by Helen Fripp
Across the sea, Veuve Clicquot champagne was changing hands for more than a month’s wages a bottle and in St Petersburg they called her Klikoskaya. General Marin came up with the name and it stuck, according to Louis, regaling prospective buyers with tales of her spark and elegance in winemaking.
She picked out a bottle from the crate of comet champagne she’d kept for herself, for a special occasion, and ran her thumb over Alexei’s comet brand on the cork. ‘I’m saving you for him,’ she whispered, wondering if he was reunited with his wife, whether the familiar fields and buildings of his homeland sharpened his loss. She slid the bottle back. ‘Don’t forget me.’
It dawned on her then, and the loneliness was crippling, that it was unlikely she would ever open the bottle to share it with Alexei. Evening was falling, the autumn air was damp and chilly and here she was, with only her bottles and ledgers for company. All this, for what? She lit a candle against the dark and it fizzed like champagne as the flame jumped and brightened. Natasha always said you could see the world in a flame. She stared. Nothing but a translucent blue arc steady on the wick, the flare of light above it devouring the air. It guttered and extinguished, though not the slightest breeze had touched it. Of course!
She grabbed the little key to the secret compartment of her bureau and felt for the velvet bag that Natasha had given her. With the candle relit, she untied the strings and looked inside.
Her firefly necklace, and a note.
I kept this safe for you, guaranteed against my bakery. Fulfil the promise I made to my good friend the pawnbroker, and pay him back. You can afford it now.
The yellow diamond threw prisms as she held it up to the light. François’ last gift before he died!
If I go first, remember me by it, and he had laid it on her skin, fixed the clasp at her nape. François always makes the darkest days into the loveliest, she had thought as he smiled at her reflection in mirror.
She slipped it on, the jewel warming to her touch, and stepped outside. A big harvest moon was presiding above the vineyards and the sweet, plump grapes were ripe for picking. Across the yard, the press and cellars that would work their magic stood ready.
You’re right, Natasha. This is what it’s all for. For François. For us.
His dream, and hers, and she had made it reality. It would be a good vintage, at least this year. After that, who could know?
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Books by Helen Fripp
The French House
A Letter from Helen
Dear reader,
I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read The French House. If you did enjoy it, and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, just sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Sign up here!
I hope you loved The French House as much as I enjoyed writing it. Nicole’s determination and drive struck everyone she met, and I’ve loved breathing life into her once more, along with her (real and imagined) band of allies, renegades, misfits and rebels. As I wrote and researched, I was enchanted by the alchemy of winemaking and the vineyards, fascinated by the French Revolution and intrigued by the year of the comet champagne.
Nicole Clicquot was a remarkable woman. She came from a wealthy family and had absolutely no financial need to keep the vineyards and business going, but we know from historical records that she was obsessed with it, often staying up to the early hours, poring over ledgers and thinking about ways in which she could improve production.
She was deeply in love with her husband, François, and there are historical accounts of them riding out side by side to oversee the vineyards together. Nicole was also a highly respected ‘nose’ and could take her place alongside the very best in this profession, discerning which blends would make the best wines.
What motivated her in her endeavour? It would not have been easy for a woman to go it alone in a man’s world of business and wine. Why did she not just re-marry and settle into a life of ease with her family in Reims? It was these questions that set my imagination alight as I delved into the company archives, courtesy of Veuve Clicquot Krug Ruinart in Reims. Here, I found original correspondence between Nicole and her ebullient and faithful star salesman Louis Bohne. There were the neat accounts ledgers she kept, written in her own hand, with her notes in the margin, noting all the highs and lows of the business. There was even a letter written to her granddaughter, advising her how important it was to always be ‘bold and audacious’ in everything she did.
Armed with this first-hand material, I walked the chalky paths amongst the vines, visited her rustic house and press in Bouzy and the grand family mansion in Reims, strolled along the banks of the river Vesle rendered a pale green by the chalk soil, and imagined her story.
I have worked hard to ensure the accuracy of historical events and place, but I have also played with chronology and facts in places, and of course this is a work of fiction, inspired by her story. And what an inspiration! Over two hundred years later, Veuve Clicquot is an international luxury brand with a reputation for producing some of the finest champagnes in the business.
If you enjoyed the book, I’d love it if you would write a review. It makes such a difference helping new readers to discover my books for the first time.
I’d be delighted to hear from you, too – you can get in touch on my Facebook page, through Twitter, Goodreads or my website.
Thanks,
Helen Fripp
www.helenfrippauthor.co.uk
Bibliography
Biggs, Charlotte, A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: with General and Incidental Remarks on the French Character and Manners, T. N. Longman, 1797
de Brissac, Elvire, Imaginary Journey around Barbe Nicole Ponsardin Veuve Clicquot 1777–1866, Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, 2010
Busby, James, Esq, Journal of a Recent Visit to the Principal Vineyards of Spain and France, Smith, Elder and Co., 1834
Conner, Susan P., Public Virtue and Public Women: Prostitution in Revolutionary Paris, 193-1794, The John Hopkins University Press, 1994
Cronin, Vincent, Napoleon, HarperCollins, 1971
Doyle, William, The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2001
Ducamp, Emmanuel and Walter, Marc, The Summer Palaces of the Romanovs, Thames and Hudson, 2012
Epstein, Becky Sue, Champagne, Reaktion Books, 2011
Faith, Nicholas, The Story of Champagne, Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1988
Gastine, L., Madame Tallien, Notre Dame de Thermidor. From the last days of the French Revolution Until her Death as Princess de Chimay in 1835, Translated from the French by J. Lewis May, John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1923
Guy, Kolleen M., Drowning Her Sorrows: Widowhood and Entrepreneurship in the Champagne Industry, University of Texas at San Antonio, 1997
Guy, Kolleen M., ‘Oiling the Wheels of Social Life’, Myths and Marketing in Champagne in the Belle Epoque, Duke University Press and Society for French Historical Studies, 1999
Le Baron Ponsardin, Société des Amis du Vieux Reims, 1952
Levy, Darline Gay; Applewhite, Harriet Branson; Durham Johnson, Mary, Women in Revolutionary Paris, 1789–1795, University of Illinois Press, 1979
Mazzeo, Tilar J., The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It, Harper Perennial, 2008
Troyat, Henri, Alexander of Russia: Napoleon’s Conqueror, Transla
ted from the French by Joan Pinkham, Grove Press, 1982
Uzane, Octave, Fashion in Paris: The Various Phases of Taste and Aesthetics in Paris from 1797 to 1897, William Heinemann, 1898
Texts from Veuve Clicquot Krug Ruinart
The Roots of a Historic Vineyard, The House of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, 2012
Une Promenade dans le Petit Marais Rémois, 2005
The 1811 Comet, Veuve Clicquot Heritage, 2014
A Voyage to a Triumphant Return in Russia Summer 1814, Veuve Clicquot Heritage, 2014
Acknowledgements
With warmest thanks to Nick for being there; Katja Willemsen for being a brilliant collaborator and all-round pixie; my editor, Ellen Gleeson, for her insights; my agent, Kiran Kataria, for believing in me; Isabelle Pierre from Veuve Clicquot Krug Ruinart for her invaluable help and access to the archives; Paul MacKenzie-Cummins for my other career, without which this would not have been possible; Christine, Beth, Andrew, Sam and Grace for endless encouragement; Jemima for just being lovely; and to Rosalie and Michael, where it all began.
Published by Bookouture in 2021
An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Helen Fripp, 2021
Helen Fripp has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-80019-305-5
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
