Audrey Hepburn in Paris Map

This scene in Sabrina (probably shot on a Hollywood set) somehow elicits all the longing we have for the dream of Paris, even if we live here. Parisians claim her and adore her as much as the rest of us as a Paris icon.The last few weeks have been a total immersion in Audrey Hepburn. 

At first I thought the Paris map would show only film locations. 3-4 are shown, but there is so much more to the Audrey in Paris story. I found out about Audrey from a daily menu of watching documentaries plus binging on 3 films in one day(1 with Japanese subtitles).

You can’t think of Audrey in Paris without including her dear friend and 40-year collaborator couture designer Hubert de Givenchy. A match made in heaven - they inspired and enhanced each other and together created timeless fashion we all still want to wear. Who knew Audrey sometimes drew ✏️ sketches for Givenchy? 

What an eminently elegant, austere man. Not so easy to draw ✏️ And he had the best hair.

            Photo by Richard Avedon

And how to capture Audrey Hepburn’s wonderfully expressive, inimitable face? 

I did like a million sketches ✏️

Impossible to leave out Mr.Famous, Audrey’s adorable Yorkie.

Mr. Famous traveled to Paris with Audrey and starred in the Gare du Nord smoky, train scene in Funny Face. 

Did you know Audrey’s favorite color was Cyan blue? She used turquoise ink for all her letters. Of course I went out looking for that shade of ink from J. Herbin. Sennelier was out. But I happily found a similar shade. 

All the Audrey maps are personalized with your name in turquoise ink. 

You could have breakfast in Paris at Audrey’s favorite hotel (it’s on the map). 

If you want to make yourself up to look like Audrey follow beauty guru, Lisa Eldridge on Youtube. Lisa bought Audrey’s fabulous gold and sapphire lipstick holder (shown on the map) at the Christie’s 2017 auction by the way. 

Christie’s Audrey Hepburn auction is still online if you want to browse vicariously through her divine belongings, many Parisian. I wrote about an earlier 2012 auction here. 

The auctions are over, but you can get a ‘bonus’ watercolor (3”x5”) of her perfume, L’Interdit. Givenchy created it specially for Audrey, just purchase a watercolor, a 6-pack or a letter subscription in my Etsy shop. 

I could go on and on about Audrey… Someone said, “Audrey Hepburn is my religion” Is there an A.H. trivia contest somewhere? I’m ready. Audrey did not live in Paris per se except the many times when filming (5 films). She spoke perfect French along with Dutch, Italian and English of course. The last 10 years of her life were spent tirelessly as a UNICEF ambassador extending her warmth, generous spirit and love to the impoverished children of the world. She was one of a kind and touched us all in the most innumerable lovely ways. RIP ❤️💋🌝 ☺️ 

Bon Dimanche PBers. Please stay cool🙏

Meet: Gabrielle, Gossips of Paris, Tour Guide

 

Friday I met up with Gossips of Paris/les Potins de Paris Gabrielle, Marchioness of Gossip on Pont des Arts bridge for an English walking tour. Gabrielle was easy to spot in her yellow 18th century flowered gown. Plus a gaggle of people held her captive seeking selfies. She started her French gossip tours post-confinement with an emphasis on story-telling & juicy historic gossip rather than the usual dates & architectural details.

She points out how the structure of the Vert Galant at the Pont Neuf It’s made of stones from destruction of the Bastille, orchestrated by entrepreneurial building contractor, Pierre-Francois Palloy in 1789. What’s more Palloy made and sold small replicas of the Bastille. 

He even sold pretty enamel buttons commemorating the event. What an influencer!

The stories go on as we wend our way outside the Louvre. Gabrielle’s 1 hour and a half tours are outside.

At Cafe Nemours we sit down for a drink.  I ask Gabrielle not to smile.

I wanted to capture her classic French ‘Marianne’ profile. “I can’t” she giggled. PB Letter subscribers should recognize this stamp/timbre…the only international self-stick stamp on offer in France ☹️ Her English teacher was from Boston so no problems communicating.

Getting around town requires a giant metal clip to keep her skirts up and her bike has a spray of gray to make it less appealing to bike thieves. 

Clever duck 🦆 Gabrielle gives her guests a map 🗺  of their various stops post-tour. You can book her English or French tours through Airbnb at her website. One hour and a half is 15€ each.

