Read The Duchess Of Windsor Online
Authors: Greg King
The Duchess Of Windsor (51 page)
Certain servants remained year-round at La Croë. This number included Monsieur Valat, the concierge, who, with his family, lived in the main gate lodge during the Windsors’ residence and in the main house itself during their absence. Valat and his wife had a young son who was crippled and could not obtain any work. When the Duke and Duchess discovered this, they promptly gave him a position as clock winder in the house, for which he was handsomely paid.
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The Windsors entertained rather infrequently at La Croë, although there were almost always guests during their stays. More formal parties and receptions were reserved for the city; here, in the country, both Wallis and David relished the sense of freedom and sought to live as informally as possible. Often meals were served on the terrace overlooking the Mediterranean. In the evening, the house was floodlit: Hidden lights shone upon the milky-white façade, against the tall trees that rose into the night sky, and around the riot of colorful flowers and shrubs that filled the gardens. On the terrace, watched over by the gently swaying fronds of the tall palm trees, Wallis and David might host separate tables at dinner, serenaded by music floating through the open French doors from a gramophone in the hall. After dinner, they would dance on the terrace beneath the light of the moon that sparkled over the still waters of the sea beyond.
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Occasionally, the Duke and Duchess were entertained by their neighbors. One, the former American actress and hostess Maxine Elliott, lived at a splendid white mansion above Cannes called Château de l’Horizon. Elliott’s nephew, Vincent Sheean, recalled dinner with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor as “a strange, surrealiste” experience.
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On one occasion, the dinner conversation turned, at the Duke’s instigation, on the welfare and hygiene of Welsh miners; soon the Duke was busy expounding on the virtues of Germany’s treatment of its workers. “The Duchess was so slim and elegant, so suggestive of innumerable fashionable shops, dressmakers, manicurists, and hairdressers that she seemed at the uttermost remove from the pithead of a mine.”
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On one occasion, the dinner conversation turned, at the Duke’s instigation, on the welfare and hygiene of Welsh miners; soon the Duke was busy expounding on the virtues of Germany’s treatment of its workers. “The Duchess was so slim and elegant, so suggestive of innumerable fashionable shops, dressmakers, manicurists, and hairdressers that she seemed at the uttermost remove from the pithead of a mine.”
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They also dined with Somerset Maugham at his Villa Mauresque at Cap Ferrat on August 5, 1938. Fellow guest Harold Nicolson wrote:
In they came. She, I must say, looks very well for her age. She has done her hair in a different way. It is smoothed off her brow and falls down the back of her neck in ringlets. It gives her a placid and less strained look. . . . There was a pause. “I am sorry we were a little late,” said the Duke, “but Her Royal Highness couldn’t drag herself away.” He had said it. The three words fell into the circle like three stones in a pool. Her (gasp) Royal (shudder) Highness (and not one eye dared to meet another).
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The Duke and Duchess spent Christmas of 1938 at La Croë. “The Duchess took Christmas seriously,” recalled Dina Wells Hood. “She loved an old-fashioned festival, with a tree, turkeys, good Christmas fare and lots of presents for everyone.”
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The Windsors traveled from Paris to the Riviera overnight by the famous Blue Train. They booked a set of private compartments, although they took their meals along with the rest of the passengers in the dining car. When the train made occasional stops, David used the opportunity to put their cairn terriers on their leads and take them for short walks along the siding.
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Upon their arrival at Antibes, the Duke and Duchess would be met by the mayor and a deputation of other officials, who welcomed them, presented Wallis with a bouquet of flowers, and saw them off in a convoy of cars bound for La Croë.
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The Windsors traveled from Paris to the Riviera overnight by the famous Blue Train. They booked a set of private compartments, although they took their meals along with the rest of the passengers in the dining car. When the train made occasional stops, David used the opportunity to put their cairn terriers on their leads and take them for short walks along the siding.
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Upon their arrival at Antibes, the Duke and Duchess would be met by the mayor and a deputation of other officials, who welcomed them, presented Wallis with a bouquet of flowers, and saw them off in a convoy of cars bound for La Croë.
That Christmas, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were joined by Lord and Lady Brownlow and their two children, the Honorable Caroline and the Honorable Edward Cust; Sir Charles and Lady Mendl; John McMullin; and Wallis’s aunt Bessie.
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They arrived at La Croë to find the hall piled with trunks, boxes, parcels, hundreds of cards, and in their midst, a huge, bare tree which Wallis had selected earlier that week in Paris. John McMullin helped Wallis design the white-and-silver decorations, which everyone helped place on the tree all through Christmas Eve.
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On Christmas morning, the Windsors and their guests drove to a small Anglican church on the road to Antibes to attend services. Thoughtfully, the Duke and Duchess regularly dispatched welcome checks to the minister to help his parish.
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They arrived at La Croë to find the hall piled with trunks, boxes, parcels, hundreds of cards, and in their midst, a huge, bare tree which Wallis had selected earlier that week in Paris. John McMullin helped Wallis design the white-and-silver decorations, which everyone helped place on the tree all through Christmas Eve.
