After her divorce, my mother still lived at 37, rue du Maréchal Foch in Maisons- Laffitte about 20 kms from Paris while my grandparents were raising me. It was a long commute every day and she was very tired walking home from the train station to her house. So she thought of finding a place closer to work in the Paris suburbs. Knowing this, M. Balmain approached her one day and mentioned that he owned several apartments in Montrouge, close to Porte D'Orleans in the southern suburb of Paris and that she may want to take a look, which she did. So she moved in at 16, rue d'Arcueil and since she did not have much furniture, M. Balmain offered to furnish her apartment with some of his own antique furniture that he really did not have a need for. So she inherited quite a few nice things including the colorful landscape mural that used to adorn the walls of the Pierre Balmain boutique. The Bernard Buffet murals of the Sainte Catherine celebration ended up on the walls of the small kitchen in that apartment. 

My mother always had an exquisite taste and a "je ne sais quoi" to dress  herself as well as to furnish the places she lived in. And in order to get some needed extras, my Mom and I would visit the popular flea market, Porte de Clichy, just about every weekend.  Mom started to collect white odds and ends dishes that she still has today. That is how I learned to appreciate antiques, and became familiar with all the different styles, a love for antiques that continues even today as we bought and furnished our own house by visiting antique stores. Coincidentaly, my husband, Don, was an antique collector before I met him, and he had a big collection of antique furniture that we still have today. Some of the knick knacks in my present bedroom and the large, beautiful mirror on my bedroom wall come from Pierre Balmain's gifts to us when my mom was a struggling single mother.

Pierre Balmain was more than my mother's boss, he was a kind and generous man. My mother's experience at Balmain is and will continue to be a huge part of her life, one of her happiest times in her life that she loves to talk about and contemplate with so many fond memories. And I am so grateful for it because it had a strong influence on my life as well and it made me who I am. 
--- Catherine Thorpe