Coco Chanel (1883 - 1971)
Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel (1883 - 1971)
Iconic fashion designer.
Friend of Dmitri Romanov and of Aimée Lopes de Soto Maior / Aimée de Heeren.
Night visitor of Cremerie de Paris
Helped to buy Cremerie de Paris N°1
return - 1/4 A start with nothing /
Chanel discovers Cremerie de Paris
return - 2/4 Chanel meeting
Brazilian Secret Service Agent Aimée Soto Maior
When Chanel cannot sleep ...
Aimée just comes home from a Party ...
Nightwalks through Paris
Aimée lives in between New York, Palm Beach, Biarritz and Paris.
Paris is the only place where she does not have her own house,
the Hotel Meurice is her Parisian address.
When Chanel cannot sleep she calls the Meurice to find out if Madame de Heeren
is already back. "Désole, Madame n'est pas encore rentrée"
is the usual answer of the night concierge
The "partygirl" Aimée is invited everywhere and never comes home very early
but as soon as she gets the message that Mademoiselle Chanel has called
she calls back no matter the time.
This is the beginning of their "Paris Night Walks".
20 min later they meet.
The Meurice and the Ritz are very close
Aimée can wait to share her impressions of the last party
and Gabrielle who does not go out any more
is dying to her all what has happened.
Sometimes Salvador Dali,also living at the Meurice,
wanted to join them,
but he was too excentric for Aimée
and anyways the Ladys wanted to be on their own
just sharing each others company.
The usual destination of their walks went along rue Saint Honoré
in the direction of the Les Halles foodmarket open all night.
After a drink at the Maison Rouge
they went to Cremerie de Paris
waiting a moment for the old old door of 9 rue des Déchargeurs to open
(due to the busy activity of the foodmarket there is always someone going in and out).
Walking into the long long private courtyard
to see the magic N°5 staircase Chanel had discovered in her youth with Dmitri Romanov
Sitting at the top of the staircase old souvenirs came back to memory....
A little jewel from Coco Chanel
1970 Décember Gabrielle Chanel et Aimée de Heeren
are on their usual nightwalk.
Spirit of Christmas is in the air of Paris.
Chanel is a sad that Aimée is about to leave
to spend Christmas in the US.
She knows that on Christmas Eve she might be all alone.
Sitting on the top of the magical staircase
Gabrielle takes from her coat a little poche
and slides it over to Aimée.
"This is my Christmas present for you, Dmitri gave it to me a long time ago, keep it as a souvenir of your old friend Coco Chanel and as a little luck bringer. It's thanks to Dmitri I created N°5. You have also helped me bringing my name to the ears of the Kennedys. You are my wonderful friend." Coco Chanel december 1970  |
Inside the poche the little jewel Dmitri Romanov
had brought from Russia when escaping the Revolution.
The next day Aimée takes a plane to Miami
where her husband is waiting for her in Palm Beach.
1971 January 10, a sunday evening
Chanel dies at the Hôtel Ritz.
Friday January 15 after a mess at the Madeleine church,
Gabrielle Chanel is buried in Lausanne in the cimetary du Bois de Vaux.
She had designed her grave herself:
5 lions (her astrological sign)
decorated a white marble
in which is engraved
a cross,
the name Gabrielle Chanel
and the
dates 1883 - 1971.
There is no gravestone so that
"she can go up to heaven to dress the angels".
On the left side Gabrielle designed a bank
so that her visitors would remain for a while
to have a conversation with her.
Aimée gets the message to late to come to the funeral.
Decades later she always wanted to make a trip to Lausanne.
The editor of this article was supposed to drive her,
but unfortunately the trip to the lake of Geneva never became reality.
a young student meets
Chanel's magical friend ... Aimée
Continuing the night walks through Paris
Years go by ... 1982 / 1986 Paris
Fascinated by the crazy and funny stories from Russia
the little boy that had grown up
with the legands around Cremerie de Paris
wanted to know if this Cremeries de Paris still existed.
Age 15 he was invited to Paris,
his aunt Dorothea (niece de Carl) worked in St Germain en Laye
as a journalist for the FAZ.
She had the mission to help him find the Cremeries.
Two years later, now 17, he had the chance
to return to France with a school exchange program.
Instead of leaving the exchange colledge,
his school Saint Louis de Gonzague / Franklin
kept him to run for the Bac.
Next to his studies the student worked for Madame Florence Doré
who send students to help in fashion events.
1986 january fashion week
The student meets Johannes von Thurn & Taxis
who had a historic link with the main Cremerie de Paris
during the times it was a Postal company
Thurn & Taxis invites him to his birthday party in Bavaria, 1986 june 6.
1986 At the party Thurn & Taxis presents the student to a friend.
"I want you to leave a good impression on her,
I want you to become friends with her,
she will be a "springboard" for you."
The student knew nothing about Aimée
exept that she was from Brazil:
Aimée de Heeren,
the same Aimée Lopes Sotto Maior
Chanel had met
half a century earlier
back in 1938.
