SOLDES d'été 2022

 

Paris' eagerly awaited summer sales are finally here, with many shops and boutiques already offering 40% markdowns on brand and off-brand fashion.

- Soldes d'été 2022 - 

Ends July 19

Perfume me

 

 

"Shall I perfume you?"

In France, perfume is such an integral part of the culture that it’s a verb. 

The offer for a light misting was coming from the exuberant Versailles-born Christian Louis, whose charming shop nestled under a Place des Vosges archway is my personal favorite small Paris parfumerie, worth a visit on its own. With its copper stills and colors of the Côte d'Azur it exudes a feel of bygone days mixed with a touch of a miniature Willy Wonka factory. It is, simply, a realm of beautiful scents, all created by Louis, holder of the prestigious title and position of one of France's rare Master Perfumers. Louis, whose workshop is in Grasse, will carefully scope a newcomer up and down and expertly match one of his creations to their "type" - reciting the ordained perfume's essential essences with passion (“orange peel, black pepper, wild rose, tuberose!”). And he's never wrong.

France has been the Oz of beautiful fragrances for centuries. Its most iconic brands - Guerlain, CHANEL, Nina Ricci, Fragonard, Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Sisley, Hermès, Jean Patou, Miss Dior - are known the world over. Yet every year, a new crop of débutantes enter the market, making the choices seem endless. Where to start? Most find it easier to play it safe and stick to the classics.

 

But Paris affords the luxury of under-the-radar smaller, still exclusive parfumeries that take the time to fix you up with a scent that’s uniquely you. Or help you choose a one-of-a-kind gift. And when you finally settle on The One that will endear you to your loves and loved ones' memories forever, as perfumes tend to do, don't forget to say, "Parfumez-moi!" - BPJ

 

  

Worth discovering:

 

Parfums et Senteurs du Pays Basque

Christian Louis Parfums

18 Place des Vosges 75004

 

 Frédéric Malle


37 rue de Grenelle 75007 

 

Jovoy Parfumier
4 rue de Castiglione 75001
 
Serge Lutens
142 Galerie de Valois 75001

 Annick Goutal

12 Place Saint Sulpice 75006

 

L'Artisan Parfumeur

32 rue du Bourg Tibourg 75004

 

Marie-Antoinette

5 rue d'Ormesson 75004

 

Discover the secrets of perfume making:

 

The Alchemist Atelier

36 rue Étienne Marcel 75002

 

Create your own perfume:

 

Le Studio des Parfums

23 rue du Bourg Tibourg 75004

Flower power

In France, flowers are an integral part of life and in Paris, florists are as numerous as boulangeries. They lift spirits, add color and cheer wherever they appear, and symbolize romance, nature, optimism and the persistence of beauty. - BPJ

A pretty spot

 Tables invitingly set out for lunch on a Left Bank sidewalk.

A book by its cover

That which is striking and beautiful is not always right, but that which is right is always beautiful. - Ninon de l'Enclos, French courtesan, author, patron of the arts

Amaze

Cristina Mittermeier Photography
Publisher: teNeues Publishing Company

 

Available at La Hune Gallery 16 rue de l'Abbaye 75006

 

 

The Parisienne #2

How many of these are you?

 [Chart: My Little Paris 11/2019]

Clichés are often anchored in truth and in Paris, the (cliché) Parisienne is alive and well. Like other clichés - the Southern Belle, Valley Girl, Sloane Ranger... - she is a subgroup unto herself. Not every woman in Paris is, or even wants to be, this Parisienne. But many are. Trying to change and redefine her to fit your comfort zone doesn't work. As legendary hair stylist David Mallett put it, "You know her when you see her."

That’s her on a bicycle with flawless skin, scarf in the wind, a baguette under her arm. She's feminine, thin, natural, but mostly, she's "bien dans sa peau" (well in her skin) at any age. Facelifts and botox are not part of her world. She can be chic. Or not. As long as it's on her terms, not yours. And her hair! Sometimes referred to as that "just-rolled-out-of-bed look," it's been like that all of her adventurous life.

Long after she's left you in the dust will it hit you that you were sent off on fausses pistes (translation: holes in her stories). And besides a full head of "French hair" (didn't you know?) she's had that smug expression - some call it a sneer, others a smirk - for as long as she can remember and it usually means, “You are a bore.”
 
You hate her but love to copy her. In your zeal to wrap her in as many shapes and sizes as there are French cheeses you forget that she is, like all clichés, unaware that she is one. Or cares what you think what she is or isn't because, well, she just is.

