This lady is an exponent from an age when intelligence, honesty and beauty were raised to a cult in Bulgaria.

Sofia born Julia Hristova is the daughter of Veselina Todorova, a famous Plovdid beauty, attorney and poetess, and Tihomir Hristov, the father she knew but a little. Her mother divorced him and married Nikola Neykov, owner of a pellet mill. With him she has a son Ivan, eight years younger than Julia, whom Julia loves tremendously. Nowadays he is director of British Petroleum in Paris.

“Memories are always good,” Julia Boulle says. Raised by her grandparents in Plovdiv, she speaks fondly of the mansion in which they lived and the ginger garden. “My grandmother incited me to beauty, even in cooking. I remember how my dear Granny used to tell me: ‘If the leeks and dried plums boil soft the dish is spoiled.’” Perhaps the brightest personality in Julia’s childhood was her uncle Lyuben Todorov, her mother’s brother, the young man in the house. “This uncle was a great phenomenon in my life. He was very smart. He spent time with me, he wanted to know what I felt, he saw my talents. He took me for carriage rides in the boulevards of Plovdiv. From our balcony we listened to the music of the orchestra on Bunardjik hill in the evenings. In this house I often slipped out, climbed quietly to the attic and rummaged in my grandmother’s chests. I liked making theatre for my girlfriends, especially with my grandma’s wedding dress bought by catalogue from Paris at the time. I read a lot.”

During vacation time Julia was with her mother in Koprivshtista. “When it was raining I breathed in the smell of ozone, the fragrance of the grasses. Recently a famous French writer wanted to write a book about me but he couldn’t grasp and convey these feelings of mine, gushing from my Slav soul. I was the essence of a way of life, a comprehensive education, a strive for beauty, and intellectualism at the same time, to which I added my artistic bends. I took these Bulgarian colours, the Bulgarian sun and landscapes to Paris in the haut-couture of Madam Carven.”

Meanwhile her uncle departed for Bern as first secretary in the Bulgarian embassy. The events of September 9, 1994, found him there. He asked his kin if he should come back and on their advice he stayed in the West. Later this would be an obstacle for Julia to enter the Arts Academy. Julia married Zdravko Dyulgerov very young. He worked in TABSO and was director of Balkan Airlines later. They had a daughter, Mariana. Unsuccessful marriage, then Paris. Julia would see her daughter again after 32 years, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Paris is sun
“Before I went to Paris I imagined it as a big sun. And it was so for me. The first thing I saw was the Triumphal Arch shining at sunset.” But the young woman did not imagine that she would soon have the privilege to watch these sunsets out of her window every day. In Paris she went to her uncle who was married to Dora Valier (Uvalieva), a well-known Bulgarian intellectual and modern art critic. Her History of Arts is a textbook in all west-European universities. The couple introduced Julia to the society of world intellectuals and art people. “I lived among personalities such as Picaso, Polyakov, Kandinski, Viara de Silva, Juliet Greco, Francoise Sagan, Simon de Bouvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Rene Char, Jacque Prever, Christian Zervos, world-famous publisher and critic (she was a lodger at the Zervos’). This would be an immense capital for anyone. It was so for me.”

It was out of the question for the young woman to stay idle in Paris. Julia enrolled in a fashion school where she was in the same class with Ives Saint Laurent. Her talent was soon noticed and she started work in the house of Madam Carven.

At that time the Bulgarian Yuli Rashev, student of art of the cinema in Paris, was her best friend. Young, with a taste for life, they often came together over beans and cake. Once he confessed to her he was in love, but the girl was a Greek and her parents would propably not like him. He asked her to accompany him at the lunch when he would present himself. “I went to the address he gave me and was stunned. The home was in Foche Avenue and the luxury – intoxicating. I will bless these Kostomeni all my life. They were fine and noble people. They had five daughters. Yuli was in love with Helen. There I met ‘Mummy Boulle’, my future mother-in-law. At that time she obviously hoped to marry off her son to one of the Kostomeni girls.” The lunch went splendidly and a little later Julia made Helen’s wedding dress at Carven. This brought her luck, too. When Julia went to the refined restaurant for the wedding, she saw Madam Boulle, her son Jean and a girl in white mink – Chantal, his daughter from his first marriage. Jean was overwhelmed with the beauty of the Bulgarian woman. For him Julia was love from first sight. She would be fascinated by his blue eyes and would worry five whole months why he isn’t calling her. Only 22, Julia could imagine the business of this man. Her uncle told her to put him out of her mind – plenty of beautiful girls in Paris. But she knew that beauty and intelligence is something different. Soon she would become

