The Jewel Thieves who hired a hooker to pose as Marie Antoinette – and almost got away with it!
While researching French history for my memoir, A Paris Moment, I came upon a most bizarre tale. The Comtesse de la Mottle, a saucy woman of high society, concocted a scheme in which she artfully swindled a cardinal out of a diamond necklace designed for the Queen of France.
Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, also known as the ‘Comtesse de la Motte’ was born in 1756 to the illegitimate descendant of King Henry II.
Seeking to escape poverty using her charms, she attempted to establish a social relationship with Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI. Despite rebuffs from the queen, Jeanne persisted, and her machinations eventually led to a delightful swindle that was to become known as ‘The Affair of the Diamonds.’
Her plot was hatched at the Hôtel de Rohan, an immense palace built for Cardinal Rohan, a rather vain man with a crush on Marie Antoinette. He fancied the queen as a mistress, but she never had the slightest interest in him. In fact, word has it that she blamed the cardinal for the humiliating incident that occurred as she was traveling to Paris for her betrothal to Louis XVI. Stopped at the border of France, she was made to strip naked, removing everything that was Austrian.
The focus of the diamond affair was a necklace crafted by the French jewelers Boehmer, who had unsuccessfully tried to sell it for 1.6 million francs to Louis XVI. Madame de la Motte, then the mistress to Cardinal Rohan, fancied the necklace for herself, and came up with a plan to acquire it using the gullibility of her lover. She forged a letter from Marie Antoinette to Rohan saying that she would look favorably on the cardinal if he were to buy this necklace for her.
When Madame de la Motte delivered this letter personally to the cardinal, he was naturally suspicious. He asked to meet Antoinette in person, so the crafty Madame arranged for a hot midnight assignation in the forest of Versailles with a prostitute disguised to look like the queen.
Tantalized by this taste of forbidden fruit, the duped cardinal put the first payment down for the necklace and gave it to Madame de la Motte, who immediately broke it up and sold the diamonds.
The subterfuge was soon discovered when the defrauded jewelers came looking for their second payment. When the truth emerged, the king had Cardinal Rohan stripped of his offices and sent into exile.
Madame de la Motte was put in jail and branded with a V, for voleur, but the jewel thief later escaped to London where she had the last laugh, publishing a salty, vengeful memoir about court life in Versailles.
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The world’s oldest Oscar recipient was sleeping in bed when he won!
Movie Review
The Father
Streaming on Amazon Prime
The Father explores the mental deterioration of an aging man and its impact on his family and friends.
The dementia sufferer in question is Anthony (played by Anthony Hopkins), a retired engineer and widower living alone in an apartment in London. He is the father to Anne (Olivia Colman); as the sole living relative, she takes on the task of caring for her increasingly confused parent.
Originally written by Florian Zeller as a play, Zeller adapts and directs the exploration of one man’s gradual loss of self-awareness. His delusions are dramatically manifested by removing and replacing furnishings in Antony’s flat, and alternating his perceptions with that of his surrounding family and caretakers. The result is a confusing mélange that communicates to the audience the growing loss of memory and awareness of reality experienced by those suffering dementia.
This is, on many levels, a disturbing and poignant movie. For anyone who has ever experienced the mental deterioration of an aging loved one, the film highlights the frustration and helplessness that envelopes everyone involved. For those who have not, it offers a frightening insight into what might happen if your own faculties atrophy.
The writing, directing and acting are all superb; it was reported that the entire crew burst into tears while filming the final scene. In addition to Anthony Hopkins winning the Oscar for Best Actor in 2021 for his performance, Florian Zeller won for Adapted Screenplay.
I highly recommend The Father!
The Best Roast Duck You’ll Ever Eat!
Recipe
This is easy to make and so delicious!
Ingredients
1 Whole duck
1 lemon, sliced
2 potatoes, cut into cubes.
Sauce
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup Cointreau (or orange liqueur)
1 Tsp of corn starch.
1 Mango, peeled and sliced
Directions
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Place potato cubes into microwave and cook for 4 minutes.
Remove the duck from the fridge, clean and pat dry, then allow to warm for 1 hour.
Prick skin all over with a fork. Rub with salt. Place lemon slices in cavity.
Cut a diamond pattern in the skin above the breast with a sharp knife. Do not cut flesh.
Place the duck in a deep roasting pan. Line pan with potatoes.
Roast duck, breast side up, for two hours.
Tilt duck to drain liquid from cavity into pan.
Transfer duck to a cutting board and let stand 15 minutes before carving.
Remove potatoes.
Sauce
Mix the sugar, lemon juice and orange liqueur in a shallow pan at medium heat. Reduce for 3 minutes.
Mix in corn starch and thicken.
Add mango pieces and turn to low for one minute.
Cut the roasted duck into pieces and serve with potatoes and sauce. Enjoy!
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A story of love, and war,
And how one person can change the course of history.
The year is 1944. Paris has been under German occupation for four years, its citizens ground beneath the jackboot of fascism.
The French Resistance knows that an Allied invasion is imminent. They do not know how the Germans will react, however. Will they retreat from Paris, or burn the city to the ground?
Veronique Grenelle is growing up in an impoverished inner-city neighborhood, scrambling to feed herself and her family. The Resistance recruits the vivacious young woman to befriend Lieutenant Gunther von Clause, an aide-de-camp to the German Army’s Military Governor. She gradually gains his affection.
James Gallagher, a lieutenant in the US Army’s Military Intelligence unit, frequently parachutes behind enemy lines to deliver funds and instructions to the Resistance. He meets and befriends Veronique, who falls madly in love with the dashing American officer.
D-Day approaches, and Veronique finds herself in a bind; should she pursue her heart or her duty to the Resistance? In the end, her decision will not only determine the fate of Paris, it will reverberate down through her family for generations to come.
Life in Mexico
While soccer remains the overwhelming sport of Mexico, golf is growing in popularity by leaps and bounds. The country has hundreds of courses, with new ones being built all the time.
Recently, I went out to a new course east of San Miguel. It’s a nine-hole, par-three layout where duffers inspired by Latino greats like Lee Trevino can learn the game.
The fish in its ponds are definitely not inspired by Latin culture, however. I spotted a gardener feeding bread scraps from the clubhouse restaurant to a school of carp. “They won’t eat tortillas,” he explained. “They prefer bagels.”