ABSTRACT
Through their family background, Jouvenel and Fabre-Luce encountered foreign ideas, languages and culture from a very young age. Both grew up as members of the French intellectual upper bourgeoisie in a privileged environment of absent parents, foreign holidays and an important educational role played by British and German governesses. As the son of a diplomat, Fabre-Luce initially cherished a short-lived dream of a career in diplomacy, and in 1919 his father’s connections provided him with a six-month internship at the French embassy in London. 1 Jouvenel’s father Henry de Jouvenel was a political writer and prominent member of the liberal Parti Radical, while his mother Claire Boas hosted a well-known political salon in Paris. It was through this salon that the young Bertrand met a great number of foreign politicians, especially around the time of the negotiations of the Paris peace treaties. He was impressed by the Czech politician Edvard Beneš, who together with his Slovakian colleague Milan Stefanik almost designed the new state of Czechoslovakia during an evening at the Jouvenels. In 1924, Bertrand spent a few months in Prague as the personal secretary of president Beneš, and he also considered a career in international politics. 2
