So Very British!

Average Pierre?

I keep reading all this things on the internet and in American magazines about how the French are so chic and they all dress well and they all have great manners and they're all this and ALL THAT. Now that I lived here for two years, I have had to completely unpack the closet of myths I had amassed over the years, despite all my visits here. So, I need to get a few things straight. The French are many things. Some French people are chic, some are well-dressed and a few have great manners.

I went to a shareholders' party for a local bank with my friend Ogbia, and I was struck by how average everyone was. I know, I know, I sound like a huge snob, but I really was. And in light of the fact that I have been reading all these perpetuated myths about the French, I thought I would share this video.

So let's get this straight. Not all American men wear white tube socks and running shoes. And the French guy in the pink sweater sure can do "the medicine."

Good Weekend!

We tend to forget that
happiness doesn't come
as a result of getting
something we don't have,
but rather of recognizing
and appreciating
what we do have.

FREDRICK KOEING

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!

What the heck!

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 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

Port-au-Prince

I would want to adopt all these adorable Haitian orphans

Elsève Volume Non-Stop

Halliday and I have been getting a lot of mileage (giggles) out of a new shampoo that we are carrying at basicfrench. Lauded for it's long-lasting volume enhancing potential by a myriad of well-groomed lyonnais, Elsève Volume Non-Stop, is truly our new shampoo of choice.

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.

Fashion Week : Paris Chic ?

Eric Rohmer, Claire's Knee and other stuff

Eric Rohmer in 1985. Photograph: EPA

I think that when I discovered Eric Rohmer in my teens, I felt I had truly arrived. My French was not too great at that time, but I fell deeply in love with the mood of his movies, the light, the scenery and the realistic promise of unrequited, youthful love.

Anyway, Eric Rohmer died today and here is a bit of history about him from "The Guardian" and the "Associated Press" in case you want to become a posthumous fan. Eric Rohmer marathon weekend, ne c'est pas?



And then there's Claire's knee (le Genou de Claire) of course...

The Party & French Boys Love Fashion Too!

Living with two teenage girls, I am blessed each week with full-on fashion exposure, beginning Monday mornings at 6:15 when my 15 year old gets up for school. The fun really kicks in on weekends with multiple wardrobe changes, interspersed with moments of great despair, tears, more wardrobe changes, last minute loads of laundry and mascara touch ups. The fashion apex is Sunday evening at about 10:23 when Monday morning's outfit is oh so carefully selected and strewn on the settee in our hallway.

I thought this was a teenage girl thing, until I went to a birthday party for our fabulous friend Odyssey, fondly known (to me at least) as "the Greek." Boys, boys, boys, just love their clothes and shoes and even have a favorite shampoo, which gives them that lift, that bounce, that brushed forward sloppy yet trimmed hair look that the French boys are sporting these days.

La Croix Rousse is Back!!

I used to hang out a lot in La Croix Rousse, but for various reasons which I won't elaborate on here, I got out of the habit. But slowly and surely, I am rediscovering this unpretentious and genuine neighborhood that I fell for a few years ago. Today, I am on my way to my dear friend Odyssey's birthday party.

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.

Monoprix and My New Flip Video

I just bought a new flip video and I am so excited, so I am going to be annoying everyone with my new videoability or lack thereof. Hallie and I are taking off to do a little shopping at our favorite store, Monoprix, before we get inundated with snow.

Waiting for the Snow

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.

Encore de la Neige

This morning we woke up and Lyon was covered in snow. It was like magic.
Our apartment looks out on a square and all the terracotta rooftops of our neighborhood. Snow-covered. We are on the top floor so we see everything. The girls reluctantly put on hats and scarves and all the forgotten Winter gear. Hallie left for school at 7 and it was still pitch black. The sun came up before Abbie took off at 8, but barely. All the buses were canceled and many teachers did not make it to work at all. This is not a city used to snow, that's for sure.

Tonight, it snowed again and the streets were quiet and slushy. My dream would be for it all to disappear overnight, for the streets to
be clean and dry when I look out my window tomorrow morning — more overnight magic please.

Home is Where We Are...

