His friends called him Wado, but the world knew him as Baron Edouard-Jean Empain. With his longish blond hair, blue eyes, and high cheekbones, he could have been mistaken for a movie star. Tall, square-shouldered, and athletic, he had been a champion skier and horseman in his youth. Now, at age 40, he was the head of an industrial empire that comprised 174 companies and employed 136,000 workers in fields ranging from mining and metallurgy to banking, heavy construction, shipbuilding, munitions, and nuclear energy.
Empain was half American and half Belgian, but his headquarters, his sumptuous apartment, and his ancestral château were in France, where he enjoyed a position of almost unrivaled influence. His conglomerate was so central to French economic and security interests that the papers dubbed him “le Krupp français”—an allusion to the Krupp industrial dynasty, which supplied arms to German regimes for centuries, from the Thirty Years War to the end of the Third Reich. Hailed as a member of the “international gentry,” Baron Empain was the first foreigner to be named a director of Le Patronat, the powerful French employers’ association. His personal credo was that of the classic capitalist: “work, family, property.”
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Denne historien er fra April 2022-utgaven av Town & Country.
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Jersey, JE ΤΙΜΕ
Nearly 50 years ago a museum opened in Paris.
THE HUNGER GAMES
Two former bons amis grew up in the same expensive suburb and cut their teeth together in the Paris nightclub scene. Then they launched competing restaurant empires, and the gloves came off. Now one of them is facing a suspended prison sentence and a huge fine. Welcome to the city's most delicious grudge match.
HIDDEN in Plain Sight
T&C was invited into the private archives and secret workshops of Paris, to glimpse the treasures that have made this city famous for its style and craftsmanship. It's a reputation worth fighting for.
GUARDIAN of Objects
Laura Kugel is the go-to art dealer for the world's most discerning clients, but her family's Paris wonderland is open to all. Come inside, won't you?
Ecole! Elysée! SCANDALE!
The path to the French White House requires a political education at one of the country's elite universities. As controversy swirls around Sciences Po-class treason, #MeToo à la française, creeping le wokisme-will its grip on power finally slip?
Are There Still Mysteries in Paris?
Surely not, in the world's most visited city! And yet: Why is the Louvre called the Louvre? Why do the upper stories of its 17th-century buildings tilt in? Why do even familiar streets feel so enticing, unknown? One thing is clear: So many of us return because the City of Light is really one of mesmerizing shadows.
High SEAS
How seductive is a cruise on an ultraluxury ship (yes, that's a category) like the new Regent Seven Seas Grandeur? So much so that a 132-day sailing sold out in three hours. It was time to investigate.
The Cruise Cure
One definition of bliss at sea is padding down a ship's hallway from your suite to the spa in a robe and slippers. Here's what awaits.
Only a Day to Spare?
These hotel spas-mini-me's of destination, health retreats punch way above their weight. So, if you're in the neighborhood...
So, Where Do You Ride in Paris?
A fancy equestrian's guide to the best of Gallic galloping.