When he asked her "Where do you life ?"
The answer was "Oh it depends on the season".
Juin 1 to July 15, Septembre 15 to Octobre 31 her home was Paris,
most of the times at the Hotel Meurice.
Aimée liked to walk through Paris at night
and a few weeks after the Bavarian birthday party
she asked him if he would not like to be part of the walk.
Walking through Paris
the young student hears
that 20 years earlier
another person was used to accompany Aimée
through sleeping Paris.
This person had been much, much older than Aimée ....
she was a fashion designer
her name was Gabrielle Chanel.
The nightwalks started at the Hotel Meurice
and they went in the direction of Chatelet les Halles
where was located the legendary Cremerie de Paris
the place described in the Russian fairytales
by the great uncle and the great aunt
that were part of the inner circle of the Romanov children.
The student had opened a Sony Phone Boutique near Cremerie de Paris N°1.
When Aimée showed hom the legendary Cremerie de Paris courtyard
for the first time
she was all surprised the student already knew about it.
The picture shows the Romanov children in 1910
on the upper left side their mother Alix Hessen / the last Tsarina
and their aunt Eleonore Solms / Eleonore Hessen.
In the small cercles the other children,
among them Dmitri Romanov,
Carl and Friederike Solms.
Carl returns in 1970 with the editor of this article now a small child
Coco Chanel is there in 1920 with Dmitri Romanov
and again in 1938 with Aimée Sotto Maior (see red arrows),
Aimée Sotto Maior in 1938, and again with the editor of this article in 2003.
Both
the editor of this article and Aimée
knew the legends about the Cremerie de Paris,
- one by the last survivors of the Romanov children
his great uncle Carl and his great aunt Friederike,
- the other by Gabrielle Chanel and Dmitri Romanov.
The stories had the same source,
Alix Hessen / the Tsarina
that had told them to children in the years 1910.
For Gabrielle Chanel
Cremerie de Paris
was a magical place
she liked to go
to get inspiration
from the Bourbons,
the Kings of France.
1992 Cremerie de Paris N°1 (closed for many many years
and covered by wood barricades)
was for rent.
The editor's small Sony Phone Store (today N°2)
worked very well
and Aimée pushed him to get Cremerie N°1
But the owner of the space was scared
to grent out such a big location
to someone so young without very small financial background.
The project did not work out ...
The power of Chanels little jewel
Reopening the legendary Cremerie de Paris
1993 Paris
Cremerie de Paris N°1 returns on the market the following year.
The furniture store of a well established furniture brand did not work,
also the Kuwait Golf war results in a recession
but the owner of the store
is still scared to rent it to someone so young.
Aimée:
"you should ask the owner to sell you the place.
Selling it he has no risk with tent payments,
try it ... "
How to find financing in a country like France
that make things so difficult
for it's own children,
special when they are immigrands.
Nothing to do,
not enough financial background.
Unfortunately nothing was left from the Romanov fortunes.
Exept some magic.
The magic was called
Aimée Sotto Major
and Coco Chanel
Aimée: "you know if it is impossible to get a bank loan in France
you need to try in another country,
Germany or the Unietd States.
Banks there might have a mentality that is more open.
A few days later
Deutsche Bank, DB.com
is ready to finance the aquisition,
under the condition
there is a serious down payment.
Coco Chanel had left a little jewel to Aimée
The little Romanov jewel
had brought her good look.
Aimee decided to sell
the little jewel from Coco Chanel
to complete the down payment
as if Chanel
that had left this world 23 years before
had decided to continue the story
Deutsche Bank accepts the loan.
and Cremerie de Paris N°1 can reopen ...
The good vibes of the Cremerie attract a new idea,
opening the first Cybercafe in France
a whole other story
in the midst of the birth of the Internet.
1998 - 2004 Cremerie de Paris
Both Chanel's magical friend Aimée de Heeren
and Dmitri Romanov's grandniece Rixa von Oldenburg
used to come to Cremerie de Paris
during the Internet Cafe years.
Unlike Aimée, Rixa von Oldenburg was too young
to have met,
both her great uncle Dmitri Romanov (1891 - 1942)
and Coco Chanel (1883 - 1971).
Even her grandmother
Kyra Romanov (1909 - 1967)
who was a direct niece of both Dimitri
and Nicolas II (1868 - 1918)
died before Rixa was born.
At that time neither Cremerie de Paris
nor Rixa had the slightest idea about Aimées real age.
At the cafe was invented
VB.com and
Phone Book of the World
Coco Chanel's magic was all around the Internetcafe.
During the first years,
Paris Hotels were not yet connected
bringing to the Cremerie de Paris
all kind of already connected Americans
you don't meet every day.
Coco Chanel's Hotel Ritz is the one that sends
the most clients.
Among them someone who had made an invention,
the "dot com" webdomains.
2006 New York
2006 septembre 16 the time had come for Aimée to leave this world,
35 after Gabrielle Chanel.
