belle epoque

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The Word of the Day for December 4 is:

belle epoque   \BEL-ay-POK\   noun
     : a period of high artistic or cultural development; especially : such a 
period in France around the end of the 19th century

Example sentence: 
     Nob Hill remains a symbol of San Francisco's belle epoque, those golden 
days of the late 1890s when the city was awash in money, mansions, and elegance.

Did you know?
     In the years before World War I, France experienced a period of economic 
growth that produced a wealth of artistic and cultural developments. That era 
has been described as excessive, glittering, gaudy, and extravagant, but the 
tumultuous days of war that followed it inspired the French to call that 
productive period "la belle epoque" -- literally, "the beautiful age." By the 
mid-1950s, the term "belle epoque" had found its way into English, where it 
came to be used to refer not only to the glory days of late 19th-century 
France, but to any similarly luxurious period. It is now used to more elegantly 
convey the sentiments of another nostalgic expression, "the good old days."