0 Color in Paris

 Oh the weather outside...

 Is frightful.

Well it has been in Paris for the past week, rain, rain, rain and going forward more rain.

 Is that why there are so many lashings of color scattered about like these colorful ballards near a kid's playground on rue du Bac?

 Colorful chaises sit out cheering one on as you wait for the #96 bus in the Marais. Merci chaises!

 Wildly colored legs I don't know where..?

 Bright plastic bagues/rings in the 11th.

 Same shop womewhere on rue Oberkamph had this Fab bracelet.

 Fauchon can always be depended upon for serious lashings of color. Merci Fauchon for brightening Parisian's grey days.

 Colored dots galore.
Why not wear them if your feeling bleu?

 Paris grey/gris skies require au nom de la Rose for uplifting bien sur.

 A hopeful shop window in the upper Marais.

 I fell in love with this primary-colored kid's book, Couleurs Du Jour by Kveta Pacovska.

 It's a 2 1/2"  accordian thick book that opens both back and front = tons to look at and not a word written.
Who could resist?
I didn't. 

 A very narrow but bright little shop in the 15th.

 Can you tell I LOVE French kid's books?

A how-to for kids, How To Raise Father
!!!

 Multi-colored tulip gelato from Amorino - yogurt, framboise, pistache, cafe = HEAVEN!!

Go paint Paris any color you want (but gris/grey) with this watch by AKTEO France Espace AKTEO "A vous de plaire" Champs Elysées

24 rue Marbeuf - 75008.

Hope the weather changes soon Paris!

0 Paris Was Ours

The top book I'm reading this week is Paris Was Ours.
I can't put it down and neither will you.

It won't tell you what to wear in Paris, though there's a chapter on 'Understanding Chic' by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni but I haven't read it yet...

It won't tell you which patisseries to go to either...

It will tell you what it's like to be an ex-pat in Paris and feel lost. Editor Penelope Rowlands starts off the introduction with,

'I'm a PARISIAN of the recurrent, revolving door kind.'

Later she reveals, 'We hated Paris and loved it all at once, and when we headed back to New York (after a year) we did so reluctantly.'

32 writers contributed their experiences of living in Paris, so there's something for everyone here.

The first exerpt by Veronique Vienne, (a terrific art director I illustrated for at SELF Magazine) tells of her tres difficile return to live in Paris - she'd forgotten many French ways after years in New York. "Living in Paris is "priceless," but it will cost you."

Veronique created one of the best and earliest how-to books on 'French Style'. I wish someone would reprint it...

Alicia Drake (of The Beautiful Fall) writes of those grey, metalic Parisian skies - it's not always champagne and roses bien sur.

Patric Kuh, now an LA food critic and author,

Gives the best description I've read yet of what it's really like to work in a French restaurant kitchen. Put your knives back in the drawer. And I thought only women had a tough time over there...

Why are French women thin? Could it be the strict rules and boundaries French parents set up in childhood? Dessert comes at the end of dinner, never first. I loved 'Parenting French-Style' by Janine de Giovanni.

Valerie Steiker in 'Fledgling days' remembers spending a year in Paris at 23, with high expectations of reliving her mother's inspired year abroad at the same age. The pursuit of her mother's joie de vie eludes her. 'I tried to comfort myself by thinking of one of my mother's sayings for not letting things get to you - "Let it glide over the back of your indifference" - but it didn't work.' Her story is poignant and endearing...

David Lebovitz tells all in the last entry, 'Enfin.' And David Sedaris admits his addiction to books-on-tape in English early days in France.

These are the stories we wish we could tell, not the tourist tales. As Judith Thurman writes "one of the greatest charms of having lived in Paris is the Proustian glamour of being able to claim that one did so.”

If you read Paris Was Ours on the subway as I did, be aware your laughter may frighten the other passengers. Now I'm off to read 'Understanding Chic' Bonne reading!

BONJOUR PARIS WAS OURS!

0 A Bit of French Fluff..

It only takes a small bit of fluff or fur to be 'IN' this winter in Paris. And your dog can wear it if you'd rather not...

A fluffy-faux furry-shruggie thing will do... If you insist, it can be orange and from SONIA... But frankly it doesn't matter where you get your fluff. Or who made it... Granted, this kid's snow suit will cost you a bundle and is probably Dior.

Surely you have an old bit of fur to stitch into a hood?

Gerard Darel stitches it on to a bag this season.

Fur-esque boots were the most unusual bit of fluff seen on Paris streets.

A furry shawl collar thing will do it.

The 'Lady-like' look is always in fashion and a fur scarf is just the added touch.

Like this French girl dans le rue.

A fur-jacketed kid with a Burberry mom.

A grown-up furry jacket worn with all grey dans la rue.

October was mille-feuille month What a fluffy dessert that is.

Gerard Mulot does superb fluffy desserts like no one else in Paris.

A real walking-on-all-four-legs bit of French fluff.

M. told me to go to Bon Marche's basement to catch the fluffy peluches/teddy bears.

BEAR never denies himself admiring a bit of French fluff.

Really he's incorrigible.

BONJOUR PARIS FLUFF!