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Did Coco Chanel work with them?


Cendrillon

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Is this a story? Not surprised at all by it. All those who remained in France during the war and were well known usually had rather complicated and often ambiguous lives. None story for me.

Re the Lidl perfume, I bought some to try and it is good. It doesn't smell cheap yet, but I can only imagine it will smell as cheap and seedy as Youth Dew did when I was young, when all the world and it's dog wears it, although  Youth Dew was not cheap. It just ended up being the 'air freshener' of discos and if anyone had ever bought me some, I would never have worn it. I am and always was 'different', I am not at ease following the herd.

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A reasonable read on the subject of the rich and famous domiciled in France under German occupation:

"The Shameful Peace" by Frederick Spotts - How french artists and intellectuals survived the Na.zi Occupation.

[quote]Paris had never been so brilliant culturally. The social Tout-Paris engaged with the Germans in their salons, Coco Chanel produced enticing new scents for them, and Dior dressed the wives and mistresses of the friendly Fritzes (no longer referred to as the brutal Boches).[/quote]

Maurice Chevalier, who like Edith Piaf sang for the Naz.is in the bustling night clubs, claimed the proof of his loyalty was that he never spoke the German language during the war, although his degree of collaboration was questined by some.

An interesting article by Kate Muir: [url]http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6027932.ece[/url]

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I was recently reading a book by Alan Massie, whose protagonist is a policeman in Bordeaux at the time of the fall of France.

I caught myself thinking, why doesn't he keep his head down and wait for the liberation? Then I realised the German victory over France was so sudden and complete and the army of the only French ally, Britain, had been so comprehensively defeated that the notion of eventual liberation must have seemed a pipe dream.

So how then to live under German rule?

Kate Muir quotes Picasso, Coco Chanel's friend, “Oh, I am not looking for risks to take, but in a sort of passive way I do not care to yield to either force or terror.”
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