Check out my review of artisan umbrella maker Michel Heurtault in the current spring issue of T Magazine.

I heard from Michel earlier today that he’s already been flooded with calls from all over the USA, including Texas curiously enough. I can’t think of anyone who deserves the attention more.

Congratulations Michel! In case you missed it, you can read the full interview with Michel here.

Text by Alison Culliford*, illustration & photos by Fabrice Fortin

In a world of crashing bottle-banks and traffic noise, where we cocoon ourselves in our i-Pod bubbles, the revelation of superior sound can be a doors-of-perception experience.

When a stereo-buff friend took me to La Maison du Haut Parleur promising an extra-sensory treat, a visit to an opium den would not have had a more profound effect. We sat in the sweet spot on two directors’ chairs, and Monsieur Gest delicately placed the needle on a record. An oboe began its plaintive song; a cello answered and as the orchestra swelled the music resonated in our very bones.

Closing your eyes, you are not just in the best concert hall in the world, but in the instrument itself.

Bruno Gest is a self-deprecating man, so much so that he would not be photographed for our feature. He has run La Maison du Haut Parleur for 34 years and is soon to retire, handing the business over to his associate Christian Robert and young employee Romain Aubry.

Inside the inconspicuous shop, a mass of boxes and electrical gubbins fills the front. At the back are examples of their speaker kits. Essentially they provide the boomers and tweeters, which they have sourced from the best manufacturers, and will put you in touch with a cabinet-maker who will construct the box around them. “Or if you’re into DIY you can construct it yourself,” says Gest. “Both options enable you to have a far better speaker for your budget that if you bought it from a major manufacturer.”

They also sell speakers from French specialist companies such as Focal and Atohm, and have a repair workshop recently patronized by a “very famous French actor,” though discretion prevents these gentlemen from divulging his name.

But it is the sound theater downstairs that makes this place unique and is where the Blakean moment can be had. With Monsieur Gest’s large desk on one side, it has a Doctor No’s lair feel about it. The secret weapon kept down here is the Aeria Système, two huge speakers with a monumental 1930s look, whose 85cm high bass block is topped by a hand-turned acacia wood horn reminiscent of a vintage gramophone.

“The form sweeps the sound outwards and the wood eliminates all resonance. It’s completely neutral,” explains Gest, who spent 18 years developing the system. This is true up to 120 dB, and led the tech-head critics of the review Prestige Audio Visuel to declare its rendition of a concert piano “belle à pleurer.” Its beauty is considerable, but it’s the sound that counts.

“Like everyone, we are just looking for the thing that pleases us. The MP3 generation has a different outlook, but there will always be people that appreciate this quality of sound.”

The problem is that once you’ve been transported by the Aeria System nothing else is good enough. It takes you to another world, conjuring dreams of a loft apartment with a single Le Corbusier chair from which angels will serenade you. If you have one, you can join the 1000 or so people in the world who have crossed the threshold into perfect sound.

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Prices: Kits (from 78€), Aeria Système (6,000€)
Delivery time: 1 month.
Contact: La Maison du Haut Parleur, 138 Avenue Parmentier, Paris 75011

*Alison Culliford is a freelance journalist based in Paris: alison.culliford@gmail.com

Snugly stylish sweaters are the most wanted items in a wardrobe. Without them, you may as well spend the winter in bed. That’s why I dream not of sparkly jewels or wads of cash but of owning an army of grannies who send me a steady supply of gorgeous handmade knits from November through March (yes, it’s that cold in Paris).

Turns out my fantasy isn’t all my own. Sylvia Toth, a Columbian designer who moved to Paris eight years ago, dreamed up a way to battle the bitter winter months by hiring a gang of knitters from her homeland. Lucky for us, she shares the handcrafted gems through WARMI, her artisanal fashion label.

Launched in 2008, WARMI is a Franco-Columbian brand that blends contemporary style with indigenous craftsmanship. Each collection is designed by Toth in Paris then produced in a remote mountainous village in Northern Columbia by a cooperative of women weavers. Though you’d think the name was just a funky new diminutive for “warm,” WARMI means “woman” in Quechua, one of the last living indigenous languages of the Andean region.

