April in Paris
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Kevin Godbee - Dec 1, 2014
- 8 min read
Alan Schwartz
April in Paris: From the classic tune by Vernon Duke to Count Basie’s big band playing it "’One More Time," this souvenir of our cultural history transcends generations. PipeSMOKE visits Paris in the spring and tags along as George Fricker, in town on extended business, decides one morning to buy a new pipe. With photographer Pierre Vauthey, we followed George to a few of the best smokeshops and recorded how he found not only the briar roots he wanted, but the blossoms of romance. Here is the treatment for our story.
In the cafe on a mild Saturday morning, George sits alone, content after coffee and croissant, smoking his well-used briar, reading the newspaper, humming:
April in Paris… Chestnuts in blossom… Holiday tables under the trees…
April in Paris… This is a feeling… No one can ever reprise …
No office to go to, no business lunch, no telephone, fax, email demanding attention. No Sabine … no more. Nothing but April in Paris; a warm, soft day. What to do? Call Lisa? She sleeps ’til noon on weekends. Max? He’d be out playing tennis. Oh well, Paris is a walker’s city, so George can wander and find what he doesn’t know he’s looking for. It is the kind of day not to make plans, but to let them happen. As the French poet, Mallarme, once wrote, "a throw of the dice never … will abolish chance."
A short amble to the riverbank and the bookstalls, to browse and maybe find some new/old book he’d like. A painter sets his easel on the street to catch the first glut of tourists wandering across the Seine from the Louvre on the opposite bank. Teenage American girls wearing coordinated grunge uniforms took through stacks of used CDs and talk too loudly. Then, on a bookstall with large art books, there is a sizable tome on pipes. Beautiful pictures of gleaming briar polished to show the highlights, a cornucopia of tobacco spilling its contents across a two-page spread. The book is too big to carry around all day. He’ll come back another time. But George knows now what to do today.
It is the perfect day to buy a new pipe, and he has all the time he needs, with no one to answer to. Alone – not that he wanted it that way – he can indulge himself.
He turns his aim towards the hub of the 6th arrondissement, the "Latin Quarter," where Boulevard Saint-Germain crosses the Boulevard Saint-Michel, the center of student and intellectual life in Paris. Shades of Picasso, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Matisse haunt the cafes and side streets, bookshops and galleries. There at 24, Boulevard Saint Michel, is Au Caid, on the same corner it has occupied since 1878, its classic oak fittings a throwback to the way George likes pipeshops to look, except that this one is authentic, time-honored.
Looking in Au Caid’s window, George spots a few unusual pipes that speak to his sensibility, and enters the shop. Mme. Schmitt, the fourth generation of her family to own Au Caid since its founding, attends to George herself. A glance at him and the classic "neogene" (billiard) he held, and Mme. Schmitt pulls out a bin of standard shapes by Chacom and Butz-Choquin, the two major French pipe manufacturers, whose stock fills three-quarters of her inventory.
But George isn’t keen on a classic. He admires two hand-carved bent pipes, one by Chacom’s master turner, Pierre Morel – with his hallmark elongation of the bowl top – and the other from Butz-Choquin. George buys both. "Must be nice to myself today," he tells Au Caid’s owner, and asks her to send the pipes to the address on his business card. "Something more modern to take with me?" he asks. "A designer look, perhaps?" George needs to break the mold today … adventure in a small way.
The proprietress shows him a Chacom "Volute," an award winning design with sculpted flowing lines and an inventive use of molded acrylic fused to the briar. George is hooked. "It is worthy of a museum exhibit," he comments. "A lot of younger men are looking for the more modern pipes," Mme. Schmitt tells him. "The ‘Danish’ style," she says, "is coming back into fashion."
On the footbridge crossing the Seine, George thinks to take a look at the Monet "Waterlilies" in the Orangerie. Deciding that the Volute is calling to be smoked, George lights up, only to find that he can’t smoke in the museum. He returns to the left bank, trailing fragrant smoke past the Musee d’Orsay, the brilliant architectural adaptation of an old railway station to an art museum (mostly modern), past the palace housing the Foreign Office, where he has spent the past week negotiating for a client, past the regal esplanade of Des Invalides. A left turn onto the Rue Surcouf brings him to the SEITA Museum (tobacco history, art, and artifacts), where the bookshop has the same book that inspired him earlier, but new and for less money. He arranges to have it sent home to New York.
