 At this time, he attended the "salons" of Mme Straus, widow of Georges Bizet and mother of Proust's childhood friend Jacques Bizet, of Madeleine Lemaire and of Mme Arman de Caillavet, one of the models for Madame Verdurin, and mother of his friend Gaston Arman de Caillavet, with whose fiancée (Jeanne Pouquet) he was in love.It is through Mme Arman de Caillavet, he made the acquaintance of Anatole France, her lover.Proust had a close relationship with his mother.