Yesterday K/ S said:you've had the coolest jobs! You ain't seen nothin' Sweetie Darling.
Paul Bocuse, Champagne Mumm's ambassador, suggested I do artwork for them and made introductions.
They gave me a test assignment. Come up with a big group drawing they could gift their employees of tons of celebrities drinking Mumm. Can you spot Kate Moss? One of the Seagrams brothers is embracing a big bottle.
*Note everyone is holding their glass by the stem. Never hold a champagne glass by the 'bowl'. Mustn't warm up those bubbles.
The group drawing led to a portrait promotion program. Mumm wanted portraits painted directly onto Mumm bottles. I imagined my living room a sea of Mumm jeroboams. Last minute I suggested they printing their label design on my watercolor paper. I ended up with neat stacks of printed Champagne labels. 
One of the perks? I stayed at the Mumm mansion in Reims.
The Champagne countryside is magnificent. There's a new fast TGV from Paris that takes just an hour. Don't miss it.
I also stayed a week at Veuve Clicquot's country estate in Verzy.Moi and a giant refrigerator full of Champagne jeroboams.
They said,
"Do help yourself"
Right!"
Someone popped with petit dejeuner in the morning. The rest of the time I communed with grapevines. They still use straw baskets to pick the grapes in Champagne.
There's a lot of partying in the Champagne Biz. Servers are dress up as old-fashioned cellar men. They used to turn the resting Champagne bottles.
Very fun to draw.
This is not me embracing the giant Mumm bottle. That's my French boss.This is me partying at the Chelsea Arts Club Belle Epoche Ball held at London's Albert Hall. We dressed up as characters from Degas/Lautrec paintings. I went as a Degas dancer.
Roger, the club concierge, said,
"If you add one more ribbon to that outfit, you'll look like a dog's dinner."
Don't you just love the Brits. Pass the Bolly Sweetie Darling
It requires all your French politesse to divide those cookies in a genteel manner, without grabing your favorite flavor first. You always turn the plate to your guest and offer her/him the first cookie. I guess that's why I always go alone - no sharing.
