Sale with the Candle

In 1962, Michel* had bought his doll's house restaurant at what the French call vente a la chandelle, a colourful but nerve wracking style of property auction dating all the way back to fifteenth century. The auctioneer opens bids by ceremoniously lighting two candles - or rather tallow wicks - one slightly longer than the other. The bidding follows on briskly, because the wicks last no longer than fifteen or thirty seconds. The first candle goes out (the tallow's greasy smoke the indisputable sign of its extinction), and then the second, giving bidders one, last chance, because at this moment the auctioneer lights the third and final wick, and the suspense mounts as the bids fly. The last one to shout or to make a sign before the third candle winks out or the black smoke rises is declared the winner. The Pot eu Feu, situated on an impase next to some old factories in an undesirable corner of Asnieres, wasn't exactly a prime piece of real estate. Michel got it with a princely bid of 18,000 francs - about $3,600 at the time.

For the third and last time ........

*Michel Guerard is regarded as one of the founders of what was called in the years 1960 and 1970 the movement "the new kitchen" the forefront of nouvelle cuisine

Extract from The Perfectionist by Rudolph Chelminski published 2005.
What could possibly possess a three-star French chef, a master of his difficult trade in a country that reveres cuisine, to commit suicide in 2003, just after wrapping up the daily lunch service?