As a child, I spent many a day with my beloved grandmother, taking part in her daily life: her tasks, her errands and her outings. Her best friend, a French lady named Louise, was employed as a chef for an American family in Paris when she was just 16 years old, and she accompanied them when they fled to America at the onset of World War II. Through the years, she filled my mind with all things French; the riches of the architecture, design, antiques and, of course, food.
When I was 14, I read an article in Life Magazine featuring a young couturier, Hubert de Givenchy, standing next to a superb 1959 Mercedes-Benz with its top down. Inspired as young people often are, I began to have thoughts of…