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On Christmas morning, the Windsors and their guests drove to a small Anglican church on the road to Antibes to attend services. Thoughtfully, the Duke and Duchess regularly dispatched welcome checks to the minister to help his parish.
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The big event came in the afternoon, when the household and servants assembled in the hall for the presentation of their gifts. For weeks, Wallis had spent long days shopping for gifts: every member of the household or staff, along with their families and anyone who had worked for the Windsors or provided services during the year, received a present, most carefully wrapped by the Duchess herself. The Duke and Duchess stood together before the Christmas tree, receiving each member of the household and staff. They shook hands, smiled and chatted, and Wallis presented them with their gift, which ranged from the useful—household accessories and the newest novels—to the extravagant—alligator—skin wallets and handbags for women, gold cuff links and tie clips for men.
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With the Windsors settled in at La Croë, their thoughts turned to a proper Paris house. The lease on the house at Versailles had expired, and they decided not to renew it; instead, Wallis resumed her search for a house in the city itself. Finally, after much negotiation, she and David signed the lease on 24, Boulevard Suchet. Situated at the end of the avenue Henri Martin in the Sixteenth Arrondissement, near the Bois de Boulogne, this was a large, four-story town house surrounded by a small garden and boasting a suite of reception rooms designed for entertaining.
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To help decorate the new house, Wallis consulted Stephane Boudin, of Maison Jensen, on the rue Royale. Boudin, who had created Chips Channon’s famous blue-and-silver rococo dining room in London, was a short, meticulous little man with immense energy and reserves of talent. Often he would personally scrub woodwork with a wire brush or apply a coat of glaze to achieve the desired effect. He and Wallis spent endless hours hunting for exactly the right furnishings. “Tirelessly,” recalled Dina Wells Hood, “she searched for exactly the right furniture, rugs, materials, lamps and
bibelots.
She came to know intimately every antique shop, large and small, in Paris.... Tradespeople called . . . at all hours to deliver parcels and to discuss and receive orders. The telephone there too rang incessantly.”
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bibelots.
She came to know intimately every antique shop, large and small, in Paris.... Tradespeople called . . . at all hours to deliver parcels and to discuss and receive orders. The telephone there too rang incessantly.”
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If La Croë represented something of the informality of the Fort, the Parisian house was pure Buckingham Palace. It was not a style with which Wallis had much experience; her own tastes at Bryanston Court had run to comfort mixed with a few interesting period pieces. She had shown no inclination to furnish her own rooms with valuable antiques or create stately atmospheres. These things she did for the Duke; at the same time, she began to absorb these tastes as her own, so much so that eventually the Windsor villa in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris was a perfect expression of the woman into which Wallis had transformed herself.
The house at 24, boulevard Suchet stood on a small corner lot overlooking a paved square and surrounded by a tall iron fence and thick hedges. From the boulevard, a short flight of stone steps led to the front door, which in turn opened to the entrance hall. Wallis had wanted a very formal introduction to the house; in the entrance hall, the black-and-white Carrara-marble floor, white columns supporting the ceiling, and tall white caryatids wearing crowns of candles in the mirrored corner alcoves all spoke of the
ancien régime.
A Louis XVI clock, whose face was set within the center of a gilded sunburst, hung above an antique gilt console on which stood the red and gold visitors’ books. White Louis XVI stools, with carved legs and green leather seats, stood at intervals around the hall; above, from the center of the ceiling, hung a crystal chandelier; along with the candles atop the caryatids’ crowns, it would be lit on the evenings the Windsors entertained.
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ancien régime.
A Louis XVI clock, whose face was set within the center of a gilded sunburst, hung above an antique gilt console on which stood the red and gold visitors’ books. White Louis XVI stools, with carved legs and green leather seats, stood at intervals around the hall; above, from the center of the ceiling, hung a crystal chandelier; along with the candles atop the caryatids’ crowns, it would be lit on the evenings the Windsors entertained.
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Just off the entrance hall were several rooms given over to the household, including offices for the secretaries and a sitting room for the detectives who were on constant duty to guard the former King of England and his wife. Wallis took great care with these rooms: in the secretaries’ office, for example, she provided comfortable sofas and chairs, a Chippendale dining table, and antique Louis XVI desks for their use.
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Glass doors led from the entrance hall to the stair hall. Wallis left this space deliberately restrained to better showcase two exquisite pieces: an antique Japanese screen, which Emperor Hirohito had presented to the then Prince of Wales during a visit to Tokyo in the 1920s; and a tall white-and-gold Louis XVI standing pendulum clock.
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An elevator rose to the left, while to the right curved the white marble staircase which ascended to the first floor. Alabaster urns atop black marble columns held concealed lighting that glowed against the stark white walls in the evening.
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An elevator rose to the left, while to the right curved the white marble staircase which ascended to the first floor. Alabaster urns atop black marble columns held concealed lighting that glowed against the stark white walls in the evening.
