Celebrate with Champagne in a Coupe

After the holiday time for drinking egg nogs, hot toddies, and wassails, much of the world ends the year on a zippy and festive note with champagne. I love to drink champagne from the glamorous coupe glass.

Champagne drinkers may tell you that the broad surface of the coupe allows champagne to lose its bubbles more quickly, making it less suitable for very dry champagnes. However, the coupe is very good for allowing you to fully smell the champagne. I find I can solve the bubble problem just by drinking my champagne a little bit faster!

Julia Child tried to save her bubbles from a bottle of Dom Pérignon with a stopper. She proved that the champagne was still bubbly three days later.

Dom Pérignon is credited with inventing champagne. He understood the art of blending and used grapes from different parcels of the local farmers.

Champagne was the drink of nobility. Think about the French court at Versailles. They publicized their status by the vessel from which they treated themselves with champagne.

The coupe glass is often claimed to have been modeled from Marie Antoinette’s breast down to the enunciated nipple grooved on the base of the stand. The coupe actually has its origins rooted in England but I find Marie Antoinette’s story to be more memorable (and a bit more of an ice breaking conversation starter on New Year’s Eve).

I think the coupe is so glamorous especially after watching one of my favorite movies from 1942, Casablanca. I like to imagine myself as Ingrid Bergman toasting with hunky Humphrey Bogart. Casablanca has many toasts that work well for a New Year’s Eve celebration. Some of my favorites:  Here’s looking at you kid, To America, and We’ll always have Paris.

Coupes were all the rage through the 1930s-1960s. Places like the New York’s Stork Club popularized the coupe in the 1930s when celebrities drank champagne from the coupe. We may see the romantic coupe today at weddings near the ever so popular champagne fountain.

If you’re not drinking champagne in your coupe you could always use it for a sorbet or daiquiri.

Champagne was and still is linked to celebration. Here’s to drinking many glamorous glasses of champagne in a coupe in 2012! As Marie Antoinette would have said to her court, Bonne année et bonne santé! Happy New Year to all!

Catherine de Medici: Italian Duchess, French Queen, Renaissance Legend

Caterina de Medici was a survivor! She was born in Florence, Italy in 1562 and was raised without parents, orphaned as an infant then taken hostage during the Italian Wars. The young Duchessina (little Duchess) was wanted dead at thirteen and locked up in a convent. She cut her hair all off and wore a nun’s habit hoping it would keep people from hurting her. Thanks to her Uncle Clement, the Pope who came to her rescue, at fourteen she was betrothed to King Henry II of France. This united two of the most powerful families in Europe.  

Catherine de Medici was short and had the distinct Medici look (long nose and dark round fiery eyes). She was not beautiful but she was (and still is) unforgettable. Catherine brought many things to the French table. She was a true Renaissance Queen acquainting France to: the first high heeled shoe, the fork, underwear, the side-saddle, fortune tellers, folding fan, ice cream, artichokes and more.

My favorite thing that she introduced (and the reason I grew up knowing her name) is ballet! She was a huge patron of the arts and brought ballet over from Italy. Yes, ballet was originally Italian!! The Ballet Comique de la Reine was the first ballet performance and Catherine was the instigator bringing over Italian masters to choreograph the dance. The court was so impressed with the ballet that they tried to copy similar dances then eventually replaced Italian ballet masters with French, and that’s why the language of ballet became French.

Catherine had a love of architecture as well, and this can be viewed today as we appreciate the building of the Louvre and also the construction of the Tuieleries gardens.

Photos: Catherine de Medici to the left, Comique de la Reine ballet above right, and a Court ball at the Louvre below.

In addition to all of the above she had a love for astrology and was friends with Nostradamus who advised Catherine until his death. She also had a fellow Florentine, Cosimo who was her herbalist. She had a collection of potions, perfumes, and readings that she believed strongly in and sought comfort in when something seemed amiss. Catherine herself was known for having “visions” and was open to knowing the future.

King Francis I was happy to gain fourteen-year-old Catherine from Florence with her large dowry and his grand scheme of taking a chunk of Italy. The two of them got along famously because they shared a love of dance, art, and beauty. Francis actually bought the Mona Lisa from Leonardo da Vinci himself. Catherine’s father-in-law was a big influence on her artistically and politically.

Unfortunately for Catherine there was great difficulty in getting her husband Henry to come to bed with her. He had a relationship with his former older nanny, Diane de Poitiers, who held his love and heart for the rest of his life. I read that both the father-in-law and Henry’s mistress, Diane, would watch them in bed to assist in the making of an heir. Poor Catherine, can you imagine?

Ten years after Catherine and Henry were married they finally got busy and produced ten children and several heirs to the throne. Francis II (married Mary, Queen of Scots), Elizabeth (married Philip II, King of Spain), Claude (married Charles III, Duke of Lorraine), Charles IX (married Elizabeth of Austria), Henry III (married Louise of Lorraine), Margot (married and divorced Henry of Navarre, later Henry IV, King of France) and Hercules (Duke of Alencon) . 

 Catherine’s three last children did not survive infancy. Catherine’s three sons who reigned were in constant religious war between the Catholics and the Huguenots (French Protestants). Catherine (a Roman Catholic) constantly tried to reconcile the religious groups and was trusted by neither group. She favored the Catholics but was open to making peace. That’s why she felt it important to marry Margot to Huguenot Henry, who converted twice during this war.

Once things seem to be going well for Catherine, tragedy struck again and she lost her husband in a horrible jousting accident at the wedding celebrations for their daughter Elizabeth. He lost an eye and died ten days later.

