Pierre Is Baaaaack. . .!

My Chanel brooch.

A few days ago I mentioned most of the people in my life who make it so pleasant and account for one of the major reasons I love living in France. 

I believe I left Pierre off that list. That's because he did have his boutique in the town near ours, but decided he wanted more sun and headed off to the South of France.

Pierre is my jeweler. He has made some amazing pieces for me and has performed the magical. He has taken jewels given to me in the past by -- let's see, how shall I phrase this (?) -- what I came to realize were despicable persons. (Well, to be honest only one deserves that qualifier. The others were unpleasant or simply, as my mother would have said, "Not suitable.")

No matter. Pierre took the sapphire and diamonds right off its ring and turned the stones into a clasp for the pearls given to me by my first husband. I turned the lovely piece over to my daughter as an engagement present. There were a few other bits like that. A stunning,  read very large, emerald cut aquamarine given to me by my mother-in-law whom I adored btw, but was never set. He made a pendant out of it with diamonds that were around my mother's engagement ring. Andrea received that as a wedding present -- "something old, something new, something blue." In retrospect I should have lent it to her, that way she would have had "something borrowed" and I would still have the bijou. (It's a joke, Drea.)

Pierre is a Buddhist. He explained to me that if one follows the teachings one learns that good always comes out of bad so he believed -- and convinced me with little effort -- that I was changing the karma of these pieces. (Need I add that in the back of my mind I was thinking, "If good comes from bad, I wonder if bad comes from good?" I didn't venture down that path.)

Now with the new year he has decided to make monthly visits to our little corner of the world and since I have a couple of ideas for him, I'm off.

I will be taking my Chanel brooch with me. It has a wiggly pearl which I'm always afraid will drop off and I would be desolate.