The first floor contained four principal rooms, all of which opened
en suite
: a large drawing room, which occupied the front portion of the house; a salon; a dining room; and a smaller sitting room known as the Banquette Room.
en suite
: a large drawing room, which occupied the front portion of the house; a salon; a dining room; and a smaller sitting room known as the Banquette Room.
Wallis was at her most assured in the drawing room, which was decorated in the Louis XIV style, with cream-colored boiserie, a black-and-beige Savonnerie carpet, and a Louis XIV chandelier. A large eighteenth-century Venetian screen added a splash of exotic color. A Baroque sofa, with heavily carved and gilded woodwork, along with two matching chairs, was covered in antique red velvet, which Wallis had picked up in a small shop in Paris; the velvet was said to have come originally from a cardinal’s robes. Two Regency consoles with marble tops stood between the windows, which were hung with cream and red curtains. Elsewhere, Wallis placed several small Louis XIV chairs and tables in red and black and a Charles II tripod table whose mirrored top was inlaid with a delicate Chinese landscape.
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Double doors connected the drawing room to the salon, a smaller, more formal chamber decorated in Louis XVI fashion. Again, the color scheme was neutral: white, gold, pale blue, and yellow. In contrast, the furniture—elaborately carved and gilded chairs and sofas—was upholstered in rich and vibrant brocaded silks, satins, and flowered tapestries. Wallis selected a Savonnerie carpet which drew out these accent colors, as did the pair of lapis-lazuli candelabra which stood above the fireplace—gifts from Queen Mary to her eldest son.
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As with the dining room at La Croë, Wallis took great pains with her Paris dining room. The walls were painted cream, with the delicate boiserie picked out in gilt, and pierced by arched windows draped with crimson curtains tied back and hung with enormous gold tasseled cords at two levels. Each window was fitted with matching mirrored shutters on the inside that could be pulled closed to magnify the candlelight on formal occasions—an effect heightened by the immense mirrors that cloaked the doors, stood above the fireplace, and filled an alcove against one wall in which stood the carved and gilded rococo sideboard. In the center of the room, atop the crimson Oriental carpet that covered the shimmering parquet floor, stood the dining table, with intricately carved and gilded legs supporting the black-mirrored top. The table could be extended to seat thirty upon Louis XVI chairs in light pastel blue and gold.
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Wallis had first encountered the idea for a mirrored tabletop at Lady Cunard’s house in London and adopted it at Bryanston Court. She liked the effect it created in candlelight, with the shimmering surfaces of crystal, silver, and jewels reflected in the dusky surface.
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Wallis had first encountered the idea for a mirrored tabletop at Lady Cunard’s house in London and adopted it at Bryanston Court. She liked the effect it created in candlelight, with the shimmering surfaces of crystal, silver, and jewels reflected in the dusky surface.
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The Banquette Room reflected a whimsical side of Wallis’s character. The walls were formal, painted white with elegant
boiserie,
but the carpet was a green-and-white lattice pattern, and the furniture was clearly different: Against one wall stood a large green velvet banquette covered with white and green pillows. A sofa and matching chairs, also covered in green velvet, stood facing the antique mantelpiece, dominated by an Italian Renaissance dock depicting two nudes holding aloft a gilded globe. On either side of the fireplace were two small Chinese lacquered chests and two freestanding blackamoors with Venetian turbans, which held lamps. Above the banquette hung a rather severe portrait of Wallis in a blue taffeta ballgown, painted by Drian.
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boiserie,
but the carpet was a green-and-white lattice pattern, and the furniture was clearly different: Against one wall stood a large green velvet banquette covered with white and green pillows. A sofa and matching chairs, also covered in green velvet, stood facing the antique mantelpiece, dominated by an Italian Renaissance dock depicting two nudes holding aloft a gilded globe. On either side of the fireplace were two small Chinese lacquered chests and two freestanding blackamoors with Venetian turbans, which held lamps. Above the banquette hung a rather severe portrait of Wallis in a blue taffeta ballgown, painted by Drian.
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The second floor contained the private apartments of the Duke and Duchess as well as a small suite of rooms for Wallis’s personal maid. A large sitting room, decorated with overstuffed modern sofas and chairs covered in bright English chintzes, a Chippendale table, and a crescent-shaped desk used by the Duchess separated the Windsors’ rooms. It was used for informal, private entertaining; on occasions when the Duke and Duchess were alone in the evening, they dined here at the small table.
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David’s bedroom was decorated in cream and beige, with a red carpet and accents. Wallis used a magnificent suite of Empire furniture here; the bed, decorated with ormolu inlays, stood lengthwise against one wall. It was covered with an eiderdown of heavy, cream-colored satin fringed with red and pale gold; before the bed, across the crimson carpet, lay a white bearskin rug. The rest of the pieces in the suite were heavily ornamented with ormolu and black enamel inlays. A gilded mirror, topped with the Prince of Wales’s feathers, hung above a chest; an antique bureau stood between the windows and served as David’s desk.
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