Bijou

Research Status: Basic Last Updated: 2026-10-22 Diary Coverage: September 1873 – May 1874 (Nice)

Identity

Mostly a dog of the Galitzine household (Bête's): Mon Journal t.2 index «Bijou, chien, 61, 122», t.3 index «Bijou, chien, 78, 142». Marie puts Bête's daughter Nadia to bed «au salon jaune avec Bijou» (009.0183, t.2 p. 61); a suitor «donna un gâteau à Bijou» (011.0050, p. 122); Lambertye arrives «frisé comme Bijou» (016.0338, t.3 p. 78), so a curly-coated dog; Marie calls «Bijou, Bijou, puis Bête» to test an echo (018.0080, p. 142); «Nous étions cinq dans la loge: moi, Dina, Nadia, Bête et Bijou, en famille en un mot» (019.0160) counts the dog as one of the party, Nadia being named separately.

The indexes also give «Bijou» as a nickname of Nadia Galitzine («Bijou : Galitzine Mlle Nadia ?», t.2; «Bijou: Galitzine (Mlle Nadia)», t.3; see #Nadia). The only page they attribute to her is t.2 p. 96, «nous allons tous excepté Bête qui reste pour son Bijou» (010.0210), where the dog fits as well; left on this file.

On 5 April 1874 a struck line calls Prince Wittgenstein's «petite chienne» «ce Bijou vilain», and Marie then writes «Ils sont heureux de marcher par un si beau temps, Mordog et Bijou … elle me regarde méchamment» (018.0129, t.3 p. 146): that Bijou is Wittgenstein's party (his little dog, or as a joke his companion Rosalie Léon), not the Galitzine dog. Unresolved.