Perhaps it’s because Picardon started from scratch with bare hands.
The master has developed efficient work habits since he was young.
Perhaps it was also out of concern for his good friend Henri Lacamier that the master had been worried about his plight for a long time.
Now that he has finally obtained the key to the possible solution to the problem from Ning Weimin, the master very much hopes to have a face-to-face meeting with his good friend immediately, and wants to finalize the next action plan as soon as possible.
So, without waiting for time, the master immediately called and managed to contact Henri Lacamier.
Then he took Ning Weimin and drove there to meet him.
As for Matsumoto Keiko, the master could only change the original plan full of guilt, postpone the reception banquet, say sorry to her, and let Takada Mei take her back to the hotel to rest.
The country house where Henri Lacamier lived is in the western suburbs of Paris, west of the Palace of Versailles.
The specific location is Saint-Leger in the Yvelines department of the Paris region. Because it is fifty kilometers away from the center of Paris, even if you drive there right away, it will take about an hour and a half.
This villa is a 500-square-meter residence located in the heart of the Rambouillet forest, with a forest path surrounded by trees.
Although it is not too big, this villa is like a manor.
There are not only beautiful houses and gardens, but also green forests and ponds, which can satisfy many people's dreams.
What's even more amazing is that along the way, Ning Weimin didn't see any ordinary people.
Starting from the 7th arrondissement of Paris, after leaving the city, you can only see mansions, villas, and manors. It can be said that the hundreds of mansions you passed by are all for wealthy families, and there are no residences for ordinary people.
Even the most ordinary and dilapidated properties have grand gates and extensive walls.
This made him feel very strange, and he wondered, could it be that the French had become so wealthy in the 1980s?
It’s not like ordinary people can own such a big house, right?
This is so enviable.
Fortunately, the master is by his side.
As a person who has lived in Paris for most of his life, has become famous in the field of European fashion, and is deeply connected with the European upper class society,
After learning about Ning Weimin's confusion, Pierre Cardon gave him a reasonable explanation.
I bet Paris is basically a "poor in the east and rich in the west" situation.
No matter from the city or the suburbs, the rich and powerful live in the west and the common people live in the east.
Therefore, urban development is also extremely uneven.
The root cause of all this is the wind direction!
To put it bluntly, in the past two hundred years, the wind in almost all major European cities has blown from the west and southwest to the east and northeast.
Therefore, in modern times when black smoke is billowing, in order to stay away from the pollution of coal gas, the wealthy class in Europe will only choose the upper wind - the west - as a place to live.
Therefore, it is not limited to Paris. In fact, throughout Europe, the urban development pattern of "poor in the east and rich in the west" has been established in this way.
This is still the case today, more than two hundred years later.
In this regard, Ning Weimin really has to admit that "existence is reasonable."
It seems that even if it is an incredible phenomenon, if we understand it carefully, we will eventually find an explanation that is consistent with realistic logic.
Not to mention, in order to kill time and relax his nerves, Picardon even used these mansions and manors to explain more European "old money" styles to Ning Weimin in detail along the way.
It is interesting to say that if we observe and analyze according to the master's point of view, we can even clearly see the differences between these rich people, as well as the differences in wealth and social class.
For example, for a house, you don’t even need to look at the exterior or interior of the house. You can tell which mansion’s owner has a higher status and richer wealth by just looking at the driveway, fence, lawn... or he is a new rich man, or an old man with a long history.
Family.
The reason is that according to Picardon's theory, the principle of "impracticality" is used to measure the level of this group among the rich.
The less practical it is, the more it can reflect wealth and transcendent status.
vice versa.
Specifically, the higher the social class and wealth level of a household, the longer their driveway will be.
A long and winding driveway is far more elegant than a long and straight driveway, and its function is just to show off and show off.
The most classy driveway is the "turning driveway on flat ground", which is the standard "old money" appearance.
If the ground is uneven and there are hills, the detour will increase the practical value and be inferior to the previous level, which is not enough to reflect the aloofness of the owner's social status.