We parted ways and I went off to the Marais to the newly renovated musee Carnavalet, official museum of Paris, to look for Bastille remnants.

Many beautiful period rooms Gabrielle is perfectly co-ordinated to waltz through.

The info plackets are well-placed and illustrated. Plus the English version is highly legible instead of yellow on yellow as some museums do.

A beautiful new outdoor cafe awaits, set among the museum’s labyrinth garden, Les jardins d'Olympe.

On the way home, always Sherlock Holmes, I can’t stop doing berry tarte comparative analysis research🔬

It is near impossible not to browse pastries 🥮 if you live in Paris. Bonne Monday PBers 🫐🍓 🍒❤️🥂🐻🇫🇷

‘Yves Saint Laurent, les coulisses de la Haute Couture à Lyon’

 Is there another Paris designer who has used silk fabrics so extravagantly, with more abandon then Yves Saint Laurent?  

The new exciting exhibit at the YSL museum  is a hymn to Lyon’s silk makers who worked so closely with YSL. 

An inside look at his relationship with the 6 Lyon-based textile manufacturers and suppliers puts Yves Saint Laurent’s creative genius in a new light. 

Stunning shoes and baubles made from Cigaline, a kind of specially created brocade from Bucol.

His assistants put together gorgeous inspo boards of color swatches for him to choose from.



When I went to Parsons School of Design aeons ago, they used to say, “There are ‘draper designers’ and ‘sketcher designers’”. I was definitively the latter. Everything was drawn on paper first. I dreaded picking up fabric and draping it on the dummy. Yves Saint Laurent was both a superb draper and his sketches were fabulous.

YSL in thought at his simple work table made from saw horses and a board in his studio. 

His studio is now open at the end of the exhibit. In the past you had to book a tour.

“Choosing the fabric is the most important step in the creative process, the thing that requires the most concentration and also brings the most joy “.

Big heavy books of sample silk swatches to choose patterns from.

Obviously design students. They were sketching and taking notes.

Watch a short video on the exhibit from the Lyon musee de Tissue.

I was so smitten with the gold runway chairs in the YSL show clips I had to draw them. There’s impossible-to-miss Suzy Menkes from Vogue.

Want to add to your watercolor chair 🪑 Collection? Want your name ‘personalized‘ on a gold runway chair just like Anna, Suzy or Catherine. Its the perfect gift 🎁  if you missed this year’s Paris fashion shows. Or any years for that matter ☺️🐻🇫🇷❤️💋 Bisou Bisou 💋 Kiss Kiss

Paris Mon Amour | Galeries Lafayette

 

This is fun!

For those of us left in Paris for August, Galeries Lafayette has sent us an early valentine❤️

The a love ❤️ letter 💌full of all the good things ‘made in Paris’.

Hanging from the rafters inside, an Ace of hearts, which traditionally is the card of love, happiness and celebrations 🥂🍾

Lots of Eiffel Towers in the windows definitely works for me.

I saw the signs all over town and in the Metro, ‘Paris, Mon Amour’ and wondered what’s going on?

A call to buy Paris-made goodies is what’s going on.

Like these Confiture Parisienne. I got a pretty jar during my strawberry obsession.

I was going to call this post ‘Desserts, Mon Amour’ since most of you are happy 🤸🏾‍♀️to see more desserts…

Or ‘Framboise, Mon Amour’…

This week I went to a local boulangerie who usually has nice little blueberry/myrtille 🫐 tartes but they were out. I got the framboise version of Yan Couvreur’s piled high tarte but it did not look like this.

More like this…

I thought I should taste le vrai chose/the real thing. But Couvreur has moved on. He no longer makes his famous architecturally-arranged framboise tarte because everyone else is. Now he’s doing piled high blueberries/myrtille 🫐

Here’s a Galeries Lafayette funny version of the famous whipped creamy, Riviera tarte, ‘la tropezienne‘ but shaped like an Eiffel Tower.

Naturally there are Metro seats in Galeries Lafayette’s window…with Paris Opera reflections.

Naturally, our favorite Luxembourg chairs are in their windows.

I put together a new 6-pack of Eiffel Towers for you.

And a new bunch of delicious(I know. I ate em) berry 🫐 tarte watercolors to taste now in my etsy shop.

All ‘Made in Paris’! Please share with a friend 🐻🐝🫐

Bon Wednesday PBers XOXO❤️💋🇫🇷