cmt

That's almost correct, except that the last part of the name has one less "u" and has an "r" at the end. Réamur. I'm glad you got it.

grandmere

Hercule Poirot?

cmt

I think you should go ahead and post a new clue, Grandmere.

grandmere

Somebody else take a turn.

cmt

Where's 111op?

111op

Sorry, I haven't checked this thread for a while. Ok, how about this one?

9 letters, 3rd letter is "L" from Hercule.

It's the name of a pretty famous restaurant in NYC. It's also a name associated with a famous Biblical episode. Last it's also the name of the person in a renowed Renaissance portrait.

Hint: In one spelling of this name, the 7th letter is one of the least used letters in the English alphabet.

grandmere

Balthazar?

111op

Yes. The Renaissance portrait is the Raphael portrait of Castiglione at the Louvre.

grandmere

This one is too easy and probably won't require Google: this man is is now jailed for actions that rocked the financial world a few weeks ago: 6-7. The "R" from Balthazar is the third letter of this man's first and last name.

111op

Yeah, I don't need to Google this one, so I'll let someone else take a chance.

I was reading newspaper coverage and I found that two articles used the same quote from Balzac. I'll provide the quote later.