The Rosenstadt caprice

It is sometimes with hind sight that we realize the background, the ideas and the real stature of the people we come across in our lives. This is how Tanguy Nouvel realized, many years later, what the intellectual scope and moral limits of Fleur Rosenstadt's mother had been.  Tanguy met the two women one evening at a meeting of the Cercle francophile that had been held in one of the plush buildings on Wilshire Boulevard. Fleur looked like a little marquise, with her blond hair pulled back, her powdered cheeks and her large eyes highlighted with black. Her parents had come to chaperone her in this very social gathering, where some members of the French embassy sometimes came. It was a rally-evening, a ball of the pretenders in the fashion of Los Angeles. Tanguy was only an exotic element of the decor. He didn't understand this until much later.

Fleur's mother was a smiling brunette who spoke perfect French. She had studied literature at the Sorbonne and was clearly nostalgic about her stay in the City of Light.

She spoke to Tanguy about René Daumal. Tanguy had never heard of him and didn't care much about René Daumal. So she let it go and continued to speak to him gently.

Fleur's father, a settled doctor, kept a bored and polite reserve in this circle where people spoke in a language he ignored and despised. He pleased Madame.

Tanguy had spent the evening conversing very pleasantly with Madame Rosenstadt-mother. She and her husband had been young students in the 1970s.  As young spouses in the New World, they had lived the hippie years, generous and sterile.  They had finally settled down and thought about how to shine in society in a different way.

Mr. Rosenstadt studied medicine at the University of Grenada until October 1983, when Ronald Reagan, the American president, decided to militarily crush the pro-Cuban government of Bernard Coard in order to put an end to the Vietnam trauma and the recent provocations of the mullahs in Iran.

This episode of the Cold War was codenamed "Operation Urgent Fury". It allowed the Rosenstadt couple to experience a political-military adventure without great risk. They kept some exotic memories of the island, but over the years they erased the somewhat idealistic dreams of their youth to be able to sink into the exceptional setting of the hill of Bel Air where they now owned a beautiful villa, in the shade of the trees.

Tanguy was invited there by his mother and discovered the enchanting setting in which Fleur was growing up.  The father became a little annoyed with this young Frenchman who was not content with fancy parties, but still came to impose his presence and his so-called dusty culture on his home. He sulked vaguely and did not show much enthusiasm for young Tanguy.

It must be said that Mr. Rosenstadt had a practice in the city center where he was making a fortune. If his wife was a brilliant linguist and passionate about high French culture, he was a doctor and the sole contributor to the family's social standing. This villa, its trees, its grounds, its neighborhood, was all his family's fault, Mr. Rosenstadt. He did not intend to share it with all the young French slumlords passing through. He was probably hoping for another party for his daughter, one more in keeping with the social milieu in which he wanted to operate.  The city, if only in the nearby hills, was home to a considerable number of well-born young Americans with a promising future. Why on earth would he insist on hanging out with penniless Frenchies? From the top of Mr. Rosenstadt's house, European culture, the charm of the French language, and his wife's romantic memories were not worth much in dollars.

Tanguy paid little attention to Monsieur Rosenstadt. He was won over by Madame Rosenstadt, and her daughter. They both knew his language, and were the bridge between France and this continent. That was enough to enchant him. Especially since the young Fleur and her mother invited him several times to parties she attended in the beautiful parts of the city. One day Fleur would invite him to her sports club, another he would be invited to join her at a party with her friends or to accompany her and her mother to an opera. It had to be said that the cultural life of the female members of the Rosenstadt family was far superior to anything young Tanguy had ever known.

The generosity of the two women was astonishing. Tanguy was indeed penniless, but he was never made to feel it. He was simply invited to join the family.

Perhaps they were happy to be able to amaze this young Frenchman, perhaps he was really interesting for the two women. He never knew, but he also knew other families in the city who had enviable social situations and who did not hesitate to share them with him in the same simple way. Perhaps they appreciated his education, his way of expressing himself, of thinking. Perhaps he was just a temporary recreation?

Fleur's interest in Tanguy dissipated one day. The young Fleur frequented circles which, if they were not noble, were much more wealthy. One of Fleur's friends, for example, was a Eurasian who gave a good idea of the mentality of the group. She had been the baby-doll of a foreign billionaire for over a year, who let her enjoy his car and his pied-à-terre during the year. One day, the billionaire had demanded the return of his car and the keys to his apartment. The beauty had found another sucker, an English banker who had been naive enough to let her put a ring on his finger. The rest was up for auction. Tanguy was not very comfortable in this Hollywood world, so he did not insist when Fleur stopped contacting him. He understood that he had stopped being amusing.

Unfortunately, he also had to do without the company of Fleur's mother.  It would have been awkward to visit the mother without seeing the daughter. Especially since, shortly before he fell from grace, he learned some very sad news: Fleur had a half-sister. Mr. Rosendstadt had given a child "to a friend.

Madame Rosendstadt, in return, "consoled herself" with others, including a friend of Tanguy's. The latter was shocked by these New World customs.  He judged it unwise to keep any contact with these wealthy people of Bel Air, who were decidedly too dangerous for his last illusions. 

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