La Parisienne plays by her own rules. She tries to be politiquement correcte and not judge books by their covers, but will point out that if covers don't matter, why do publishers devote entire departments to book cover design? - BPJ

***

The No. 1 response to my informal survey of French women about the secret of magical ageing is not gaining weight. Ever. - From French Secrets to Ageing Gracefully - Ann M. Morrison (Lifestyle/Beauty - Sydney Morning Herald 2010)

***

Some comments lambasting Parisiennes:

- Believe me when i tell you that NO ONE wants to look like most french women do ! I've lived here for 6 years and for the most part, they shower once a week, don't wear any make up and very rarely even put a comb through the hair! Not to mention about the hairy situation all the time... And the parisians that everyone is talking about are one in a million rich people who can afford to buy Channel and Dior….

- (Paris) is full of people who are not a singular white, thin woman in a messy topknot and Breton-striped shirt. And yet, this is rarely (if ever) included in the many odes to "French style.” How to be Parisian, for example, doesn’t mention the incredible array of hijab fashion you will see on the street every day in Paris. And, while it would be wrong to imply that France (and Paris in particular) is a bastion of diversity — or that French culture has mastered embracing different backgrounds — the reality is that these outdated notions of What Is Parisian only perpetuate the real problems of representation in the country itself.

- Thank you for this article! I couldn't agree more with your points, especially the last one on diversity. As a Francophile, I have been made aware of this obsession with trying to become the French woman since "French Women Don't Get Fat" hit the bookshelves in 2004. To be honest, I've also entertained the notion that they possess a certain je ne sais quoi that was lacking in American culture and that I should try to obtain it. Now, I'm just over it and I roll my eyes each time Vogue, Huffington Post (or Refinery29...) writes an article about this elusive woman. I roll my eyes because I know her and she is just the same as us! Let's be proud of who we are as women on this earth and not women of Paris, of New York, etc.

 

But then...

- You almost convinced me. But then I remembered that the last time I was in Paris, I was struck by the dozens of chic Parisian women, commuting on bicycles, looking fresh faced and moist-lipped, even in blaring traffic. They pedaled in skirts and flat shoes, gamine and athletic no matter their age (...). I love being an American woman, but I love loving the French women.

***

Adapted from: 

Seduction and the Art of The French Femme

and

Eating French: Why French Women Won't Get Fat

   a.k.a.

A French Paradox: The French Non Diet and The Art of Eating for Pleasure - Barbara Pasquet James

Tomorrow:
My French hair

 

The Parisienne #1

 "Qui a dit que la Parisienne était un mythe?" / Who said the Parisienne was a myth?....

You don't have to be from Paris or live there to be a Parisienne. It's a look, a style, a state of mind. - Inès de la Fressange and Sophie Gachet La Parisienne (2019)

 

***

 

Once again the elusive Parisienne is in the headlines, diluted and democratized by those who will never accept the entrance requirements. Like the Southern Belle, she belongs to a category entirely her own, one that no diversity seminar can manufacture. Being a Parisienne is an attitude, a style, an unapologetic Frenchness, an unyielding essence that can’t be minted. Rebrand her all you like; she’ll still be leaning against a zinc café counter in her decade-old trench, surveying the circus with the faintest lift of an eyebrow. Some myths simply can't be. focus-grouped into oblivion. - BPJ

Tomorrow:
Are you a (cliché) Parisienne? Check the chart

 

Update: see December 14, 2020 post

Parisienne rules

 

 

 

 

Touch of spring

Bright mimosas on the sidewalk in front of a Montmartre florist.

Front row

Once again it's Paris Fashion Week as both big names and off-the-radar designers strut their stuff.

Below: young designers set up their showroom in the Marais district

We are French

On a shopping bag of a boutique that sells lingerie:

"We are French. We believe in being sexy independent fashionable and optimistic"

***

French women care about how themselves, on their own uncompromising terms. They care about their weight, their skin, their hair, what they eat, and how they present themselves. It is tended to with a quiet, daily devotion. Not for applause, not for Instagram, but for their own sense of bien-être. It's cultural. The self-esteem industry never took root in France. There are no Tony Robbinses booming on about "unblocking potential." One gets on without having to brag, considered vulgar and a true tell of insecurity. One's own accomplishments and possessions are downplayed, almost dismissed. At the core of the endearing French Attitude? Most simply don't care whether they are liked. Or not.

You won't hear, "It's what's inside that counts" because the outside is seen as almost always the manifestation of what's been knocking around on the inside: all those small daily choices and decisions, spanning years, had a cumulative effect.
 
Even women of modest means treat themselves to a special accessory or scent, and in Paris, there are almost as many lingerie shops as there are tabacs. One of my French nieces, a young college student at the time, excused herself early from a family lunch so as not to miss her weekly massage - a nécessité, she explained, despite living on a tight budget.
 
