Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré

This last clause lashed the paparazzi into a competitive frenzy.

They staked out her apartment on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

They followed her skiing in the French Alps and the Canadian Rockies.

They zoomed on her nude sunbathing in the Virgin Islands.

The thing known in France as the Faubourg Saint-Germain is neither a quarter, nor a sect, nor an institution, nor anything else that admits of a precise definition.

There are great houses in the Place Royale, the Faubourg Saint-Honore, and the Chaussee d'Antin, in any one of which you may breathe the same atmosphere of Faubourg Saint-Germain.

So to begin with, the whole Faubourg is not within the Faubourg.

There are men and women born far enough away from its influences who respond to them and take their place in the circle.

Translated by Clara Bell.

in eighteen twenty eight at about one o'clock one morning two persons came out of a large house in the rue du faubourg saint-honore near the elysee bourbon one was the famous doctor horace the other was one of the most elegant men in paris the baron de rastignac they were friends of long standing each had sent away his carriage and no cab was to be seen in the street but the night was fine and the pavement dry we will walk as far as the boulevard said eugene de rastignac to bianchon you can get a hackney-cab at the club there is always one to be found there till daybreak come with me as far as my house with pleasure

well and what have you to say about it

about that woman said the doctor coldly there i recognize my bianchon exclaimed why how well my dear fellow you speak of the marquise d'espard as if she were a case for your hospital do you want to know what i think eugene if you throw over mme de nucingen for this marquise you will swamp a one-eyed horse for a blind one madame de nucingen is six and thirty bianchon and this woman is three and thirty said the doctor quickly her worst enemies only say six and twenty my dear boy when you really want to know a woman's age look at her temples and the tip of her nose whatever women may achieve with their cosmetics they can do nothing against those incorruptible witnesses to their experiences there each year of life has left its stigmata when a woman's temples are flaccid seamed withered in a particular way when at the tip of her nose you see those minute specks which look like the imperceptible black smuts which are shed in london by the chimneys in which coal is burnt your servant sir that woman is more than thirty she may be handsome witty loving whatever you please but she is past thirty she is arriving at maturity i do not blame men who attach themselves to that kind of woman only a man of your superior distinction must not mistake a winter pippin for a little summer apple smiling on the bough and waiting for you to crunch it love never goes to study the registers of birth and marriage no one loves a woman because she is handsome or ugly stupid or clever we love because we love well for my part i love for quite other reasons she is marquise d'espard she was a blamant chauvry she is the fashion she has soul her foot is as pretty as the duchesse de berry's she has perhaps a hundred thousand francs a year some day perhaps i may marry her in short she will put me into a position which will enable me to pay my debts i thought you were rich interrupted bianchon bah i have twenty thousand francs a year just enough to keep up my stables i was thoroughly done my dear fellow in that nucingen business i will tell you about that i have got my sisters married that is the clearest profit i can show since we last met and i would rather have them provided for than have five hundred thousand francs a year now what would you have me do i am ambitious to what can mme de nucingen a year more and i shall be shelved stuck in a pigeon-hole like a married man i have all the discomforts of marriage and of single life without the advantages of either a false position to which every man must come who remains tied too long to the same apron-string so you think you will come upon a treasure here said bianchon your marquise my dear fellow does not hit my fancy at all your liberal opinions blur your eyesight if mme d'espard were a mme noble or simple she would still have no soul she would still be a perfect type of selfishness take my word for it medical men are accustomed to judge of people and things the sharpest of us read the soul while we study the body in spite of that pretty boudoir where we have spent this evening in spite of the magnificence of the house it is quite possible that madame la marquise is in debt

An excellent one, said Valentine.

He pretends the air of the Faubourg Saint-Honore is not good for me.

Indeed, said Morel.

In that, M. Noirtier may be right.

He made his way along the corridors through force of habit.

He threw aside his magisterial robe, not out of deference to etiquette, but because it was an unbearable burden, a veritable garb of Nessus, insatiate in torture.

Having staggered as far as the Rue Dauphine, he perceived his carriage, awoke his sleeping coachman by opening the door himself, threw himself on the cushions, and pointed towards the Faubourg Saint-Honore.

The carriage drove on.

The thing known in France as the Faubourg Saint-Germain is neither a quarter, nor a sect, nor an institution, nor anything else that admits of a precise definition.

There are great houses in the Place Royale, the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and the Chaussée d'Antin, in any one of which you may breathe the same atmosphere of Faubourg Saint-Germain.

So, to begin with, the whole Faubourg is not within the Faubourg.

There are men and women born far enough away from its influences who respond to them and take their place in the circle.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And they moved to their flagship shop on the Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1880.

And they are still operating out of that exact location today.

Still there.

They are legally forced to operate like a normal retailer.

Okay, so anyone...

Anyone who walks into the Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré with $12,000 can simply buy a Birkin right off the shelf.

Just buy it.

An excellent one, said Valentine.

He pretends the air of the Faubourg St. Honore is not good for me.

Indeed, said Morel.

In that, M. Noirtier may be right.

The thing known in France as the Faubourg Saint-Germain is neither a quarter, nor a sect, nor an institution, nor anything else that admits of a precise definition.

There are great houses in the Place Royale, the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and the Chaussée d'Antin, in any one of which you may breathe the same atmosphere of Faubourg Saint-Germain.

So, to begin with, the whole Faubourg is not within the Faubourg.

There are men and women born far enough away from its influences who respond to them and take their place in the circle.

This delightful species affects the hottest latitudes, the cleanest longitudes of Paris.

You will meet her between the tenth and the hundred and tenth arcade of the Rue de Rivoli, along the line of the boulevard from the equator of the Passage des Panoramas, where the products of India flourish, where the warmest creations of industry are displayed, to the Cape of the Madeleine, in the least muddy district of the citizen quarters, between number thirty and number hundred and thirty of the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

During the winter she haunts the terrace of the Veillon, but not the asphalt pavement that lies parallel.

According to the weather she may be seen flying in the avenue of the Champs-Élysées, which is bounded on the east by the Place Louis XV, on the west by the Avenue de Marigny, to the south by the road, to the north by the gardens of the Faubourg Saint-Honoré.