“The artisanal traditions in Columbia are very rich,” says Toth who discovered her knitting dream team at a native crafts festival during one of her habitual trips home. “Working with these women brings me back to my roots and builds a link between the two cultures,” says Toth who travels to Tausa several times a years to knit with the women and soak up the local color and traditions in order to feed it back into her designs.

Her whimsical animals motifs, for example, pay homage to masks worn during the annual Carnaval de Barranquilla. Inspired by their wild colors and  graphics, she invents new species for her women to stitch, infusing her knits with a playful, folklore wonder.

In addition to her meticulously stitched graphics are sculptural works that blend art and fashion. “I think of the designs as objects, not clothes, because my background is in design, not fashion,” says Toth who layers organic forms, like leaves in her Eva Bolera, or waves in her Capeline Pauline, to build irregular shapes and volumes.

From complex stitching and embroidered detailing to intricate assemblage, each woman in the cooperative has her own particular strength. Toth not only designs with each woman in mind, she also encourages them to flaunt their personal style, resulting in a collection ripe with charming irregularities and individual quirks.

In additional to their subtle stylistic signatures, each baby angora, naturally-dyed design is tagged with the knitter’s name and the number of hours she spent making it. So when you get compliments on your one-of-a-kind, handmade knit you know exactly who to thank.

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Prices: €50-500
Stocklist: click here for list of boutiques where WARMI is sold
Special Orders/Bespoke: ParisBAO can organize a visit to the WARMI showroom in Paris to commission a bespoke creation. Contact me for more details.

I write about some pretty unusual talents on this blog, but couture umbrella maker just might be my rarest find yet. That’s why I’m letting Michel Heurtault, owner of the fabulous umbrella shop, Parasolerie Heurtault, tell the story behind his flabbergasting art.
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“I’ve been obsessed with umbrellas from the time I was three. I have no idea why, but I could spend hours breaking them apart and studying how they opened and closed. I collected all of the umbrellas I could find, and by the time I was eight I was repairing them for people in my neighborhood. Needless to say, my parents thought I was nuts.

I moved from Toulon to Paris when I was eighteen and began working as a costume designer. I eventually opened my own company, Art ‘Scene, where I made costumes and corsets for film shoots, theatre productions as well as fashion houses such as Dior. I poured the most luxurious elements into my costumes.

Throughout the same period, I devoted all of my free time to making umbrellas and parasols. I didn’t want to make them in polyester and plastic like everyone else, so I started researching ways to waterproof and UV-protect noble materials, like lace, cotton, silk and linen. Anyone can put fabric on an umbrella, but my signature is to use only the finest materials, experiment with the cut, and handcraft the finishes so that it become a striking object with a soul.

I use an 18th century machine to cut my fabric into eight panels and then bend and shape them to create the curves and silhouette of the umbrella. The fabric needs to be as taught as possible. The sound of the umbrella when it opens, the stretching and tightening until it springs into place is a sign of quality. The more the fabric flutters the more it catches the wind like a sail, causing the umbrella to shake and break.

I do all of the detail and finishing by hand. I pad the ribs and smock the runners with fabric for aesthetic and practical reasons. It unifies the color of the design, prevents rusting, and helps the umbrella open and close more easily

I consider the umbrella to be a fashion accessory. Not only is it a beautiful item to carry in your hand, it gives you instant attitude and allure. I’m always shocked by the number of people who spend a ton of time and energy on their ensemble, but then ruin it with a revolting umbrella.

Instead of a cigarette, you have an umbrella to play with. It’s the final touch to a chic silhouette.

So many women come to me and say that they’d love to carry a parasol, but that it’s not really fashionable. And I tell them, ‘it’s not just about fashion, it’s about personal comfort.’ When you’re under an parasol you don’t sweat as much, you’re makeup doesn’t drip off, you’re not oppressed by the sun, and of course it’s great for protecting your skin.

