mother's family. Lacroix's mother, Jeanne, already deceased, was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery. Boris often visited his son, who became a famous designer under the name Jean Boris Lacroix. During World War II, Boris and Zinaida were at their villa in Biarritz when German troops occupied Paris in June 1940. Fleeing the French capital Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich and his wife Mathilde came to live with Boris. On 26 June the Germans reached Biarritz, and after three months the two couples decided to return to Paris. At the end of 1942, during the German occupation, they sold their estate in Meudon, and moved to a house in the Rue de la Faisanderie in Paris. In 1943, Grand Duke Boris became critically ill, and died in his bed on 9 November 1943, in Paris, at age 65. His obituary was only briefly noted by the newspapers and Vichy radio. Nonetheless, there was a large turnout for the funeral, held at St Alexander Nevsky Russian-Orthodox Cathedral in Paris, where his body was placed in the crypt. He was later reburied next to his mother in the Russian Orthodox chapel at Contrexéville, Vosges. In popular culture Grand Duke Boris was well known before the war as an international playboy, and appears in many memoirs and novels of the period. A representative mention is found in Arthur Train’s 1911 transatlantic liner thriller C.Q., or, In the Wireless House. A military man is seeking aid from an international adventuress in catching a criminal attempting to flee London to New York: "My dear Mrs. Trevelyan," said he reprovingly, "I didn't mean to suggest that this criminal might be your friend, — I only said you might know him. That's an entirely different matter, isn't it? You might know Jack Johnson, the prize-fighter, or Nan Patterson, or Oscar Wilde — " "What a delightful circle of acquaintances!" laughed Lily, amused in spite of herself. "If you'd only throw in Harry Thaw, Tod Sloan, Abe Hummel, and Grand Duke Boris it would be really chic, — a real salon!” Ancestry Notes References Beéche, Arturo. The Other Grand Dukes, Eurohistory, 2012. Chavchavadze, David. The Grand Dukes, Atlantic, 1989, Ferrand, Jacques. Descendances naturelles des souverains et grands-ducs de Russie, de 1762 à 1910 : répertoire généalogique, 1995. Hall, Coryne. Imperial Dancer, Sutton publishing, 2005, Hall, Coryne. The English Dacha at Tsarkoe Selo. Royalty Digest Quarterly. 2007 N 1. Korneva, Galina