Maria Pavlovna's parents-in-law arrived in Bucharest with her son Roman, but once she obtained a traveling visa, Maria Pavlovna left with Putyatin for Paris, finding a house in Passy. For the first time in her life, the 28-year-old grand duchess was forced to face everyday problems. "I had never before carried cash with me, nor had I ever written a check. I knew the approximate price of jewels and dresses, but did not have the vaguest idea how much bread, meat and milk cost", she recalled in her book of memoirs. Her first years of exile were financed by the sale of the jewels she had had smuggled to Sweden before escaping Russia. While in Paris in 1919, the grand duchess received a letter from her husband's parents telling her that one-year-old Roman had died of an intestinal disorder on 29 July. Her guilt that she had left him behind prevented her from telling her friends of the baby's existence. Maria Pavlovna was reunited with her brother, Dmitri, in London. She rented a small apartment with her husband to be close to her brother, but relations between Dmitri and Putyatin soon soured. Determined to find an occupation that would allow her to make a living, she began knitting sweaters and dresses selling them to a London shop. In the spring 1920, Maria Pavlovna returned to Paris to meet with her stepmother, Princess Olga Paley, and Maria's two half-sisters. She decided to stay in the French capital in order to be close to them. Her brother Dmitri followed her to Paris. From 1921, she devoted great deal of her time to the Russian Red Cross and philanthropic work. Missing her son, Lennart, who had been left in Sweden, Maria and Dimitri went to meet him in Copenhagen in the early summer of 1921. Lennart was already twelve years old and taller than his mother. Two years later, they were reunited for a brief holiday in Germany. They saw each other again in the autumn of 1927 in Brussels when Lennart was eighteen. He always harbored a resentment towards his mother, who had abandoned him, and their relationship remained strained.Zeepvat, The True Value of Home, p. 11 In Paris, Grand Duchess Maria opened a quality embroidering and sewing textile shop called Kitmir. Through her brother, Maria Pavlovna met Coco Chanel in the autumn 1921. Chanel became her main patron buying Kitmir's embroideries