Umbrellas have been vulgarized as disposable objects. We throw away 10 million per year in France and 33 million in the USA. During your grandmother’s era an umbrella was a luxury object, you bought one every year and when it broke, you had it repaired. I’m not obsessed with the past, I’m just thinking about a future that’s ecologically chic.”

Shop and Atelier Address: 91 Avenue Daumesnil, 75012, Paris
Price: Starting at €300

Over the last ten years hundreds of French fashion artisans have been given the ax at venerable houses by number crunching executives sending production overseas. But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure…especially when centuries-old savoir-faire is heaped high in the bin!

Taking advantage of luxury industry’s shortsighted greed and indifference towards its own heritage, Chavernet, a new Paris-based couture house, is putting Paris’ forgotten couturiers back to work.

While only two-years-old, Chavernet has already carved a visionary niche in the word of high-end fashion. Promising a modern take on old-style craftsmanship at remarkably tame prices, the brand is the clever brainchild of two Parisian entrepreneurs, Maxime Liebens and Armen Der Agopian

“Most luxury brands adhere to the ‘Made in France’ mystique, but the truth is that the majority of their clothing is constructed overseas,” explains Liebens, who named the brand after his great-grandmother, Louise Chavernet, one of the first women to own her own fashion atelier in Paris.

“We wanted to go back to the source of couture and produce dresses in Paris using the best materials and savoir-faire.”

What Chavernet offers its word-of-mouth, international clientele is as crazy as it is chic. In less than a week (aka the average length of their client’s trip to Paris) they will design, produce and deliver an original couture cocktail dress to your Paris abode.

Their signature LSDs (little silk dresses) are all made by hand in Paris by a team of expert dressmakers (a 92-yr-old insider pointed them to the city’s best) using end-of-season couture fabric sourced throughout Paris.

“There are a lot of clients who are fed up with the whole circus of shopping in a giant fashion flagship and who just simply want a beautifully handcrafted original dress.”

Chavernet’s “One Woman = One Dress” motto caters to a very real desire to own something stellar that no one else but you will ever be caught wearing. Less obvious, but nonetheless priceless, is the exhilarating experience of buying the dress, which goes something like this:

Step 1: Come to Paris, but before you do, make an appointment with Chavernet.
Step 2: Think about the dress of your dreams and collect visuals to help you describe it.
Step 3: Meet with the Chavernet commercial director, designer as well as the couturier assigned to make your dress. At the end of your meeting your measurements will have been taken and a rough sketch made of your dress.
Step 4: Receive a definitive sketch with material samples the next morning at your hotel.
Step 5: Once you have approved sketch and materials, a muslin prototype is produced and sent over for fitting.
Step 6: A second prototype is produced in your chosen fabric and sent over with a couturier for the final fitting.
Step 7: Once you give the okay, the dress is made and delivered to your hotel.
Step 8: Traipse around Paris in your fabulous, new, custom-made frock.

Just a word of advice: if you plan on fitting into your dress by the time it’s delivered, you might want to lay off the macarons.

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Price: 1000E-1500E, depending on complexity of design and choice of fabric and finishes.
Further reading: How Luxury Lost Its Luster (by Dana Thomas); Chère Haute Couture (by Janie Samet); Luxury Considered (report by Ledbury Research); Agenda Inc.

When Oprah got snubbed by Hermès a few years ago she should have immediately rung Chanel. Not Chanel, as in Coco Chanel, but Guy Chanel (yes, you heard me right).

Guy Chanel is a lone ranger on the high plains of fashion and home accessories. Working alone out of his atelier on the outskirts of Paris, he handcrafts a variety of one-of-a-kind designs using leather, crocodile, ostrich and other fine skins.

From saddles, handbags and wallets to belts, briefcases and even lamps, every Chanel creation is made-to-measure and constructed by hand using artisanal tools and techniques (ask him to show you the giant wooden tweezer he uses to hold small things in place when he sews).

By keeping production slow and steady, his solo operation turns out discreet, logo-less products of unparalleled quality and detail that are built to last several lifetimes.

