc. Suivant les années, nous faisons du sec ou du moelleux », explique le prince, verre en main.
Plaisir de jardins, plaisirs de prince. Ceux du Rivau, à quarante-cinq kilomètres de Tours, ont été classés « Jardin remarquable » par le ministère de la Culture. Le château, avec son donjon, ses tours crénelées et ses mâchicoulis, ses douves, est lié à la célèbre famille de Beauvau, apparentée aux comtes d'Anjou. « La bergère de Donrémy vint y chercher des chevaux d'équipage avant le siège d'Orléans, et Rabelais le fit offrir par Gargantua à son capitaine Tolmère en récompense de ses victoires aux guerres Pichrocolines. » En 1992, Patricia Laigneau, historienne de l'art, tombe sous le charme du château d'architecture pré-Renaissance. Elle persuade son mari de l'acheter. Leur nom est réputé dans l'urbanisme. Le couple, qui ne manque pas d'idées, se fait donc mécène pour le Rivau et entreprend la sauvegarde de ce monument classé depuis 1918. Quelque 1 300 m2 de toiture d'ardoises sont changés, 126 fenêtres sont remplacées avec des modèles de ferronnerie du xve siècle... Cette année, ils s'attaquent aux communs : écuries Renaissance de Philibert Delorme, pédiluve, fontaine à bec de canette, pressoir et granges. Quatre ans de travaux de rénovation en prévision. Mais le grand oeuvre concerne aussi les jardins, reconstitués sur 6 hectares d'après les archives du Rivau.
Lutins, ogres et géants
« Les douze jardins évoquent les légendes merveilleuses », commente Patricia Laigneau. Le potager de Gargantua, la Forêt enchantée, le Bois amoureux, la Cassinina, le chemin du Petit Poucet illustrent l'imaginaire des contes de fées. Lutins, ogres, géants accompagnent les visiteurs. Le sentier des Parfums réunit 325 variétés de roses : anciennes, odorantes, grimpantes, en buisson... « Nous voulons partager ces jardins avec d'autres », explique-t-elle. Des stages « Cuisine et plantes » s'y déroulent, les participants étant logés au château dans des chambres au décor historique. On apprend à cuisiner avec les fleurs et les plantes aromatiques.
Conte de fées en duo ! Angélique de Bouillé a épousé Henri Carvallo, heureux propriétaire de Villandry célèbre dans le monde entier pour ses jardins. Le gendre idéal, poli, réservé, dynamique et ambitieux. Au hasard des siècles, on rencontre dans l'arbre généalogique de la dame Guillaume le Conquérant et Charlotte Corday. Du côté Carvallo, l'arrière-grand-père, Joachim, fit preuve d'audace lorsqu'il se porta acquéreur de Villandry en 1906. « Il a dépensé la fortune de sa femme à restaurer le château. Quand mon père a pris la responsabilité du domaine en 1972, la situation financière était désastreuse, explique Henri. Aujourd'hui Villandry est une entreprise prospère et rentable : pendant les deux mois de fermeture annuelle, nous faisons les travaux de réfection, tous autofinancés. » Chaque année, 450 000 visiteurs viennent admirer le jardin d'ornement, le jardin d'eau en forme de miroir Louis XV, le jardin des simples, ou circuler dans les allées du potager de la Renaissance. Les carrés sont plantés de légumes dont les couleurs alternent entre elles : choux rouge Véronèse ou tête-de-nègre, céleris vert Empire, poireaux argentés et autres citrouilles en automne...
Beaucoup de visiteurs repartent avec des sachets de graines, des plants de rosiers, de buis, des outils et même des tenues de jardinier achetées à la boutique. À Villandry, neuf jardiniers et quelques stagiaires travaillent à temps plein pour tailler les cinquante kilomètres d'ifs et de buis qui enserrent des tapis de fleurs de saison. Pour élaguer les branches de 1 260 tilleuls et repiquer chaque année 250 000 plants de fleurs et de légumes, à l'exception de la pomme de terre, anachronique dans un jardin du xvie siècle.
