Poet Paul Eluard and his wife Gala became friendly with Max Ernst and his wife Luise in the fall of 1921. By the middle of the following year Max, Paul and Gala were engaged in an open ménage à trois, and at the end of the summer, Ernst went to Paris to live with the Eluards, virtually deserting Luise and their son Jimmy in Cologne, whom Ernst did not see again until 1925. His tempestuous relationship with the Eluards coincides with some of the most productive years of his career. In late 1927, Ernst met painter Marie-Berthe Aurenche and married her almost immediately. They rented a house in Meudon, outside of Paris.