Before launching out on his own in 1989, Chanel (whose name has no connection to the fashion brand) worked for fifteen years as a saddle maker for Hermès. At the time, everything in the company was made in the atelier above their flagship shop (now only saddles are made there, the rest is done in Pantin). So, when saddles orders were slow, Chanel would jump to bags and belts or any other small accessory that needed expert attention.

When he struck out on his own, this polyvalence set him apart from his peers and helped attract a diverse crowd of fine leather fans, from collectors, interior designers, and fashion stylists, to equestrians and even Michelin-starred chefs.

Unlike most artisans, Chanel caught the craftsman bug not through his family, but via a childhood passion for horses.

“I started riding when I was seven and rode competitively until I was twenty-five. Professionally, I wanted to do something linked to horses. I couldn’t be a jockey, because I was too tall. Veterinary, no, because I wasn’t good enough in school, so, I wound up making saddles.”

While saddles comprise only a quarter of his output today, they remain the heart and soul of his business and have earned him international recognition amongst the equestrian set. Riders from across the world, as well as aficionados that collect them as sculptures, swear by Chanel saddles for their show-stopping blend of comfort, beauty and performance.

“My clients have pretty classical tastes, so they’re more likely to play with color and materials than the design of the object.”

When you can build a saddle from scratch, a watchband may seem like child’s play, but Chanel pours equal attention into every one of his designs. Chanel admits that it takes the same amount of time for him to make a bag as a saddle (forty hours) while wallets belts and cardholders take a tenth of that.

In addition to made-to-measure designs, Chanel can also personalize, refurbish or repair. So if you’ve got a vintage accessory (Birkin or otherwise) that needs fixing up or some expert TLC, Chanel can give it a new lease on life.

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Prices vary depending on complexity of design and materials: handbags (1500-50,000 €); saddles (2800-25,000 €); wallets, card holders, change purses, belts (200-3000€).
Delivery: Count four-eight weeks.
Appointments: Contact me to be put in touch with Guy Chanel.

The last place you’d expect to find a master milliner is on a small Parisian street best known for its delicious udon noodles and bento box lunches. But authentic Japanese cuisine is just as rare as handmade hats in Paris, so their co-habitation on the rue Sainte Anne is not so odd after all.

Up a winding set of stairs behind a cobblestone courtyard is the discreet home of the renowned Maison Michel where for a price not more than some designer jeans, you could own a timeless, one-of-a-kind accessory that is guaranteed to turn heads.

Striking in its small, cozy configuration, the multi-room showroom and atelier hums with the sounds of straw weaving machines, seamstresses chattering, the shuffling of hand-written orders and the hissing of heaters baking fabric atop wooden hat molds.

Occupying the same space since its inception in 1936, Maison Michel was rescued from oblivion by Chanel’s Paraffection division in 1996 on their mission to save the heritage of struggling haute couture ateliers

Maison Michel is one of seven such ateliers d’art that now functions independently under the Chanel umbrella, supplying to their Mother Company as well as competing couture brands and independent clients in effort to keeps their skills impeccable honed. It is also listed as an Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (Living Heritage Company) along with Bijoux Commelin and hundreds of other French companies recognized for perpetuating traditional artisanal crafts.

Maison Michel’s private clients run the gamut from dandy to diva, and include men on a mission for made-to-measure fedoras, women plotting their flamboyant headgear for a day at the races and soon-to-be-brides looking for an original accoutrement to their wedding wardrobe.

After consulting at length with the brand’s art director, Ludovic Kornetsky, a design is crafted to order and then fabricated by hand on the premises. Count three weeks to two months for delivery and approx 300€ to 3,000€ per hat according to the complexity and material of the design.

Maison Michel Timeline

1936: Hatmaker Auguste Michel founds his company on rue Saint Anne in Paris
1975: After taking over the company with his wife, Claudine, Pierre Debard stocks the studio with refurbished Weissmanns, old straw sewing machine that allow for the creation of large, invisibly-stitched hats. These sizable, wide-brimmed hats catch the attention of designers such as Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent.
1980: Maison Michel starts making hats for couture and ready-to-wear fashion houses such as Chanel, Givenchy, Nina Ricci, Guy Laroche, Lanvin and Christian Lacroix.
1996: Chanel takes over Maison Michel
2006: The first Maison Michel Paris ready-to-wear collection designed by Laetitia Crahay, head of accessories and jewelry at Chanel, is launched worldwide.