Le prince diplomate reçut Balzac
« Ne rêvez plus bergères : la vie de château n'est pas de tout repos. » Une phrase que ne démentirait pas la famille Pasquier, propriétaire du château de Rochecotte, la dernière demeure du prince de Talleyrand. Le gravier chuinte sous les pneus. Au bout du capot apparaît une façade xviiie ombragée par un cèdre du Liban deux fois centenaire. Le prince diplomate reçut, dans son fauteuil, Balzac. Quand il n'y avait pas de visite, il admirait le panorama sur la Loire, se promenait en fauteuil roulant dans le parc ou restait dans la bibliothèque qui conserve ses éditions préférées. Gérard Pasquier, entrepreneur à la retraite, s'occupe des jardins (« Je me lève à six heures du matin pour arroser pelouses et parterres »), son épouse Nicole de la gestion. Isabelle, leur fille, surprenante femme de tête de 42 ans, se soucie peu de révérences : « Oui, c'est moi qui cuisine : je vous ai préparé de la caille en terrine. Mes parents ont acheté le château en 1984 : de beaux murs, un beau toit, un parc de 10 hectares et... la chambre de Talleyrand, transformée après sa mort en chapelle. » Elle donne sur une terrasse à l'italienne colorée de glycine où les abeilles butinent. On y prend le petit déjeuner, simple, exquis, digne de son ancien propriétaire.
Xavier et Anne Olivereau, au domaine de la Tortinière, à Montbazon (à quinze minutes de Tours), sont devenus châtelains malgré eux. « Nous avons pris la suite de mes parents », explique Xavier. Construit par Pauline Dalloz, veuve de l'auteur du précis du Code civil, leur château Second Empire n'est pas des plus célèbres mais on s'y sent chez soi. La Tortinière se prélasse dans un parc de 15 hectares qui descend en pente douce jusqu'aux rives de l'Indre. Vieille demeure et idées neuves, le couple a fait du château une entreprise centrée sur deux mots clés : patrimoine et nature. Sa clientèle américaine raffole du cyclotourisme. « Nous leur suggérons des idées de balades "nature" autour de trois châteaux : la Bourdaisière, la Tortinière et Rochecotte », explique Anne. Les cyclistes longent la Loire, les champs de colza, découvrent des papillons pareils aux miniatures de la Renaissance et des oiseaux tout droit sortis des tapisseries du Grand Siècle. Ils peuvent aussi traverser Chinon, visiter le château dont les ruines coiffent la ville, traverser la Vienne, cousine langoureuse de la Loire. Certains vont jusqu'à Amboise et au Clos-Lucé, là où vécut Léonard de Vinci. On peut y voir les dessins de ses inventions prodigieuses et des maquettes de machines. Il y aurait rêvé aux vols des oiseaux, sa grande obsession. Le temps et les hommes n'ont rien enlevé au paysage. Et la lumière est restée la même.
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1964 Alvis TE 21 Drop Head Coupe (Graber) - HD photo slide show with fan...
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ALVIS TD21 Convertible 1961 - Full test drive in top gear - Engine sound...
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The Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd / VIDEO : International Alvis Weekend 2014 Abingdon Market Place
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Alvis 12/70 |
Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd was a British manufacturing company in Coventry from 1919 to 1967. In addition to automobiles designed for the civilian market, the company also produced racing cars, aircraft engines, armoured cars and other armoured fighting vehicles.
Car manufacturing ended after the company became a subsidiary of Rover in 1965, but armoured vehicle manufacture continued. Alvis became part of British Leyland and then in 1982 was sold to United Scientific Holdings, which renamed itself Alvis plc.
The original company, T.G. John and Company Ltd., was founded in 1919 by Thomas George John (1880–1946). Its first products were stationary engines, carburetors and motorscooters. Following complaints from the Avro aircraft company whose logo bore similarities to the original winged green triangle, the more familiar inverted red triangle incorporating the word "Alvis" evolved. On 14 December 1921 the company officially changed its name to The Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd. Geoffrey de Freville (1883–1965) designed the first Alvis engine and is also responsible for the company name.
The origin of the name Alvis has been the subject of a great deal of speculation over the years. Some have suggested that de Freville proposed the name Alvis as a compound of the words "aluminium" and "vis" (meaning "strength" in Latin), or perhaps it may have been derived from the Norse mythological weaponsmith, Alvíss. De Freville however vigorously rejected all of these theories. In 1921 he specifically stated that the name had no meaning whatsoever, and was chosen simply because it could be easily pronounced in any language. He reaffirmed this position in the early 1960s, stating that any other explanations for the source of the name were purely coincidental.
