Léontine Lippmann

Lippmann was born into a wealthy Jewish family as a banker's daughter and later married Albert Arman. Arman's mother's maiden name was Caillavet, so they called themselves Arman de Caillavet. They had one child, the playwright Gaston Arman de Caillavet. Neither of them was faithful to the other, though they never divorced.

Lippman was intelligent, cultivated and spoke four languages, and was described as beautiful in her youth, with clear blue eyes, black hair, and a mocking mouth. She often attended the salons of Lydie Aubernon and it was there that she met Anatole France in 1883. From 1888 on, the pair engaged in a passionate, exclusive liaison, which was often stormy due to the jealousy of both parties. She inspired his novels Thaïs (1890) and Le Lys rouge (1894).

Mme de Caillavet started her own salon^[2] in the hôtel particulier at 12 Avenue Hoche, near the Place de l'Étoile. Sitting in a bergère to the right of the fireplace, with Anatole France standing in front of the fireplace, every Sunday she welcomed the French fashionable, intellectual and political elites, including writers, actors, lawyers and députés (but not musicians, since she and France did not like music). On Wednesdays, Mme de Caillavet held conversational dinners on the model of those of Mme Aubernon, where could be found Alexandre Dumas, the Hellenist Brochard, Professor Pozzi, Leconte de Lisle, José-Maria de Heredia, Ernest Renan and, of course, Anatole France.