Rose anne de pampelonne biography of mahatma

In the beginning, there was a bed, a sumptuous 1940s relic with leafy silvered legs and a neo-Baroque headboard.

But Rose Anne de Pampelonne didn't intend to use it for sleeping. Instead she placed it in a corner of her new living room in Paris, swathed it with silk velvet and brocade, and piled it with comfortable cushions—much to the puzzlement of associates of her bank-president husband, Bruno.

Your guide will take you on an extensive tour of the buildings designed by architects Jean Nouvel and Christian de Portzamparc, explaining the history behind.

They still can't quite fathom why anyone would install a bed in a public space. For Pampelonne, a fashion and interior designer, though, its presence evokes romantic images of Greta Garbo lounging about in the 1936 movie Camille—and also provides anyone perching there a firm sense of place.

"You look up at the ceiling with all those moldings," she asserts, "and you say to yourself, 'This is France!'"

Not far from the Invalides, the home of Baron and Baroness Bruno de Pampelonne is one of a mirror-image pair of opulent limestone mansions