Her real age has always remained a secret ...
It's only in the Lennox Hill Hospital in New York
she lifts this mistery
she was 103 years old.
Oups Aimée was not 50 or 40 years younger than Chanel,
only 20 !
unbelevable,
this meant she was much much older than everybody had imagined,
beeing already over a 100
while swiming in the Atlantic ocean in Biarritz
white laking internet lessons at the Cybercafe de Paris,
while traveling to Serbia.
she was not 30
but 62 years older
as if the night walks through Paris
had permitted to bypass the barriers of time.
Missing Aimee de Heeren
When you have had the chance
to make night walks through Paris
with a friend of Chanel
that was at the same time the epitom of glamour and style
and Brzail's ultimate secret agent,
you miss her ...
Suddenly you realize that all these increadible stories
you had the chance to hear
were like travelling through history.
Too bas not to have taken notes,
recorded videos
but at the time
the editor of this website was not interested in Chanel.
His universe was Sony and the Phone Book of the World.
Who was Gabrielle Chanel ?
2012 Paris
A book of Chanel's life
another one
again another one
The editor of this article
realises so many interconnection
between Aimée's and Chanel's life.
He had run into a dozens of people
that Chanels knew.
He hat met them mostly in Paris, Biarritz, Palm Beach
just not realising at the time
who they were
and now they are all gone.
But the one he regrets most is not to have been able to Gabrielle Chanel herself.
Chanel would be able to tell him more about the young Aimée.
Coco Chanel helping to
Become a "Meeting Place
for the World's most famous Brands"
Cybercafes did not last forever,
wifi and internet access on laptops made the cafe obsolete.
We had to find something new.
Time for a new adventure.
Transforming our historic Cremerie
in a small museum where magical brands
can organise Pop Up Stores
and expose their know-how to the world.
The project gets off to a flying start with Nike
organising a Barbershop
with a global TV Commercial with footballers.
The event is followed by a "scandalous" Boutique Adopte Un Mec
Le seul problème ....
fin 2012 s'installe face à la Cremerie
un chantier titanesque pour construire
une des plus importantes sorties de Métro du Monde,
la sortie principale du pôle Chatelet Les Halles.
Soudainement plus personne ne veut venir ...
Comment attirer des marques
alors que dans la rue des Halles on ne voit plus que des scies de béton et des camions.
Mission impossible ?
Fallait-il mettre la clé sous la porte ?
Peut-être .... sauf qu'il y avait à nouveau la magie de Mademoiselle Chanel.
Les visites de la Cremerie sont décalés vers la soirée où le chantier est au repos
et pendant les visites l'éditeur raconte quelques anecdotes sur les passages
de Mademoiselle Chanel.
2013 Tokyo
Exposition des Pokemon
Lors de cette expo nous avons la chance de parler l'inventeur des "poket monsters".
Dans un mix entre l'anglais et le japonais Monsieur Masuka nous demande
"can you tell me a little more about Gabrielle Chanel ?"
Nous lui montrons l'escalier et il nous explique
qu'il avait depuis longtemps le projet d'organiser une exposition en Europe.
Un jour il était tombé sur
les histoires un peu "crazy & funny" d'une Gabrielle Chanel qui
venait voir la Cremerie au milieu de la nuit quand elle n'arrivait pas à dormir.
Et tout de suite l'inventeur des Pokemon
savait que c'était là où devait se trouver son Pokemon Center.
Les travaux du métro n'avaient aucune importance
face à la magie de toutes ces personnes dans l'histoire de la Cremerie de Paris.
2017 Paris
The works were almost eternal,
delay after delay,
no help from the town hall for businesses
that were often condemned to close.
Finally April 2017 the new exit was to open.
The announced date was 2017 April 28,
but on April 28 the barricades still block access.
Same the next day, the day after.
A Thursday evening,
just before the second round of Emmanuel Macron's elections
one of the workers tells us,
it should open tomorrow morning.
Project to get up to be there for the opening.But was the alarm clock going to be at the RdV?
No, you had to sleep at the Cremerie
so as not to miss this long-awaited moment.
At 2 a.m. impossible to sleep, the idea of taking a walk - unfortunately without the company of Aimée de Heeren.
An elevator door in the Forum des Halles was open
and suddenly at 3 a.m. right in the trading room (used by 800,000 people a day)
A walk in the Chatelet les Halles metro station.
At daybreak the barricades fall,
the editor of this article has the privilege of being
the first traveler to take this staircase.
The date has not been communicated,
no journalist is on site.
By working the images by looking at the date, impossible,
amazing the moment he made that inaugural trip
to the most important metro exit in Paris was
2017 May 5, 5:50 am
as if Mademoiselle Chanel had once again been present
in the destiny of the Cremerie de Paris.
2017 was another year of work. Delay after delay.
Right-of-way of the SemParis Seine that never wanted to leave
because they allowed the executives of the company
to have free parking spaces.
next - Visiting Coco Chanel in Lausanne 4/4
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