This is often the case for managers of large banks or long-established companies, or managers of foundations. After all, it is difficult for them to completely escape practicality.
And those who own long, straight driveways are probably just upstarts with no background. This is determined by the values deep in their bones and the cognition they have developed since childhood.
Not only the style of the driveway, but also the pavement material of the driveway is a factor that cannot be ignored.
A light brown gravel driveway is best, less so than a white one, as the latter goes against the principle of avoiding eye-catching and stark contrasts.
But gravel is definitely better than asphalt, and this has nothing to do with whether the material comes from nature. The main reason is that gravel needs to be replaced frequently, which is expensive and troublesome.
Asphalt asphalt roads are the lowest quality because they are too economical and practical. Rich people will never use this kind of thing to pave their own roads.
As for the fence, since privacy is a symbol of the highest class, it not only explains why this class is invisible to ordinary people, why they are called the "invisible rich", but also explains how the grade of the fence reflects the residential
At the level of the master.
Any fence higher than six feet indicates that the owner is "old money", while low walls and see-through fences indicate that the owner is unlikely to be of the highest social level.
Nowadays, even the garage has become a symbol of the owner's identity. Garages with more than four cars can basically be classified as belonging to famous families. In the eyes of ordinary people, they have become as invisible as the invisible mansions of these people.
.
Of course, finally there are cars.
Since "old money" likes to adhere to the ancient principles, and the history of cars is too short to be considered classic, the top wealthy people choose cars more casually and don't care much about the brand.
In addition to considering comfort and safety, I don't take cars too seriously at all.
The only principle this group follows is that the higher the class status, the slower the speed.
People at the top of society never need to rush.
In the eyes of the master, there are two types of people who like fast cars.
One is for young men who want to bring excitement to girls.
The other type is the middle class who are full of class anxiety and think they are rich.
These two types of people have watched too many racing movies, so they think driving fast is romantic, sexy and exciting.
But in reality, to be a classy person, you have to drive slowly, steadily, and silently along the center of the road.
And we must also know that even among those car brands that ordinary people envy and yearn for, there are differences.
Mercedes Benz is the worst choice for style.
Although car manufacturers advertise "premium", this "premium" is vulgar, a car brand reserved for Beverly Hills dentists and African cabinet ministers, as well as Japan's Yakuza.
So even among the middle class, only the poorest people will buy Mercedes-Benz cars.
As for what is worse than a Mercedes-Benz, it is an off-road vehicle. No matter how high-end it is, but its style is low, it often conveys the implication that the traffic conditions in the place where the owner lives are terrible, and even the most vulgar luxury sedan may not be able to drive it.
In short, the core spirit of the top rich is luxury and waste, in order to maintain dignity and show off.
Frequently spending money that might not be spent is a symbol of social status.
After hearing what the master said, Ning Weimin couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Although the master's words seemed to "scold" him, it seemed to reveal the truth that he was a poor person in many aspects.
But in fact, the master himself is a pragmatic person like him. Although the driver of the car they were riding in was standing up for them, the car was very ordinary, just a semi-old Chevrolet.
It is not difficult to understand the true meaning of the master. In fact, it is nothing more than a mockery of those high-minded and flashy groups on the basis of describing him objectively.
Think about it, how funny it is that two poor people who made their fortunes can actually spend hundreds of millions of dollars to save a hereditary aristocrat who is above us. So who is stupid and who is smart?
And the most important thing is that the master used the simplest induction and examples to reveal to Ning Weimin the value standards and aesthetics of the wealthy groups in Europe.
It also made Ning Weimin suddenly enlightened. He suddenly understood the answers to many questions that he had not understood in his previous life, and felt that he had benefited a lot.
To put it bluntly, for people who like luxury goods, what they pursue is definitely not the practical value of using these items, but a "value that can be shown off."
The money people are willing to spend on obviously expensive things is actually the price of vanity.