the Bulgarian gorgeous jewel
of Jean Boulle. Who was he? When he met her, he had seen a lot in life. He is a descendant of an old French family which created the Boulle furniture style. Today this furniture is a rarity and pieces of it are in the possession of the Sultan of Brunei, the British Queen, etc. Jean graduated in Economics and at the age of 22 he became chief secretary of Paris Soir newspaper. During the Nazi occupation of Paris, with the inherent French courage, he and Pierre Lazarev rescued the French press by moving it to Lyon. He was assisted by a German high officer whom he befriended on one of his journeys to Germany with his mother. How small the world is! And how strong a friendship can be! Later Jean Boulle would become manager of Achette Publishing House and concentrate in his hands the private company for distribution of the French press NMPP. Factory-owner, music publisher, later mayor of Ballancourt. One of the richest men of France and of the greatest merit.

The fairytale began with his call to invite her to the famous charity ball for children’s hospitals “Little White Beds”. Then everything happened fast. On February 13, 1963, they got married: flowers, diamonds, luxury, famous people… “Jean gave me a new motherland, when mine was already ‘lost’ for me. He gave me adoration, family, a child. And unlimited financial resources.” Her husband introduced her to the circle of the Gaullists, adherents of the man who made the history of France for decades. In their house the most popular French newspapers and magazines were started, TV emissions were discussed. They dined with the greatest personalities in politics, business, culture. Julia co-lived with her husband a whole era!

During their 25 years of marriage Jean Boulle often told friends about his wife: “I got a present from life, a gorgeous jewel I adore.” His love is his incentive for work and life. His love for Julia and the son she gave birth to. Jean Boulle later admitted this before the whole of France when in the Ritz he was awarded the Order for Service to the Nation. Julia is also grateful to him: “With Jean I found the great love. And new horizons.” Their romance ended in 1982 with Jean’s death. While he was sick in his last two years, he often told her, “My gorgeous jewel, I did not marry you to look after me and suffer. I married you to make you happy and give you everything.” He died whispering “My gorgeous jewel…”.

Homesickness
Time passed. Julia went on shining in the Paris salons. In the mid-1980s she got close with the Bulgarian monarchist Hristo Kurtev. They had known each other for a long time but now he was divorced and they became more intimate. In his autobiographical book, The Adventure Called Life, Kurtev wrote about her: “What makes Julia special and unique is the combination of Slav mentality and European finesse.” And what bound them together was their homesickness for Bulgaria. In 1989, right after the changes, they were among the first to return to their country, to their Bulgaria.

“Thanks to Hristo I came back and rediscovered my homeland and my people. I fell in love with them for the second time.”

Between Sofia and Paris
At present Julia lives between these two cities, which she loves most. What brings her to Sofia? “I want to be useful to my country, above all by popularizing its culture. Actually, I have been doing this all my life. In Paris everybody knew I was Bulgarian and my husband was very proud of this fact. Later, in 1990 together with Hristo Kurtev we founded the International Academy of Arts, Paris. He became its president and I its treasurer. Prof. Lyubomir Tenev was president for Bulgaria, Vasilen Vasev was director, and honorary members were Princess Maria-Louisa, Milcho Leviev, Nikola Gyuzelev, Stefan Gruev, Hristo Ognyanov, Tsvetan Todorov, Yulia Krasteva, Yuri Bukov. My life experience and contacts with art people in Paris were of great help. For about ten years we awarded culture figures who had not received recognition and were slighted before 1989. Their input in music, painting, literature was enormous. Now the academy activity has almost come to a standstill but I maintain my contacts with the great artists of Bulgaria such as Svetlin Rusev, Nikolay Panayotov, Nikola Manev, Andi Lekarski, singers as Tsvetan Tsvetkov, Lyudmila Kozareva and Hristo Paskalev, the poet Lyubomir Levchev and many others. Soon the Bulgarian Cultural Center in Paris will be opened and together with Yuri Bukov, Dimiter Panitsa, Prof. Boyan Hristoforov, etc. we intend to find a way to be useful for the popularization of Bulgarian culture in Paris.”

Ekaterina Pavlova