Maison Michel Glossary

Bob (Sailor’s hat)—Small Breton hat generally made of fabric with an upturned brim.
Canotier (Boater)—Flat-topped straw hat with a narrow brim.
Capeline (Wide-brimmed)—Lady’s hat with a wide, flexible rim usually made of straw or horsehair.
Cloche (Cloche)—Hat with flared brim (e.g. pink hat above left)
Feutre (Felt)—Non-woven, waterproof fabric produced by matting and pressing hairs or wool (Maison Michel sometimes uses rabbit hair).
Forme (Block)—Full limewood mold in which hats are shaped (Maison Michel has more than 3,000).
La Couseuse (Seamstress)—While particularly cherished for thier fine craftsmanship of large, wide-brimmed, sewn straw hats, seamstresses also make “cut and sewn” hats such as sailor’s hats, caps and other cloche hats using patterns.
La Modiste (Milliner)—Working from an illustration, the milliner is in charge of designing the hat prototype using fabrics such as wool, cotton, silk and sometimes even leather. The milliner is also responsible for the hat finishings and trims.
Le Chapelier (Hatmaker)—Craftsman who shapes felt or straw, passes it through a steam box to moisten fabric, then stretches it on a limewood block before baking it in an oven to set exact shape.
Panama (Panama)—Men’s summer hat (though super chic on women) in very fine, soft, light straw plaited from thin strips cut from the leaves of a palm.
Weissmann—Rare, straw sewing machine capable of making large, invisible stitched hats.

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Price: 300€ to 3,000€ per hat according to the complexity and material of the design.
Timeframe: Count three weeks to two months for delivery.
Appointment: You may contact me to help schedule an appointment
Inside tip: If you can’t afford made-to-measure, opt for the house’s ready-to-wear collection which is distributed worldwide and fabricated using the brand’s famed artisanal techniques.

All images courtesy of Maison Michel

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Appointment with: Catherine Hervé, Meilleur Ouvrier de France in duchess lace
When: 2pm, February 17th, 2009
Where: Her weekly lacemaking class at a community center in Paris’ 15th arrondissement.
On the Agenda: Learn the secrets to handmade lace from France’s preeminent expert.
Glossary: Métier (cushion), gatlap (cloth with cut-out center), fuseaux (bobbins), fil (thread), grillé (grill-like pattern), toilé (cross-cross pattern)

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This might come as a shock, but before I discovered the haute handiwork of lace designer Catherine Hervé at a fair devoted to French artisans, the subject of handmade lace had never once flittered through my mind. (Crazy, I know!) Was it like crocheting? Did it require looms? Were there patterns? Easels? For the life of my, I just couldn’t picture how it was done, who was doing it, where they did it and why.

There was only one person I knew could solve this puzzle: the Queen of Lace herself.

In 2004, Hervé became the third person since 1924 to win the Meuilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman of France) title for duchess lace, giving her instant street cred as France’s leading practitioner of this painstaking craft.

After winning the MOF, Hervé traded in her job as a legal assistant to devote herself full-time to lace. By blending traditional techniques with non-conventional materials (colored threads, rayon, leather, wool, silk) she hopes to give the endangered medium a fresh, modern patina. In addition to creating her own original designs (which include three-dimensional lace sculptures, lace jewels, lace canvases, and lace appliqués for apparel) Hervé teaches the art of this mysterious medium each week to a growing number of devotees. From fashion designers and chatty grannies to summer tourists and this guy from Chartes who likes frog motifs, lace holds a seductive spell over a rather eclectic cast—one that I plan to temporarily join to witness the virtuoso at work.

