The Simple Truth

An early start for Saint-Martin-en-Haut to get my car repaired. It's rainy and cold and I am praying its going to be warm and sunny this weekend. We are going to Uzes, gorgeous town in the Languedoc-Roussillon region with my marraine (godmother), Cynthia, or Auntie Tint as we used to call her, staying at my favorite chambre d'hote, La Mona, in Flaux, a jewel that the girls and I discovered on a recent trip to La Cote D'Azur. Today, also going to Saint Symphorien sur Coise to pay a bill long overdue, to visit my adopted family here in France at their amazing, amazing atelier Objet de Curiosité. They have really inspired me and my house in the country is filled with objets de curiosité and paintings of my very very dear friend Isabelle Grange.



In a café in Saint Martin. They know me now as it's ma petite pause preférée in the area. 2 completely drunk old guys at the bar who think they are so funny. It starts early for some folks, I guess. They are trashed. Carole, the server, is rewriting the menu du jour on a chalk board with a really cool pen that looks like white-out but is really like liquid chalk. She has the best script writing. They offer only one choice here, but it's always delicious, hardy and fresh. I love the simplicity of it all—we have too many choices. Life is too complicated.

I was thinking about myself the other day. I was at my coiffeur (most lovely place in Lyon) having my hair cut radically and my meches done, and while Guy was rinsing my hair, he knocked out one of my earrings and down the drain it went. I have been wearing the same earrings that I bought at Barneys downtown 20 years ago—for 20 years I guess. Maybe I have changed them briefly twice or 3 times. Barney's had the best antique jewelry section ever and I coveted these earrings for months before getting up the courage to buy them. They are the perfect little gold studs with tiny star diamonds in the center. Anyway, thinking about myself, I think I am funny in the way that I don't change my style much—and I think at the core I am very very simple, and conservative. I really need very little in terms of stuff, to be happy. Just the perfect sponge, café au lait bowl, dish detergent or charm bracelet—and the perfect pair of earrings.

Earring rescued. I am relieved not to have to change my style. It's conservative me, Agnes B, Paul Smith, Morgane le Fay, my favorite earrings and the perfect café, on the quintessential rainy day, in the most beautiful place in this simple country.