I Love My Town

One hot summer day, I thought about this. Aside from Manhattan, I have never felt as passionate about a city as I do about Lyon. For me, it is a perfect city—not too big, not too much traffic, profound culture and history, ethnic diversity, an easy metro and fab urban bike system, magnificent architecture, cute guys, easy access to the south of France, the Rhone wine country, skiing in the Alpes and Paris by high speed train. But what I love most about Lyon is the near perfect (pour moi au moins) urban quality of life.

It's such big love between me and Lyon that I had to design a t-shirt for Basic French. Dan Baxter, my good friend and the most talented illustrator and animal portrait artist I know, is pictured here sporting his. Go Dan!!!

Crushing on your home town and need to wear a Basic French J'aime ma ville t-shirt?

The Language of Love...Basic French

BY DEBORAH P. SOBELOFF

That was the year Josh and I decided to argue
in French, a language we didn't know
enough of to lie in. We only knew the present
tense, the infinitives. There was no
conjugation--we or I. No decisions
to be made--her or me.
I could say table, bed,
but not ask what happened--a relief
not to know or to know my fears
correct. We loved the conversation
that could go on and on with two words:
Ça va. He sang the Marseillaise to me in bed.
It gave me goose bumps.
Our meals became prayers
hastened with bon apetit, the fear of bon voyage.
In English, I could make the whole
room spin around one word, make an hour
of tears over the inflection of one syllable. In French,
it was obvious we were ridiculous,
fallible, together. We were back in school.

Copyright © 2009

My Favorite Sacred Place and Funny Teenage Boys

My neighborhood is the most conservative Catholic neighborhood in Lyon. Definitely not branché (hip) at all. I love it though because it has this really calm and sacred feel to it, filled with old spirits and history. It also has the most beautiful people, bcbg (bon chic bon genre) but in a parochially refined way.

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.