Fr. Girl's Apartment

Yesterday Bethany said...I love your blog.

Its absolutely sensational and the highlight of my days!! 

I was wondering if you could do a post on the typical French girls apartment. In the movies it always looks very thrown together, simple and chic. I know you must have insight on this!!!! That would be fantastic.

At first I thought no. But after careful reconsideration, I decided yes! I should show you that French girls are not so "thrown together" or casual. In fact quite the opposite. Especially now you've seen what a hopeless slob I am. The contrast is riveting. This is the entry way where I was to drop my bag upon arrival.

My Studio 2010

Some of you may wonder what's going on at Parisbreakfast studio. I haven't shown you many paintings lately.

This is a page from a book dummy I'm working on. In fact its pretty busy around here. Since January I've been painting up a storm for an exhibit. At the James Beard Foundation's Greenhouse Gallery
167 West 12th Street NYC It opens THIS Saturday May 1 and I have to hang it tomorrow.Eeeek Time for an updated tour of PB Studios. The studio back in October 2008, when my landlord decided to put in a new floor while I was away in Paris.

Eeeek My "Paris" studio at Hotel La Louisiane. I've been showing you lots of photographs of late. It's like a daily walking tour through Paris whenever I look for the stories I make up each day for PB.I am horridly late on YOUR PORTRAITS! ouch
This weekend Bear and I will hit the books nonstop.  
We haven't forgotten you at all!
THANKS PB readers for your patience.
 The portrait sale has been extended.

Back to painting!

Back to macaron researche for the book.

Natasha Bedingfield puts it so well:

Trying to find the magic
Trying to write paint a classic
Waste-bin full of paper
Clever rhymes drawings, see you later

These words are my own
From my heart flow
I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you

More PB Studio posts:Quelle Wreck!

Quelle Wreck 2

Come On-A My House...

It's My Life/ These are my Confessions

My Beautiful Paris Studio...

MY STUDIO

French Women Don't and Do

More hot tips today on how the French Fem does it PBers.

In Paris last month, I spotted Jamie Cat Callan's book, French Women Don't Sleep Alone at W.H.Smith's and took note. I met charmer Jamie at a Champagne party for francophile bloggers last January. I'm enthralled with her book - a kind of memoire-report on Frenchie fem dos and don'ts. The intro focuses on the influence of Jamie's French grandmere. Always dressed to perfection - hat, gloves, stockings, high heels, Grandmere was quite demanding of Jamie.
A bit of a cool cucumber too... Yet Jamie's French grandmother, in her hay day was a vaudville dancer and singer not unlike writer, Colette! How do you like them pommes/apples? Jamie's book is full of anacdotal tips she picked up while living and traveling in France on how French women do it.
How they get their man!
Certainment lingerie plays an important role in the seduction process. I remember Fr Girl dragging me down to Printemp's new lingerie department to drool over their goodies.
I was very ho-hum.
Give me a good patisserie like Blé Sucré anyday. I do get the lingerie look worn on the outside - pale pink ruffles paired with a biker leather jacket. But going into Chantal Thomass' grand emporium of ultra fine scraps of chiffon I've yet to conquer. I'm probably too American, too puritanical or too too. I refuse to shell out €€€ on a couple of lacy triangles unless it's a chausson au pomme. Miam-miam

Back to Jamie's book - evidently a surefire winner with les mecs/guys is the combo of boots and skirt and I have the photos to prove it.
Jamie says, the French girl does not date.

She throws a dinner party instead.

Mon dieu! Where are my cookbooks?

Love this French couple in the Palais-Royal don't you?
Guess what?

W.H.Smith thinks Jamie is FAB.

They've invited her to Paris to promote the new SATC 2
Quelle lucky duck

Must start wearing boots and skirts.
Must learn to love lingerie.

Must, must, must start cooking!

Key$a says it all in Boots N boys

'Boots and boys (Boots and boys)
They bring me so much joy (Bring me joy)
I gotta sing it
I wear 'em both so pretty
As I walk in the city'

BONJOUR BOOTS N BOYS!

Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland

'You're terribly late you know.Naughty!' said The Mad Hatter. I am terribly late catching up with Alice. And I was late for Tim Burton's MOMA show - next to last day! I asked, "Where are the Alice drawings?"
"There aren't any", they said,"Too current."
"Oh" But I did find this wonderful Tim Burton doodle on a scrap of newsprint.And I found The dasterly Red Queen in the catalog. Off to see Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. I planned to stay an hour, take a quick snooze.Instead I was enthralled and enchanted.
J'adore Alice! Mia Wasikowska is perfect.
She has a lovely luminosity. An inner something or other that grabs you and does not let go. When the Mad Hatter tells Alice,
"You're not the same as you were before.
You were much more..."muchier"
You've lost your "muchness"
You find yourself rooting for Alice to find her muchness.
And she does. Like Jeanne d'Arc, she slays the dragon and comes out so much stronger.Girls rule!To channel your inner Alice, hightail it over to the new Anthropologie at Chelsea Market. They've got the best Alice Blue headbands.
And "Alice" pinneys in all colors and prints. How thoughtful of Anthro to provide man-sized comfy armchairs, while your beau naps, you shop till you drop.

Gathering up antique silver sugar shakers for your Mad Hatter's Tea party.

Heavens, just buy the whole table intact and you're set!

Mad Hatter:Would you like a little more tea?
Alice:Well, I haven't had any yet, so I can't very well take more.March Hare:Ah, you mean you can't very well take less.Mad Hatter:Yes. You can always take more than nothing.

I'm certain Alice slept here. I wanted too.

What will you serve at your tea party? You could wait on the endless lines around the corner at the new Magnolia Bakeries springing up.

Better yet, get your paws on David Lebovitz' utterly delicious new cookbook, Ready For Dessert. You'll be drooling over every picture by superb photographer, Maren Caruso. Even an idiot non-baker like me can make these recipes the way David sets them up. David lives in Paris, so there are quite a few French desserts.

So what if you drip chocolate icing on your new pinney.

That's what pinneys are for are they not?

Mark your calendars, Alice-obsessed PBers. You're invited to attend the tea party at Rizzoli's bookstore this Sunday, May 2 on West 57th street.

With scones for all, kids included, to commemorate the birthday of the real-life Alice and celebrate The Real Alice in Wonderland book.

ALICE JE T'AIME!

Paris Renovations & Restaurations

Today's post is not about Parisien perfectly messy hair.
Nor is it about the joys of attending a Paris fashion show. But it is about beauty with a capitol B.
I love the way Paris beautifies its buildings when they are in a state of la restauration/repair or under construction. Like this witty wall poster covering Prada's new store-to-be that makes walkers on rue Saint-Honore appear to be on a catwalk!

Shot upside-down yet then turned right-side up.

It makes you think a bit.

Hermés is the master of the street face-lift with this Punch and Judy window

Take a closer look and you see delightfully casual sketches with a dash of watercolor on a corner on rue Saint-Honore.

The Paris Opera has gone for something much grander-almost an abstract artwork in their coverup while under construction.

It's true you'll see plain old construction signs now and then in Paris...

Hasn't this happened to you?
You tell a friend,

"You have GOT to see this gorgeous old bistro/cafe/or whatever."

You get there and the %$#@ thing is completely covered in scaffolding!

Why is that?

Because Paris preserves it's beauty.
It does not (well only rarely- Cojean how could you do that to Cador Patisserie?) throw them away.

It takes care of it's treasures, unlike some cities. And does it with wit and charm to boot. I took Barry Lewis' brilliant course on New York architectural history at Cooper Union this Spring. I've taken it before and will again. Barry is a NYC monument himself of endless, fascinating information on the city. One thing I heard Barry say over and over again,"In America, we throw things away. We get tired of them after 10 years and into the ashcan they go."

I would walk up 5th avenue after Barry's class with my head in the sky like a visiting tourist.

Passing the New York Public Library, I was sad to see no terrific Parisien-style witty scrim or faux wall while the library is under construction.

Back in Paris, along the Seine, this building shows all the workers of Paris while being repaired.

There is a guide to all the figures and their travaille/work placed on the bridge.

Hermés again has a big mural of sketches of shoppers on rue de Sevres.Reflecting the actual shoppers rushing by...

Here's an Older French Girl or OFG wearing a bit of red walzing by a lovely big under-construction sign.

Time for a bite of Paris beauty with your coffee from Hugo and Victor.

I'm trying to post earlier.

BONJOUR PARIS RESTAURATIONS!