Therefore, the key point of luxury goods management is to give customers the opportunity to show off, expand the popularity of the product, and create a high threshold so that people can have a "rich person's feeling" after buying it.
No matter what practicality or high-end materials are used, it is useless and unnecessary.
Only luxury goods that are easier for people to see and recognize will sell better, and this is also the secret to Louis Vuitton's success.
Regardless of whether the earliest LV products were practical or not, LV, which continues to increase in price in the future, is on the right path to becoming a luxury product.
After all, there is nothing that is easier for people to recognize at a glance than the handbags and iconic LOGO patterns that women bring out every day.
If it is well known that the price of a bag can be as much as a luxury car, how attractive is this kind of bag to vain people?
From this point of view, Ning Weimin should really thank Pierre Cardon. Whether it was intentional or not, this old man gave him a very enlightening moment.
The luxury goods industry, which is currently just called the fashion industry, is not selling products at all, if we put it bluntly, it is just a feeling.
The so-called scarcity and hunger marketing techniques are nothing more than creating a high-end symbol after widespread advertising, so that stupid people can see it and eat it, and even forget to eat and sleep to get it, so that others can envy them.
For this, Ning Weimin really thanked the master for making him understand the know-how of this industry more deeply.
But even so, Ning Weimin seemed to underestimate Pierre Cardon's intentions, because he soon realized that what the master actually wanted to tell him tactfully was that Henri Lacamier had a very different personality from the master himself.
and preferences.
It was like giving him a vaccination in advance.
Because to be honest, it was only when Ning Weimin arrived at the place that he discovered that the living environment of this fourth-generation LV was too luxurious, and that he had really promoted the "old money" style to the extreme.
The first thing that surprised Ning Weimin was that the villa had only one private road paved with yellow stones for entry and exit. The walls were made of stone, tall and large, and covered with vines.
A large, well-designed iron door was opened. Two specialized security personnel came out of the wooden house behind the door and opened the door. Only then could the car shared by Pierre Cardon and Ning Weimin enter.
Then there is a winding driveway, winding on a flat road, with several deer and dozens of white pigeons running on the large lawn, and a few swans swimming in the pond.
Regardless of their substance or potential, these extraordinary domestic animals cannot be thought of as vulgar or profit-seeking.
When they parked their car in front of the villa, a dedicated housekeeper came to open the door for them. After walking into the villa, Ning Weimin discovered that the most obvious feature of this villa was that it was in the corner panels, door paneling, and similar
Everywhere is decorated with unnecessary curves.
Wherever wood is visible, dark colors are used instead of light colors, trying to give people an antique feel.
The floor in the house must be hardwood, and it's also parquet.
The hand-woven oriental carpet on the floor is almost worn out, and it looks like something that has been passed down for many generations.
Regardless of the marble corridors, carved railings and handrails, or brass door handles, they all need to be wiped every day.
And all of this is just like what the master said on the road, reflecting the extravagant and gaudy upper-class style of the owner of the house.
But what shocked Ning Weimin the most was the living room waiting for the owner. The decoration here is exquisite and unique, it is simply a small museum.
In addition to the portraits of four generations of Vuitton family members on the wall, in the corner there are also animal skins and fur decorations and arrows from all over the world.
In the words of Pierre Cardon, who is familiar with this place, this is a unity of aristocratic style and natural style.
In addition, there is also a collection of hard stone cups full of Renaissance antiques, which are important witnesses of the splendor of celebrities in the old days.
Judging from Ning Weimin's judgment, I'm afraid there are not many fakes, and they are all genuine items of great value.
By this time, he had a clear feeling that the master he was about to meet should be a person who was proud of his prominent family background and family inheritance, but was also isolated from the world and a bit unworldly.
I am afraid that it is precisely these factors that cause this person to have a high vision, but he is a little ignorant of the world. Therefore, he cannot tell who is a friend and who is an enemy, and that is why he falls into the trap of others.
