Family Ties

So Very British!

The Dog Days of Winter

I never knew what the dog days of summer were, but surely these must be the dog days of winter!

Les Puces du Canal : Gloria Loves to Dance

One beautiful, unseasonably warm winter day, an american, a french/german, an italian, a greek and a serbian/greek ex-Parisian go to the marché aux puces in Lyon. That's me and my friends.

The flea market is not that inspiring. I find a funky pitcher, 2 benetiers and a faience madonna to add to my collection. I am really looking for the perfect commode, a dresser that will fit in the bedroom. I have been looking for 2 years. The sun peeks in and out as we walk around. It feels like almost Spring and voices are high with excitement. We all want to break out.

I keep wondering why I have never managed to live in a warm place. I wonder why I never moved to Marseille or Nice. Lyon, an improvement over New York by far, is still too cold for me. And yet here, this prematurely warm sunny day, I feel intoxicated. We sit in a local café as everyone begins to pack up their wares. We eat poorly, drink a few glasses of unmemorable wine, laugh, tease. Music seeps out of a café nearby and we are like snakes in the sun—immobile, lazy, slow, content. I feel drugged and so good, soaking up those rays, forgetting the long list of tasks I have lined up the week ahead of me. We follow the music and end up inside the local café/bar where the antique dealers wrap up their day. They all seem to know each other. It's a mixed crowd but we still stand out a bit, not locals. The music plays and we can't help but be drawn into the swirl. It's a springtime drug. I'm addicted.

The Halliday Girls!

I just found this picture of two of the four amazing Halliday sisters, my great aunt Bobbie (Elisabeth Halliday Van Nortwick) and my grandmother Mimi, (Margaret Halliday Neiley) aka Mother Nature.

Bobbie and Mimi were my role models. They were the most elegant and hilarious women I have ever known. Always dressed to the nines, relaxed in real Abercrombie and Fitch, quintessential ladies, polished at Miss Porters, raised between New York , Yonkers (the then countryside of Manhattan) and Hyannis Port, they were the funniest pair ever.

Chez Nous

Our house, is a veryveryvery old house, with 2 dogs in the yard. (Okay, I'll stop. I am annoying myself too.)

Grace Bonney, most celebrated design blogger and charming lovely person, of whom I'm obviously a great fan, included our country house in les monts du lyonnais in the Sneak Peeks section of her website. I realize that I forgot to mention this months ago, when I included the feature of our Lyon apartment.

Since I truly need to learn to be more self-promotional in this century, to attain a modicum of recognition, I thought I would provide the link. Blahblah blah. Someday, this will come naturally.

But here's the thing. I have a new and exciting project on the horizon...an urban palace that I am hoping beyond all hope to renovate. So stay tuned. I am sure to publish it in the next century.