Hangin' with the countess

It's not every night that you get to sip Champagne and nibble on mille-feuille at the Countess de Castiglione's apartment above the Boucheron store in Place Vendome. But, as the brand ambassador to the jeweler (love that title), vintage guru and Decades owner Cameron Silver took over the place to host a small dinner for a few editors, stylist Cristina Ehrlich and her newest client, actress Jennifer Morrison.

In 1893 Frederic Boucheron was the first jeweler to open on Place Vendome, where he was essentially the neighborhood jeweler for Ritz hotel guests until Bulgari, Cartier and the rest moved in.

The brand is known for nature and Art Nouveau-inspired pieces, which will likely be having a moment again in the wake of Prada's botanical and nymph-print spring collection shown last week in Milan.

And we got to admire some of those ridiculously gorgeous pieces, including a flower-shaped multicolored stone collar, a diamond snake pendant, a canary yellow diamond ring that would have made Victoria Beckham drool, and ruby drop earrings that looked right out of the Raj. (Indeed, Boucheron did make jewelry for the Maharajas.)

When the jeweler moved in, the Countess, an Italian courtesan turned mistress of Napoleon III who was known for her extravagant couture clothes, was living upstairs. Cameron showed us the hidden entrance that she used to come and go under the cloak of darkness after she became so disgusted with her declining beauty that she no longer wanted to be seen. She even had the mirrors in the apartment covered, or so the legend goes.

Eventually, Boucheron took over the whole building and the Countess was forced to move out. But there was much talk about her ghost haunting the place. Since I had an empty seat next to me, I like to think she was my dinner partner.