While gym clubs and joggers abound, many find other ways to get in their daily exercise, such as foregoing the elevator and taking the stairs, or walking instead of using métro, car or bus. Cities all over France have become bicycle friendly, and not just to reduce pollution. The sacred August vacances d'été, that great annual purge of stress, is coming to a close, and as everyone shares stories and photos of where they went and what they did, Paris is re-energized. - BPJ

***
 

Adapted from: 

Seduction and the Art of The French Femme

and

Eating French: Why French Women Won't Get Fat   

a.k.a. A French Paradox: The French Non Diet and The Art of Eating for Pleasure - Barbara Pasquet James

  

L'art de vivre

L'art de vivre is a quintessentially French concept. It’s a love of life’s small things and quiet pursuit of beauty, in mind as well as body. It’s taking pleasure in ordinary gestures, whether preparing a cup of tea or selecting the perfect stationery. - BPJ

***

Adapted from:

L'Art de Vivre - Barbara Pasquet James

***

- With a special thanks to Linda Gray, beautiful in every sense of the word -

 

*** 

 

I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art. - Actress Helena Bonham Carter

Weighing in

 

 

Yesterday I happened to walk into my local butcher shop just as everyone was still reeling from the size of an American woman who'd bought a chicken.

Knowing I'm from the U.S. they asked if it’s true that obesity in America has become epidemic, and brought up something I’d heard years before from a small group of French doctors at The American Hospital of Paris: "In Paris, most hospitals don’t have scales to accommodate such proportions, so these patients get sent to a veterinary clinic outside the city, in Asnières, where livestock gets weighed."




In Paris, obesity (not to be confused with being surpoids, or overweight), while it exists, remains a visual rarity, as noted with surprise over and over by visitors from the U.S. When severe obesity is spotted ("Mais c'est pas possible!"), usually it's in areas that are magnets for tourists, and it is assumed that they definitely are not French.

 
Illustrations often depict French girls and women as stick thin, which of course is not the norm nor is it the desired norm. But fashion and beauty, synonymous with Paris, is a big part of French culture. Most café terrace chairs face the street like front-row seats to a runway so passersby can be seen, and appreciated. One has but to look up at the sky just about anywhere inside the city limits and no electrical or telephone lines are visible because, as a French architect friend explained, "It ruins the eye!” 

 


I used to wonder if Mireille Guiliano's best-selling “French Women Don’t Get Fat” shouldn’t have been titled, “French Women Won’t Get Fat.” When I was growing up my father, who never lost his sense of style (or French accent that could melt butter), used to admonish us to "take a little pride" in our appearance. Stepping out with a tousled mop (think Caroline de Maigret) or wearing the same "uniform" every day (think Steve Jobs) was fine, but packing on the kilos? Not so much. Obesity was associated with personal neglect and lower-income communities and, as recent studies show, still is today.

 
In France, so far, beauty remains firmly in the eye of each beholder. We won't be bullied into adjusting our tastes to suit PC outsiders. When it comes to obesity, health is one consideration yes, but for now, at least, the French still like to quote Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Beauty will save the world." - BPJ 

 

 ***

 

  ***

 

Adapted from:

Eating French: Why French Women Won't Get Fat 
a.k.a. 

A French Paradox: The French Non Diet and The Art of Eating for Pleasure - Barbara Pasquet James

Special thanks:

Treize au Jardin

5 rue de Médicis 75006

 

***

 

 Updates:

 

4/2020 - Covid-19

"According to the first number from a national record released by Le Monde, 83% of patients in intensive care in France are people overweight or obese, the most often suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes."

 

3/2021 - Covid-19

"CDC study finds that about 78% of people hospitalized for Covid were overweight or obese."

 CNBC NEWS

 

9/2021 - Covid-19 

"Children and teens gained weight at an alarming rate" in U.S. [since start of the pandemic] says CDC.

NPR

 

 

Fall and fashion

No sooner is the September rentrée back in swing it's time for the new collections to hit the runways.

Above: this season watch for chic tailoring, high boots, bright colors, smaller bags and big hair

 

Paris Fashion Week September 25 - October 3, 2018

See-&-Be-Seen Dept
models, designers, fashionistas: where they go after the shows

September newsletter
Nouveautés 

 

Fashion for all

The French femme is renowned for staying active and chic even with age.

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Next month's newsletter

 Magret on the menu:
No matter how it's prepared... duck is my favorite fowl

Where to find it: 5 great addresses

 (click to enlarge)

Jealous

A magazine filled with fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle tips for women.