Page 153 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2022 DISCOVERING MADRID

Scholar fame) who included Albert in his will.
Albert’s circle expanded to include cellist
Pablo Casals, painter Amedeo Modigliani and
sculptor Auguste Rodin, who became members
of Kahn's Cercle Autour du Monde along with
luminaries like Colette, Manuel de Falla, An-
dré Gide, and, quite possibly, Albert Einstein.
Albert remained unmarried and travelled
the world along with his chauffeur Alfred
Dutertre. During these global peregrinations,
they collected plants from each country to es-
tablish what would become his enduring
legacy, Les Jardins Albert Kahn in Boulogne-
sur-Seine.
In 1909, Albert and Alfred Dutertre were
called to Japan on business, at which time Al-
bert was introduced to the Japanese Mikado,
Emperor of Japan, and his wife. Albert recip-
rocated by inviting them to his villa at Cap
Martin, on the Côte d’Azur. Jacques Cerf, my
grandmother’s nephew, wrote of how, upon
the Mikado’s return to Japan, Albert sent him
a souvenir roadmap marking the distinguished
visitors’ itinerary with a trail of diamonds. My
grandmother recalled wistfully how, when she
visited the generous Albert at his villa "when
we walked around the gardens, traces of our
steps would be immediately swept away by the
staff.”

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