Benjy answers PVE Design and Cakespy

Benjy, parlez-vous francais?
Can you please post on 1. all the lovely "moutardes" in France! We adore savora! One cannot find it in the USA! 2. Love the supermarket "Piccard" 3. Are there a lot of Americans Dancing in Paris? PVE Design

Dear PVE Design, aka Patricia, dear readers,
Mais oui, je parle français! Je suis un Oracle bilingue!
Ah, I see from your questions that you are a gourmande (food lover)! Can't blame you. For my birthday I got some dog treats from Au Bon Chien, a Parisian dog bakery: I love their cheese-and-bacon cookies and foie gras bites (my assistant indulges me though she disapproves of foie gras... thanks, Mary-Laure!)
1. I avoid mustard, because it makes me go Achoo! The classic mustard that all French people have on their dinner table is Amora (I think Savora is sweeter). Dijon, in Burgundy, has been World Capital of mustard since 1856, when one Jean Naigeon made the condiment as we know it for the first time, and when my amanuensis went there last year she saw all kinds of funky many-flavored mustards...
Are you familiar with the French expression La moutarde me monte au nez? Literally, it means Mustard is going up to my nose, but the idea is: I'm getting angry, here!
2. Picard is the French frozen foods store. Four-legged ones are not allowed in so when my assistant goes there she ties me to a post outside and I am to wait for her right there! Don't you just hate that?
3. Paris is the dance capital of Europe; dancers from all over the world converge here and just pirouette away! Speaking of dance: in a recent comment, Cakespy wrote:
I adore Benjy. I would like to see him doing some pilates and dance, actually.
Well, here's a picture of me leaping (grand jeté in dance lingo)!Dear readers, if you too have a question about lifestyle, fashion, shopping, Paris or anything else, don't hesitate to post it in the Comment section. The Oracle always answers!
Benjy

International Women's Day with Elsa Schiaparelli

Today, March 8, is International Women's Day and I thought I'd take this opportunity to celebrate an extraordinary lady, the fiercely independent fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli whose engrossing autobiography, Shocking Life, I am reading at the moment. The bold color on the book cover is Schiap's trademark Shocking Pink, an acid hue I too love. Thanks not only to Schiap but also to Coco Chanel, Madeleine Vionnet and Jeanne Lanvin, it seems that the 1920's-30's was really a golden age for women designers...
Lately I've really been into outstanding women's bios - Katherine Frank's Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi is next on my reading list. (If anyone has book recommendations, I'd love to hear them!).
It always makes me sad when girlfriends of mine think feminist is a dirty word, or that in our day and age it is no longer necessary to take a strong stand in favor of women's rights. I remember the day when, aged 9, I stepped into class, wearing glasses for the first time; my teacher (ironically, a woman) gave me a bright smile and said "Oh, you look just like a little secretary!". She would never have said that to a boy. I'm sure she meant it as a compliment, but in the end it's remarks such as that one that cripple women's ambitions.

Let there be stripes! (4)

Last week's post about children's books got me thinking of the classics I loved as a kid, and among those is Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking.
As a tribute to the wonderful and zany Pippi, I wore thigh-high yellow, gray and black socks, with my Pedro Garcia Oxfords for a little more class and a wool mini-dress by master couturier Roland Mouret, one of my favorite designers, for Gap.
Amusingly, Yasu completed a fabulous Children's Book Week on her blog with a post about Pippi, featuring beautiful illustrations.

And apparently I'm not the only one who's into stripes: this little Scandinavian beauty, whom I met at the Swedish Institute last week, had a lot of style for a 1-year-old, and pretty much wore stripes from head to toe!

Brocante (2): a 1920's dress

At Saturday's "brocante", I found this amazing dress dating back to the 1920's - my favorite era for fashion, with its sleek designs made for movement and clean lines. Despite its age, the dress is in good condition, requiring only a few stitches.


It's made of black silk, with simple short tulle sleeves.
The bias cut, so typical of the Twenties, allows it to move gracefully around the body, and its detailing is exquisite - witness the V that the seams around around the left hip (see picture).

And it only cost €30 ($45)!

Brocante (1)

Paris's flea markets are located beyond the city limits (Montreuil and St-Ouen), but weekend "brocantes" also take place around the capital. Among the amusing items I saw last Saturday were these coffee grinders (above), a chest of (numbered) drawers (has anyone any idea what it was used for?), a record-player with an RCA record that reads "La voix de son maître" ("his master's voice"), and piles of letters/numbers from an old printing press!
Be sure to check in tomorrow to see what I bought at the brocante...

Happy Birthdays!

On Sunday March 2, Benjy turned 7! To celebrate, I had a few friends over to share some homemade goodies (for recipes, see Comments section): a berry crumble, a ginger chocolate pear cake, and scones; I served the latter with some honey bought at my local farmers' market from a passionate beekeeper (who drives down to Provence every summer, beehives in tow, to bring back some fresh lavender honey come fall...). Among the friends who dropped in was Mademoiselle Green with some champagne!
My ipod played upbeat jazz standards by Blossom Dearie and Billie Holiday, tangos by Carlos Gardel, hits by Blondie, The Smiths, Madonna, The White Stripes, Björk, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris (whom I have worshiped since childhood) and more, as well as some swinging baroque music and Bollywood's catchy Kajra Re.