Production was relocated to Holyhead Road in Coventry, where from 1922 to 1923 they also made the Buckingham car. In 1922 George Thomas Smith-Clarke (1884–1960) left his job as assistant works manager at Daimler and joined Alvis as Chief Engineer and Works Manager. Smith-Clarke was accompanied by William M. Dunn, who also left his job as a draughtsman at Daimler to become Chief Draughtsman at Alvis. This partnership lasted for nearly 28 years and was responsible for producing some of the most successful products in the company's history. Smith-Clarke left in 1950, and Dunn assumed Smith-Clarke's position as chief engineer, remaining in that position until 1959.
De Freville's first engine design was a four-cylinder engine with aluminium pistons and pressure lubrication, which was unusual for that time. The first car model using de Freville's engine was the Alvis 10/30. It was an instant success and established the reputation for quality workmanship and superior performance for which the company was to become famous. The original 10/30 side-valve engine was improved, becoming by 1923 the overhead valve Alvis 12/50, a highly successful sports car that was produced until 1932. Around 700 of the 12/50 models and 120 of the later Alvis 12/60 models survive today.
1927 saw the introduction of the six-cylinder Alvis 14.75 and this engine became the basis for the long line of luxurious six-cylinder Alvis cars produced up to the outbreak of the Second World War. These cars were elegant and full of technical innovations. Independent front suspension and the world's first all-synchromesh gearbox came in 1933 followed by servo assisted brakes. The Alvis 12/75 model was introduced in 1928, a model bristling with innovation, such as front-wheel drive, in-board brakes, overhead camshaft and, as an option, a Roots type supercharger.
As with many upmarket engineering companies of the time, Alvis did not produce their own coachwork, relying instead on the many available coachbuilders in the Midlands area, such as Carbodies, Charlesworth Bodies, Cross and Ellis, Duncan Industries (Engineers) Ltd, E. Bertelli Ltd, Grose, Gurney Nutting, Hooper, Lancefield Coachworks, Martin Walter Ltd, Mayfair, Mulliners, Tickford, Vanden Plas, Weymann Fabric Bodies, and William Arnold Ltd. Several cars also survive with quite exotic one-off bodywork from other designers such as Holbrook, a U.S. coachbuilder.[2]
In 1936 the company name was shortened to Alvis Ltd, and aircraft engine and armoured vehicle divisions were added to the company by the beginning of the Second World War. Smith-Clarke designed several models during the 1930s and 1940s, including the six-cylinder Speed 20, the Speed 25, and the Alvis 4.3 Litre model.
Second World War lubrication, which was unusual for that time. The first car model using de Freville's engine was the Alvis 10/30. It was an instant success and established the reputation for quality workmanship and superior performance for which the company was to become famous. The original 10/30 side-valve engine was improved, becoming by 1923 the overhead valve Alvis 12/50, a highly successful sports car that was produced until 1932. Around 700 of the 12/50 models and 120 of the later Alvis 12/60 models survive today.
Car production was initially suspended in September 1939 following the outbreak of war in Europe, but was later resumed and production of the 12/70, Crested Eagle, Speed 25, and 4.3 Litre continued well into 1940. The car factory was severely damaged on 14 November 1940 as a result of several bombing raids on Coventry by the German Luftwaffe, although ironically the armaments factory suffered little damage. Much valuable cutting gear and other equipment was lost and car production was suspended for the duration of the war, only resuming during the latter part of 1946. Despite this, Alvis carried out war production on aircraft engines (as sub-contractor of Rolls-Royce Limited) and other aircraft equipment.
Car production resumed with a four-cylinder model, the TA 14, based on the pre-war 12/70. A solid, reliable and attractive car, the TA 14 fitted well the mood of sober austerity in post war Britain, but much of the magic attaching to the powerful and sporting pre-war models had gone and life was not easy for a specialist car manufacturer. Not only had Alvis lost their car factory but many of the prewar coachbuilders had not survived either and those that had were quickly acquired by other manufacturers. In fact, the post-war history of Alvis is dominated by the quest for reliable and reasonably priced coachwork.