The only surviving member of the Royal Valois dynasty was Margot (Catherine’s youngest daughter) who I find to be the most fascinating of all Catherine’s children. Famous for her sense of style and beauty she was the muse of the court. She deeply loved Henry of Guise, but her mother wouldn’t allow her to marry him because the Guise family threatened to control the throne. She was forced to marry Henry II of Navarre because Catherine thought it would bring religious peace between the Catholics and Huguenots. Margot saved the lives of several Protestants, keeping them in her rooms and refusing to admit the assassins. She was famous for her scandalous behavior, taking many lovers and was imprisoned by her brother Henry III for eighteen years. She wrote her memoirs while imprisoned and later inspired Shakespeare’s comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost and Dumas’ 1845 novel and 1994 movie La Reine Margot.

Photos: Margot de Valois above right, Jeanne de Navarre to the left, and Catherine de Medici below.

As a mother, Catherine de Medici protected her children to the end, but France always came first. She was a Queen who fought for peace and was wrongly accused for some of the worst crimes: the murder of Jeanne of Navarre (Margot’s mother-in-law), the murder of Gaspard de Coligny (the Huguenot leader), poisoning her brother-in-law, and two sons, and planning the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (which killed thousands of Huguenots).

I think of Marie Antoinette, who like Catherine de Medici was not French. Even thought they were centuries apart, the Austrian princess and Italian duchess had a lot in common (not just their sense of style). Each came to France at the age of fourteen, threatened the French culture and they were scorned for not producing an heir right away. They were also both to blame for crimes they did not commit; Marie’s “Affair of the Necklace” and Catherine’s “Massacre of St. Bartholomew.”  The famous Queens’ put France first, but France failed to appreciate them; they were regarded as the enemy and wrongly misjudged.

Catherine de Medici did the best she could as a Queen and mother during her reign; she desperately wanted peace for France and some appreciation for all she had fought for. Catherine once said to the Queen of Navarre, “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.” This says a lot to me about the kind of person she was; a survivor who was doing the best she could in her difficult circumstance. She lived to be sixty-nine and I imagine her heart was tired, sad, and burdened by what she felt had been a “thankless” life.

Marie Antoinette and her upside-down fairy tale

You know that question...if you could invite anyone to dinner, who would it be? I would so invite Marie Antoinette!

Born Maria Antonia the 15th daughter of Maria Theresia, Empress of Austria, Marie Antoinette was a loving mother and wife whose story is like an upside-down fairy tale. I resonate with Marie Antoinette because like her, I adore the arts, fashion, chocolate, flowers, dance and music. More than that, my family and friends mean the world to me. If I could go back in time I would want to hug her and help her; she was such a good person.

God Bless her Habsburg heart! The Hapsburg house of Austria was the oldest royal house of Europe and the empress proudly gave Marie away to the enemy, France. Marie requested to be addressed in French the moment she stepped on French soil so she could embrace her new French self and leave her native German tongue forever. She never said, "Let them eat cake!" She was not ignorant or rude! She was a good hearted and kindly Queen who tried to aid the poor of her country because she knew it was her duty. The French disliked her from the beginning because she was not French! She was an Austrian princess who threatened the French culture.

Photo: Marie Antoinette with her four children: Marie Thérèse, Louis Joseph, Louis Charles, and Sophie Béatrix painted by her friend Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun

Her true character became more apparent after the birth of her children. She had so much compassion and did everything she could for Austria and France. Marie was a devout Catholic and did what her mother (Maria Theresia) told her. Marie and her mother had more of a business relationship than a loving mother/daughter bond. Marie Antoinette very much always wanted to be a mother herself. She wanted to devote the attention to her own children that she felt she did not receive as a child.

Marie Antoinette was a loving wife and mother above everything. What pulls on my heart the most is that she breastfed her own child when they had an abundance of hearty wet nurses. She did it because she loved wholeheartedly and wanted to be with her babies (this was uncharacteristic for royalty). From what I've read about France, they have never been a country to breastfeed because their breasts are thought to be for their husbands not their children. Marie made sure she was involved with her children in every way, especially their education. Marie grew up with everything under the sun; then went to live at the "Sun King's" Palace of Versailles. Talk about a fairy tale! But, Marie did not let her kids grow up the same way. She didn't give them everything, exposed them to poverty, and was careful not to spoil them.

I love Marie Antoinette! What I love the most is the incredible love she had for her children. I think she was extremely unselfish for giving up her heritage and family (she never saw her mother again once she left).

She was not perfect! But I've always thought it's the imperfections that make people so very beautiful. The mistakes she made, she made because she was bored. She immersed herself into a life of pleasure and careless extravagance because of this boredom. This included masked balls in Paris, gambling, and extravagant fashion (honestly, who could blame her). Her husband, bless his pudgy heart, was as slow as a French snail consummating their marriage! It was seven years before this happened. Of course being a foreign woman, she was to blame and scorned for her inability to produce an heir.

Once she had children she spent less time gambling and more with her family. She was nicknamed "Madame Deficit" because of her hobbies, gambling and fashion. There was also the "Affair of the Necklace" which she was framed for.

Marie just wanted to be loved. Imagine growing up without praise, hugs, and attention then leaving your family at 14...She had a bond with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart whose mother's attention he was always trying to gain. Mozart and Marie were close in age and played together as children. They both desired to please and capture the love and affection of their mothers.

She very much cared for and respected her husband, Louis XVI! She had a small close and supportive inner circle of friends who she could trust and supported her to the end including the Princess de Lamballe and Count Axel von Fersen.

I so would have liked to come to Marie's defense seeing how the French treated her so unfairly. If you take anything from this, let it be Marie was a wonderful mother. She said, "I have seen all, I have heard all, I have forgotten all." Marie will never be forgotten.

Do you know anyone like Marie Antoinette that you would like to invite to dinner?