Thence they proceeded direct to Paris, where they arrived on November 18, and were kindly received and hospitably entertained by the Bavarian ambassador, Count von Eyck. His wife was a daughter of the high chamberlain at Salzburg, Count Arco. Mozart was furnished with introductions to the most distinguished persons then in Paris; but all these were worth nothing, L. Mozart writes, in comparison with one letter given to him by a merchant's wife at Frankfort, and addressed to Grimm. Friedrich Melchior Grimm, the pupil and disciple of Gottsched,[20020] had lived in Paris since 1749. As secretary to Count Friesen, and afterwards to the Duke of Orleans, he had admission to the highest circles of society. His amiable disposition and the important share he took in the literary struggles of the encyclopedists gained him a still more exalted position as a sort of literary and artistic arbiter. His judgment on musical matters was eagerly sought after, and, as it came within his special province to bring to light anything out of the common way, he was of all others most fitted to appreciate Wolfgang's performances. He had genuine sympathy with his countrymen, too, and could understand such a nature as L. Mozart's. He had not yet been created baron and ambassador, was still active and energetic, and exerted all his personal and literary influence for the Mozart family. Leopold ascribes {PARIS--1763-64, GRIMM, MDME. DE POMPADOUR.} ( 35) all their subsequent success to this "powerful friend." "He has done everything--opened the court to us, managed the first concert, and is going to manage the second. What cannot a man do with sense and a kind heart? He has been fifteen years in Paris, and knows how to make things fall out as he wishes." Their first object was the introduction at court. The most important personage at that time at Versailles was, of course, Madame de Pompadour. "She must have been very beautiful," writes L. Mozart to Madame Hagenauer, "for she is still comely. She is tall and stately; stout, but well proportioned, with some likeness to Her Imperial Majesty about the eyes. She is proud, and has a remarkable mind." Mozart's sister remembered in after days how she placed little Wolfgang on the table before her, but pushed him aside when he bent forward to kiss her, on which he indignantly asked: "Who is this that does not want to kiss me?--the Empress kissed me."[20021] The King's daughters were much more friendly, and, contrary to all etiquette, kissed and played with the children, both in their own apartments and in the public corridors. On New Year's Day the Mozart family were conducted by the Swiss guard to the supper-room of the royal family. Wolfgang stood near the Queen, who fed him with sweetmeats, and talked to him in German, which she was obliged to interpret to Louis XV. The father stood near Wolfgang, and the mother and daughter on the other side of the King, near the Dauphin and Madame Adelaide.