![\"\"](\"http:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Boulevard_des_Italiens_19101.jpg\" "\\"Boulevard_des_Italiens_1910\\"")
<\/a>A picture postcard of Paris, 1910.<\/p><\/div>\n
Alice had been living in an apartment on rue Notre Dames des Champs within walking distance of rue de Fleurus with her San Francisco neighbor Harriet Levy. \u00a0When Harriet decided to return to San Francisco, she asked Alice to handle shipping her furniture and paintings including a Matisse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a>Harriet Levy in the hat with Alice, 1908<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
As their lease had not yet ended, they had agreed to continue to pay rent until the end of the term, however, the landlord insisted that according to French law it was illegal to leave the apartment unfurnished. Gertrude’s brother Leo helped Alice handle these matters. \u00a0In her memoir WHAT IS REMEMBERED<\/strong> she stoically recalled her move:<\/p>\n “Leo helped me with the French letters to the lawyer to make certain that I was making it clear to him. \u00a0And with that I moved to the rue de Fleurus where I was given the small room that later we called the salon des refus\u00e9s. \u00a0There I spent that winter and the following one not too uncomfortably.”<\/em><\/p>\n Alice’s room had been Leo’s study, but later as the salon des refus\u00e9s <\/em>it served as the room where works by artists who had fallen out of favor with Gertrude were hung. \u00a0Leo would remain in the household for about another three years though he travelled extensively to Italy and England during that period. (When Leo finally moved out, he and Gertrude were no longer on speaking terms after a falling out because of a number of issues including financial ones. Dividing up the painting collection created even more animosity between them.)<\/p>\n It is fun to imagine what Alice’s move-in day may have been like. The dogs were not yet part of the household, but I’m sure there was plenty of excitement even without those four-legged family members running about.<\/p>\n When GertrudeandAlice sent boxes of manuscripts and letters to Yale for safekeeping beginning in the late 1930s, it was discovered that they’d also sent various household receipts and \u00a0miscellaneous lists.<\/p>\n Receipt for the purchase of a Remington typewriter, 1931<\/p><\/div>\n So, what if<\/strong> among the papers was a list Alice had written mentioning a number of items that were to be moved that September 9th, 1910?<\/p>\n “9.9.10<\/em><\/p>\n * \u00a025 hat boxes – enough said!<\/em><\/p>\n * 10 steamer trunks – 2 summer apparel, 2 spring apparel, 2 winter apparel, 2 \u00a0fine, exquisite dresses, <\/em>2 shoes<\/em><\/p>\n * 5 wooden crates with items for the kitchen including Grandmother Levinsky’s Dutch oven<\/em><\/p>\n * 6 wooden crates – fine china, silver, crystal-VERY FRAGILE!<\/em><\/p>\n * 1 oak sideboard (difficult to dust, but lovely.)<\/em><\/p>\n * 1 cherrywood rocking chair with horsehair upholstered seat and back. Needs repair, get recommendation from Sarah Stein<\/em><\/p>\n * Gas table lamp to be converted to electric….”<\/em><\/p>\n Once Alice had settled in, her daily schedule became well established. \u00a0Even though he did not meet GertrudeandAlice until 1925, Virgil Thomson remembered life at 27, rue de Fleurus in his 1966 autobiography:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n “Alice Toklas neither took life easy nor fraternized casually. \u00a0She got up at six and cleaned the drawing room herself because she did not wish things broken. \u00a0(Porcelain and other fragile objects were her delight, just as pictures were Gertrude’s; and she could imagine using violence against a servant who might break one.) \u00a0She liked being occupied, anyway, and did not need repose, ever content to serve Gertrude or be near her. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n