So there I am one Tuesday afternoon sitting in on a lacemaking gathering at the community center out in Paris 15th where Hervé conducts her classes. Six women are seated around two rectangular tables. In each woman’s lap is a large circular pillow (métier) covered by a piece of blue cloth with a small circular cutout in its center (gatlap). The window of the fabric is placed over the section of the lace under construction, like a surgeon’s cloth during an operation. Peeking through the circle is a dash of lace with strands hanging out and down into a system of wood bobbins (fuseaux) that patter pleasantly when jostled about. Scalpels, spotlights, magnifiers, pins and patience are in abundance too; further adding to the strangely surgical, yet restorative energy in the room.

The women are each working on a beautiful lace pattern designed specifically for them by Hervé. An illustrator since childhood, Hervé first fell in love with lace as a way to bring tactility to her drawings.

Using cotton thread as fine as hair to create nature-inspired motifs (flowers, animals, leaves), the technique being taught is duchess bobbin lace, an extremely delicate type of lace name after the duchess of Brabant, Marie-Henriette of Austria who later became the Queen of Belgium. Patron of the arts and a lace fetishist, she popularized this new variety of lace introduced in the 1850s by adorning much of her royal wardrobe with it.

“Lace is the opposite of embroidery,” explains Hervé of the mystifying nature of her art. “Instead of applying thread to fabric, you create fabric with thread.”

Pins keep the pattern and threads in place on the pillow while the lace maker maneuvers her bobbins to create two different stitches: grillé, a grill-like pattern that controls density and thus contrast; and toilé, a criss-cross pattern that creates a fabric-like effect. The epitome of labor intensive, the average lace-maker clocks a whopping 1cm2 (roughly the size of a quarter) per hour. Even with exactly the same pattern, materials, and technical plan, however, it’s impossible to recreate the same effect twice. Handmade lace displays the unique style and characteristics of its maker.

So what are you waiting for? See how your signature style translates to lace at one of Hervé’s hands-on workshops. All courses are conducted in French, so you’ll need to bring a translator or study up.

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Sept-June: 414E per trimester (six, three-hour courses, twice monthly)
July-August: 69E (one three-hour class); week long summer workshops available by request.

A 21st century super hero of sartorial sensuality, artisan lingerie designer Louise Feuillère empowers women by building their bras, not burning them. Since she opened her adorable atelier-boutique on the aptly named “rue des Dames” in 2004, 35-yr-old Feuillère has been perking up the private lives of her privileged patrons with her couture and made-to-measure lingerie.

From superfine cotton panties with delicate lace trimming to sexy waist cinchers with velvet-covered ribbing, Feuillère’s confections are masterpieces of sensuality, technique, comfort and form.

“Lingerie sets the mood for the day,” says Feuillère, a sprightly, petite brunette with a mischievous smile and large coy eyes. “It’s the first decision you make when it comes to dressing. When you think of its impact on our daily disposition it takes on a dimension of well-being.” (Hear that ladies? Forget meditation, buy made-to-measure!!)

One of only a handful of designers to practice the fine art of handmade lingerie, Feuillère won the Meilleur Ouvrier de France title for lingerie-corsetry  (Best Craftsman of France) in 2007.  It took two months of quasi-monastic concentration to prepare the demanding MOF competition design (a 50s-inspired, 9-panel flounced “guepière” with lace-covered garters, two integrated mousse cups, a rigid breastplate and inlaid lace). The first time in over 30 years that a MOF was awarded to a designer for corsetry, her win was an amazing feat, especially for someone so new to the scene.

Despite her young age, Feuillère is custom fit for her role as the fresh face of luxury lingerie. Her credentials?

• Handmade heritage (grandma was a crochet-addict and grandpa an artisan-cobbler)
• A rich imagination and peculiar fascination for intimate spaces and their accoutrements (she says her apartment is one big bedroom)
• An amazing eye for line, texture, color and composition (she studied Art History before earning a degree in fashion design)
• Insider expertise gleamed from the best (her personal coach and guru, Christianne Mogenet, is the oldest corset maker in Paris)
• A “St. Bernard” instinct towards reviving sensuality (the right lingerie can be just what the doctor ordered!)

“Seduction is all about feeling beautiful and comfortable with your body. Lingerie is simply a jewel that adorns that natural beauty,” says Feuillère, whose fresh, seductive designs strike a perfect chord between simplicity and embellishment.

