Yes, this is correct. (Also a French speaker here.)

@AMT George Sand (pseudonym for Aurore Dupin - so it's a lady!) and Gustave Flaubert were both very influential French novelists of the 19th century. They started a lively correspondence in 1862 - Sand first wrote a letter to Flaubert in praise of his novel "Sallamb", and a lively exchange of letters followed until Sand's death in 1876. You can find several editions of the Sand-Flaubert correspondence...

Welcome! Draw near the fire.

@@sherlockpodcast Has the fire been drawn by Mrs Hudson ? "she is a mistress of firelighting "

Good point about the Freemasonry, you might be right. Thanks for listening!

@AMT Thanks! I like it. It's a damn shame that the pipe was too expensive, as I could refinish it to be Black. Can't face doing it, though! Maybe I'll cobble together a black cutty from eBay pipe parts 😊 Do you have any Sherlockian stuff?

@AMT Great stuff! I'm a pipe smoker of many years, and I can recommend it as a hobby. It's safer than cigarettes and cigars, as you aren't meant to inhale it into your lungs. It's all in the nose and mouth. There is a risk of mouth cancer, but this can be removed by keeping the mouth moist with a drink of some sort, after you smoke. I got myself a Calabash about a year ago. It does give the coolest smoke of any pipe I've tried, except maybe the Hookah water pipe. I prefer Meerschaum pipes to Briar, but they're all good in their own way. One of my favourite pipe smokers was Lee Van Cleefe. If you watch the western 'For a few dollars more' you'll see him smoking his favourite meerschaum, and there's a scene where he lights his pipe in a way that nearly gets him shot 😀 If you have any questions about pipes, I'd be happy to help.

@AMT They're still making them in the traditional way, in Turkey. It has a removable Meerschaum bowl, and a genuine Gourd cooling chamber, just like the old ones.

@AMT I have to say that I haven't noticed much difference in heat. They are lighter than Briar, and you don't have to burn them in, like Briar. They go a lovely yellow colour, after a lot of smoking. You can get some fantastic carved ones.

@AMT I particularly like the Aromatic blends. My top one is Burberry premium edition, by Planta. It's a rich, scrumptious smelling tobacco, almost like fruit cake. My second favourite is Dunhill Elizabethan mixture (now made by Peterson's). This one is meant to be the same blend that Sir Walter Raleigh brought back to England, from his travels . And last but not least, my third favourite is Sherlock Holmes blend, by Peterson's again. This is Peterson's attempt at replicating Holme's favourite blend. You can't go wrong with Peterson's tobacco, really.