It's the New Year. Bonne Année.

We just got back last night from 19 days in the states. I slept so well. Complex dreams, but a feeling of safety engulfed me. I was sleeping in my own little bed with my own 100% cotton sheets under my own little duvet in my eclectically designed room surrounded by all the quirky things that define me, with my 2 lovely daughters snuggled in their own little room under their own little duvets. Truly snug in our beds. Home.

I keep asking myself where I live? Where do I call home? All those who want me back in the states call the U.S. my home, but I realized last night, as I realize every time that I come back to France, that though while not perfect, France has become, for at least as long as I can see into the future, my home, the place where I feel most like myself, where I feel safe and clean and clear in my head.

Fall Descends

It has been really cold in Lyon and rainy. I do not love this change as I am not a Winter person at all. After all my years in the beautiful Hudson Valley and after shoveling more snow that I can possibly bare to think about, I have quietly admitted to all the defenders of Winter and the cold, that I don't like it. I don't like it at all. I had Winters in Red Hook, one in particular, where I swore I would embrace the season with great zeal. And I did. I bought the girls, then 8 and 11, new cross country skis. We used them once, maybe twice until one of the girls ended up in tears her hands were so cold, she could ski no more. And I bought Canadian ice skates. We skated on our bumpy pond, which was admittedly fun, just cold. I do love to skate.

Again I am going to try to embrace Winter, but here in Lyon where the season is admittedly milder, I think I have more chance of success. I'm gonna put my Winter on, tout de suite.

On Vacation in Charbonnières-les-bains

On Habite La!

I have been meaning to post this lovely sneak peek that Grace of design*sponge did of our apartment in Lyon. It's small (and I'm not kidding) but we now call it home! It will soon be featured in Grace's upcoming book project along with our country house in les Monts du Lyonnais.

Country Chic

Halliday just has a way of putting things together that is very relaxed and chic. She has real style. This is laundry day in les monts du lyonnais.

The Shipley Girls

I love this picture of Tish (my mother,) Gran and Aunt Bun in Beach Haven. Plaid was in then too, tu vois? I predict this to be a big plaid year and my thought is to wear a Liberty of London shirt with a plaid kilt over Paul Smith skinny jeans. The girls will never forgive me!

Raising the Bar

I sold my house in the Hudson Valley today and I am absolutely thrilled. No regrets. I have moved on. I will though miss with all my heart all the wonderful people I have met, that I've learned so much from—but all those people, the ones that stick, will always be in my life. I am as faithful as my German short-haired pointer, Clementine.

I've been thinking about all of the things I am grateful for. Sometimes I feel really lucky, sometimes I feel really blessed, sometimes I feel like I just work really really hard. But, mostly, I just feel grateful for all the lessons that I've learned along the way, for the love I've received and been able to give in return.

I want to do interesting things for the rest of my life, but more importantly, I want to do good things. I want to love and respect myself and earn others love and respect. I want to go to sleep at night with a clear conscience and know that I made someone else's life better every day. These are my simple goals. I'm raising the bar.

Joyeuse Fête des Pères!!

My girls + I

have the
2
best dads
in the world!

Bowdie et Dan,
les deux
meilleurs papas du monde!!

Weekend a` la Campagne

It was so beautiful in les monts du Lyonnais. Hard not to love it. The dogs are happy, the girls are happy, I am happy.

Vide Grenier

In a little town, Grezieu le marché, on the border of the Rhone and the Loire, this is what I found this morning. I love to go antiquing and yard saleing. I am a born buyer and it gives me such pleasure to find beautiful things and see them come together. I always have a theme, a story, going in my head, which could be color, subject matter, style or some other unifying factor. One week I might be taken by imagery of woman, or vintage typography, things that are silver toned, things that have been stamped, rustic ironstone. And it is only when I arrive home with my basket filled with stuff, that I become aware of the thoughts that lead me around all day, all week, all month, all year.

Tennis Anyone?

Tomorrow is the bi-annual tennis round robin at our very sweet tennis club in La Croix Rousse, and hopefully we will all be brave enough to play, haha. Not wearing an outfit like this however...