 Pauline Viardot, who was in Germany performing, wrote and offered her house in Brie to Gounod as a tranquil retreat where he could focus on his composition as well as tend to the needs of his mother.Louis Viardot, Pauline's husband, had also offered money, presumably to help defray unanticipated expenses arising from Urbain's untimely demise.Pauline Viardot also asked the Russian poet Ivan Turgenev, with whom she had an increasingly intimate relationship and who was on the verge of returning to Russia, to remain in France and join Gounod and his mother in Brie in order to provide additional support and comfort.