The house was originally built in 1908 as an hotel particulier, a majestic private residence. Today, number 9 Rue Octave Feuillet is a Lyc ée Professionel – an exclusive vocational high school specialising in preparing its pupils for craft careers in the haute couture industries: embroidery, millinery, making of artificial flowers. Rue Octave Feuillet is just off the Avenue Victor Hugo and a couple of blocks from the Bois de Boulogne. Just the sort of district where we would expect our gentleman to keep his friends.
“with its ornate 19th-century buildings, large avenues, prestigious schools, museums, and various parks … has long been known as one of French high society’s favourite places of residence (comparable to London’s Kensington and Chelsea), to such an extent that the phrase le seizieme has been associated with great wealth in French popular culture.” Starting with the address, we note that Rue Octave-Feuillet is in Paris’s 16 th arondissement, which, according to Wikipedia: Let’s see what we can find out about him. Someone with a not-French name who took the trouble to have expensive personalised stationery printed. Our Scottish gentleman was staying in Paris with another gentleman. It only starts to get interesting when we read what is printed on the flap of the envelope:Īha! So the envelope didn’t belong to a hotel. He places the envelope in the cigar box which he keeps for just this purpose, and he places the cigar box in his travelling dressing case.
So he takes a small handful of leftover Italian lire coins out of his pocket and places them in an envelope which he has taken from a neat pile of stationery on the desk or writing table of the room in which he is staying. He leaves Italy and arrives at his next destination, where the local currency is the French franc.
A very rich gentleman is travelling through Europe. When the envelope was found within a cigar box in the suitcase it contained a dozen or so Italian coins of small denominations, the latest of which was dated 1932. Instead, written in faded ink on the front in cursive script are the words “Italian Change”. I don’t think it has ever been used for correspondence or sealed, because there’s no address or stamp on the front and the gum on the flap appears intact. It was a good-quality piece of stationery in its day, but now it’s dirty, crumpled and has a big tear. The envelope in question is 15 x 11 cms, made in thin off-white paper with a blue tissue paper lining.
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