And today, March 3, I celebrated another birthday, that of my dear sister, Céline!

Paris en fleurs (4)

These pictures were taken at the Swedish Institute in the Marais, on a very sunny Saturday. With its cobblestoned courtyard and the yummy homemade cakes in its café, it is an elegant and relaxed haunt, where trendy Swedes and adorable children are aplenty.
This weekend, I also went to a Parisian flea market. This week, I'll be sharing snapshots from the market and of my own finds on this blog...

The Snow Leopard

When I tell friends I've started collecting kids' books, they ask excitedly if I'm pregnant, so I'll preface this post with the words: no I'm not expecting. I just love children's books.
My latest purchase is The Snow Leopard, a superbly illustrated book on a topic that is dear to my heart, the bond between humans (in this case, a little girl) and animals. Snow leopards are extraordinary and elusive big cats that haunt the Himalayas. A few years ago, my mum took my sister and me on an unforgettable road trip through Ladakh (Indian Himalayas), where we reached 19,000ft (5800 m), visited mysterious Buddhist monasteries and marveled at the landscapes; Buddhist pilgrims leave countless prayer flags along the road, and if I too had tied one onto a tree, I would have wished for a glimpse at the beautiful feline creature.

Among the books I have collected so far are some of my childhood favorites, such as Le journal de Delphine (the story of a little ballerina!), novels by Judy Blume and Roald Dahl, and other gems like Charlotte's Web, poems for kids by one of my favorite poets, Joseph Brodsky, a Maurice Sendak, Alice in Wonderland...
I must get a copy of Enid Blyton's Noddy, the book that got me addicted to reading; so absorbed was I in my books as a child that one of my teachers told my mum she should take them away from me! Fortunately, she disregarded this advice.
What were your favorite books when you were a child?

Let there be stripes! (3)

I
love
this sailor-style sweater that was given to me by my friend Chloé, who has also been my style icon since high-school. I've been wearing it for 10 years and it's still in pristine condition. It's from Eric Bompard, a cashmere brand that used to make hardy knits until they decided to go trendy a few years ago, trading quality for hip designs and sleek ad campaigns. Other French brands that once stood for no-nonsense quality have followed suit - Petit Bateau (sigh), once the paragon of sturdy tees and undies, as well as Repetto (you'll see plenty of international tourists and fashion editors at their boutique but few dancers).

Red is not my color but I like how it gives some flavor to all-black outfits that otherwise lead people to think you're the waitress/usherette - it's happened to me. As a little girl I was obsessed with crimson patent leather shoes (my mum kindly indulged me), and also loved my scarlet rain boots. These days I often wear my bright red suede Salvatore Ferragamo 'Audrey' flats, as I did at the Cannes Film Festival last year...(Check out my Cannes blog)

Guest blogger Benjy on dance and soccer

Do you do Pilates, Benjy? You seem slim and graceful indeed... Anonymous

What keeps me fit is soccer, or le football, as it is known here in France; yes, four feet are better than two...
My amanuensis occasionally takes Pilates but her passion is ballet - she is quick to quote Merce Cunningham: Dance is a spiritual exercise in physical form. Among her favorite maîtres de ballet are Lazzarelli & Casati (Centre de Danse du Marais, Paris), the teachers at the Westside Ballet in Santa Monica, and Whitney Shulman at the Miami Ballet (she also blogs). Me, I just gnaw on old pointe shoes and bounce around as she does her ronds de jambe at the barre she installed in her tiny flat (see picture)
Dear readers, if you too have a question about lifestyle, fashion, shopping, Paris or anything else, post it in the Comments section. The Oracle always answers!
Benjy

Paris en fleurs (3)

Presenting my mum's wonderful balcony, overlooking the Porte d'Auteuil. This large sundeck, with its wood floors and colorful blooms, is a wonderful place to have tea or drinks.

I just spent a few days in bed battling a Very Bad Bug nestled in my stomach, and upon recovering I was absolutely thrilled to find out that this blog had received nods from two of my favorite bloggers - Ronda, whose All The Best is fabulously stylish yet fun (and beautifully edited, too) as well as the ill-named Bitter Betty, whose quirky imagination and talent never cease to amaze and amuse me.

British Museum (2) : a dancer's Aphrodite

As a dancer, I can only be deeply moved by this Roman version of a Hellenistic Aphrodite (aka "Lely's Venus"), whose marble body is so exquisitely expressive. I took pictures of her from different angles, and though none includes her eyes or even her face, she does seem to tell us so much, doesn't she?
Whenever I'm at the British Museum, I make it a point to drop by the Greek statuary (an obsession that has increased with the major Praxiteles exhibition at the Louvre last year). I always feel reunited with long-lost friends.