1950s
Smith-Clarke retired in 1950 and Dunn took over as chief engineer. In 1950 a new chassis and six-cylinder 3–litre engine was announced and this highly successful engine became the basis of all Alvis models until production ceased in 1967. Saloon bodies for the TA 21, as the new model was called, again came from Mulliners of Birmingham as they had for the TA 14, with Tickford producing the dropheads. But with the first of these committing themselves in October 1954 to supply only Standard Triumph who purchased it in 1958 and the second being acquired by David Brown owner of Aston Martin Lagonda in late 1955, it was becoming clear that new arrangements would have to be made. Some of the most original and beautiful designs on the 3 Litre chassis were being produced by master coachbuilder Carrosserie Herman Graber of Switzerland and indeed these often one-off–designed cars are highly sought after today. Graber had begun to use TA 14 chassis soon after the war building three Tropic coupés which were much admired. When the Three Litre chassis was introduced his bodies displayed at the Geneva Motor Shows in 1951 and 1952 attracted sufficient interest for Graber to set up a standing order of 30 chassis per year. Swiss-built Graber coupés were displayed on the Alvis stand at both Paris and London Motor Shows in October 1955.
With a licence in place, from late 1955 all Alvis bodies became based on Graber designs however few chassis and few bodies were built over the next two years. Around 15 or 16 TC108/Gs were built by Willowbrook Limited of Loughborough and Willowbrook was subsequently taken over by Duple Coachbuilders. Over the same two years Graber built 22 TC 108Gs and complained that if he had received chassis he would have committed himself to buying 20 a year. Only after late 1958 with the launch of the TD 21 did something resembling full-scale production resume as Rolls-Royce subsidiary Park Ward began to build the new bodies now modified in many small ways. These cars, the TD 21 and its later variants, the TE 21 and finally the TF 21 are well built, attractive and fast cars. However it was clear by the mid-1960s that with a price tag of nearly double that of the mass-produced Jaguar, the end could not be far off.
From 1952 to 1955 Alec Issigonis, the creator of the later Mini, worked for Alvis and designed a new model with a V8 engine which proved too expensive to produce.
1960s
Rover took a controlling interest in Alvis in 1965 and a Rover-designed mid-engined V8 coupé prototype named the P6BS was rumoured to be the new Alvis model but with the takeover by British Leyland this too was shelved. By the time the TF 21 was launched in 1966, (available, like its predecessors in both saloon and drophead form and with either manual or automatic gearbox), the model was beginning to show its age despite a top speed of 127 mph – the fastest Alvis ever produced. With only 109 sold and with political troubles aplenty in the UK car manufacturing business at that time, production finally ceased in 1967.
In 1968, a management buyout of the car operations was finalised and all the Alvis car design plans, customer records, stock of parts and remaining employees were transferred to Red Triangle.
1970s to present
As part of Rover, Alvis Limited was incorporated into British Leyland but was bought by United Scientific Holdings plc in 1981. Subsequently the company's name was changed to Alvis plc. Alvis plc acquired British truck manufacturer Universal Power Drives in 1994, naming their new subsidiary Alvis Unipower Limited. The trucks were subsequently branded as Alvis-Unipower. In 1998, Alvis plc acquired the armoured vehicle business of GKN plc, and the main UK manufacturing operation was moved from Coventry to Telford. The site of the Alvis works in Holyhead Road is now an out-of-town shopping complex, but its name, Alvis Retail Park, reflects the heritage of the site. In 2002 Alvis plc purchased Vickers Defence Systems to form the subsidiary Alvis Vickers Ltd, which was in turn purchased by BAE Systems in 2004. BAE Systems ended the use of the Alvis distinctive red triangle trademark.
In 2009, Red Triangle negotiated the legal transfer of the Alvis car trademarks. The following year, the company announced that the 4.3 Litre Short Chassis tourer would once again be available. All Alvis' records remain intact at the company’s Kenilworth headquarters along with a large stock of period parts. One of the men to have worked on the very last Alvis car produced in 1967 is still retained by Red Triangle in a training capacity. Built to the original plans, the new car has been named the "Continuation Series", to reflect the 73-year interruption in its production between 1937 and 2010. It differs only in detail from the pre-war examples: for emissions, the engine is governed by an electronic fuel injection system with electronic ignition, brakes are hydraulic rather than cable, the steering column collapsible and the rear light arrangement reconfigured to conform to modern standards.
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1935 Alvis 4.3 Litre |
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1936 Alvis Speed 20 |
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1936 Alvis Speed 25 |
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1948 Fourteen drophead coupé-cabriolet |
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1952 Three Litre sports saloon |
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Three Litre TC 21/100 Grey Lady sports saloon |
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1957 Three Litre TC 108G fixed head coupé |
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1967 Three Litre series IV drophead coupé or cabriolet |
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Stewart Christie & Co. Ltd. // The Garden Party
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