Feuillère’s encyclopedic range of intimates includes everything from panties, garters, camisoles and bras to corsets, nightgowns, slips and bathing suits. To achieve the sensation of second-skin comfort, each creation is hand cut and assembled using the finest materials. Feuillère prefers tightly-woven Italian shirt cotton to the typical mesh netting for her corsets and bloomers, lace fabricated in France, and delicate embroidery from Spain. As passionate about ecology as she is corsetry, Feuillère is busy working on an all-organic cotton and bamboo capsule collection in unadorned shades of nude.

Each design can be customized according to fit, fabric and color preference. But for a truly original wearable work of art, indulge in one of her made-to-measure masterpieces. The custom collaboration takes several fittings and weeks to complete, so be sure to plan in advance.

Price range: couture (220-420E); made-to-measure (1500-3000E)

Like most, my truffle hunting knowledge is quite limited. In fact, it could easily be summed up in a single image: old men in wellies tugging hogs on ropes.

So when some visiting friends and I decided to take a trip down to the Périgord—a ravishing, rocky region about a six-hour drive from Paris, well-known for its truffles, foie gras and Medieval castles—we couldn’t think of a better activity than ratcheting up our “black diamond” IQ with two of the area’s connoisseurs.

A few hours of research and a couple of phone calls later we had a time and date set to meet two of this elusive edible’s leading experts: Edouard Aynaud and his truffle-sniffing associate, Titeuf the golden Labrador.

This truffle tag team resides in a tiny hamlet called Pechalifour. Nestled within a Tuscan-like landscape of rolling hills and sun-soaked pastures, the minuscule village consists of a handful of homes, each belonging to one of Aynaud’s family members (except one, which is owned by Rita, a very friendly American, we are told).

Within minutes of meeting Edouard, an energetic truffle activist with over 40 years experience, we are ushered into a truffle atelier filled with home-made extracts, powders, oils, and truffles the size of baseballs, freshly cleaned and ready to be shipped to a chef in Belgium. Before we know it our truffle education commences, and we’re thrust into a thicket of fascinating truffle trivia, including, but hardly limited to:

• The number of days that a freshly-picked truffle remains fresh? Answer: 10 days.
• How to keep truffles fresh for longer than that? Answer: Slice into thin strips, drizzle with olive oil, cover with plastic and freeze.
• Why Italians pick their prized Alba white truffles at night? Answer: So that their neighbor’s can’t see them.
• Foods that truffles pair best with? Answer: Neutral ones, like potatoes, rice, pasta, salad and bread.
• Why female pigs make great truffle hunters? Answer: Truffles smell like the sex pheromone of boar saliva, a scent they find irresistible.
• Why dogs make better truffle hunters? Answer: They learn easily, are clean, don’t try to eat the truffles (unlike pigs) and are easier to work with than sex-crazed sows.

This is the first phase of our two-hour tour, and our noggins and noses are loaded already. Once out on the property, we weave our way through truffle trees of all varieties.

Not all of them are giving up the gold, we’re told. Some are dormant for the season or are too young, some had record output decades ago and may not reproduce for at least another, some are part of a magnetic field experiment that Edouard says won’t bear fruit for three more years…

Truffles clearly require patience, something we’re loosing in proportion to our increasingly freezing toes (this was back in January, and damn was it cold!). Just as we start to wonder if we’ll ever see a black diamond in its natural habitat, we’re introduced to Titeuf, a fabulous truffle hunting mantra, “Elle est où Titeuf. Je ne la voie pas. Cherche Titeuf, cherche” (Where is it? I can’t see it? Search Titeuf, search.), and the intoxicating scent of truffles plucked straight out of the earth.

Here’s a clip of Titeuf in action:

Reserve your own private tour with the dynamic duo by clicking here. The site is in French but you should get the gist of it.

And, if you want to stick around for a lengthier visit, Edouard and his wife Carol have a wonderful guest house that they rent by the week, free truffle tour included!

For more Titeuf truffle hunting videos, visit my ParisBAO YouTube page.