An automatic impulse puts him in a taxi en route to the Avenue Victor Hugo, not far from the Arc de Triomphe, one of the city’s posh districts. Not until he pays the fare does he realize that he doesn’t live here anymore. Sabine still does, but the concierge regards him with suspicion, as always, and says that his ex is gone for the weekend.
For old time’s sake, George stops in at Lemaire, just down the street at 59, Avenue Victor Hugo, feeling a bit like one of Les Miserables himself. Mme. Pihan, the proprietress, does her best to cheer him up by bringing out a rare packet of tobacco – "La Escepcion" from Havana, which he likes to mix in with his regular blend for a change of pace – that she’d put aside for him. Touched by her kindness, George looks at her pipes, but they’re mostly classic shapes, and Dunhills at that. He gets those in London. Couple of nice Larsens and Savinellis and a vintage Charatan, but he decides to pass. This is where he used to buy his cigars regularly: best Cubans in Paris. With an au revoir and a’ bientot, he’s off, grateful for her kindness and discreet, knowing silence.
There are two pipes he left for repair at A La Pipe du Nord in the 10th arrondissement. The shop, owned by the Voisin family for five generations, has been in the Boulevard Magenta since 1867, at its present location at 21 Boulevard Magenta since 1935, near the Place de la Republique.
Pierre Voisin, the current owner, is a skilled repairman, possibly the best in Paris. A deft touch on the buffing wheel, and the old, worn pipe George started the day with looks brand new.
"I can resist anything but temptation," George tells Voisin as he looks through a selection of virgin briars made in Saint Claude for A La Pipe du Nord. "True pipe connoisseurs will buy only virgin briar, because they know the true taste of tobacco it produces," Voisin says. "In France, they want the classics: billiards, bulldogs, and bents. The pipe is an instrument to bring out the pleasure of tobacco, like a wine glass or brandy snifter." An expert on detail and a collector of historic pipes and accessories, Pierre Voisin ought to know. He acts as technical advisor and supplier of smokers’ items for many of France’s stage, film, and television set, and costume designers.
George chooses two virgin-briar classics, a bent and a billiard with a tight-knit birdseye grain. Voisin approves: "A connoisseur’s choice," he says.
Next stop is Le Pot a Tabac at 28 Rue de la Pepiniere, near the Mace St. Augustin, because George wants some new tobacco. Spring in Paris demands a new beginning, and Monsieur Lafont is one of the few French tobacconists who opens every tin and pouch, and keeps samples in labeled airtight jars.
Behind the counter, a friendly blond woman with a bright smile suggests two English-style mixtures that George has never tried. Intrigued by her, George tells her that he’s considering buying a new pipe, just so he can linger awhile.
Monsieur La font overhears and begins to display his treasures, Chacom and Butz Choquin classics. "Oh no," says the blonde, taking over from her father, who introduces her as Jeanne. "A cool pipe is what Monsieur George wants. The taste of our generation," Jeanne says. She shows him a Volute, and George admires it dutifully, but says he owns one already. More pipes appear for his approval. Finally, after a heady half hour of answers in the form of questions – "Why have I never seen you here before? Have you never been in on a Saturday?" – he buys two: a Butz-Choquin "Millesime" (Pipe of the Year), and its Chacom counterpart. With his purchase in hand, George takes the plunge, asking Jeanne if she’ll have a drink with him at the café across the street. "If you hadn’t asked me, I would have asked you," she reveals. Outside, Jeanne laughs when he shows her the Volute he bought this morning and confesses that he’s bought seven pipes today. "And did they all come with women?" she asks, smiling. "None so beautiful," he answers.
"I never knew the charm of spring,
Never met it face to face.
I never knew my heart could sing,
Never missed a warm embrace, till April in Paris.
Whom can I run to,
What have yoyou done to my heart?"
PipeSMOKE Spring 98
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, à la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of Herbstdüfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 631. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with pipe maker Dan Keller from Good Made Better. Dan is from South Dakota. Growing up working in the family hardware store where he was always finding solutions to fixing things, he ended up always wanting to make things. He now makes elegant handmade pens, pen holders, portable desks, blotters, blotting paper, book carry cases, and of course artisan pipes. At the top of the show we are continuing the virtual tour of Brian’s pipes with his “f#@k you pipes”.
Well done! Was George a real pipe smoker, or just a model chosen for his great hair? Was there any follow-up to Jeanne & George?
Ha ha ha! That’s funny Al! I have no idea on either.
Entertaining article for sure.
Thanks.
Yes, George was/is a real pipe smoker. As to his liaison with Jeanne, I have no idea what happened after the drink, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell. Author