Cartier's pantherice

A new style will be born, a new star will come out...

The extraordinary story of Jeanne Toussaint, jeweller to the kings. The woman who became the jewel of Cartier.

The century is breaking and famous figures are defiling in front of us in a mosaic of time. Marcel Proust, Jean Cocteau, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and the Duchess of Windsor. Stéphanie des Horts gives an insight into the extraordinary fate of an extraordinary woman. An abused girl from a poor Brussels family becomes the most famous courtesan in Paris. Dazzling, elegant, maintained by wealthy aristocrats. The Parisian elite indulge in debauchery and revelry. Parties in style alternate with balls, the belle époque is in full swing. Jeanne goes from arm to arm - admired but despised. Men always marry other men, the honest ones. And then Louis Cartier, the world's most famous jeweller, crosses her path. The realm of diamonds and gold is opening up. Jeanne, in love with jewellery, lets her imagination run wild and invents the most beautiful jewels for him. Heads of state, kings, maharajahs... Almost an entire century passes this extraordinary woman with her head held high, defying the Nazis as well as the demons of her own past.

This passionate story told in the first person plunges the reader straight into a magical world where Coco Chanel designs her first scandalous models, ladies go crazy at the ballet of the enchanting Diaghilev and Ernest Hemingway drinks in the bar...

"Forgive me," says Jeanne, "I was thinking of Louis Cartier, you know, he taught me everything, especially passion."