Bettencourt soap opera

[Sylph]

Cat, dearest, your favourite arrondissement in Paris is...?

[Cat]

You can't choose just one! They all have their own character.

*I love the 15th because there was a real family/community spirit in the neighborhood when I was a kid. Mmmmm, the bread being made around the corner, and the ultra-glamorous women (well, I thought so at the time) with red lipstick, red nails and tidy white coats who worked at the spotless pharmacy nearby.

*Then there is the 16th and the villagey corner of Passy, though now the 16th is extremely bourgeois, almost restrictively so (children with aristocratic names like "Marie-Aumoine" -- but called "Marie-Oh" -- "François-Xavier" -- called "Frahhhnck"). I love how all the teenage boys who hung out at Sephora and the cafés there had Justin Beiber/Zac Efron hair YEARS before these two were a glint in Disney's eye. My friend used to call it "Frenchie hair."

*The 1st has the two islands -- Ile de La Cité and Ile St. Louis, the latter of which is almost completely preserved in terms of 17th century architecture. Walking through it, I don't know why, but it always leaves me unaccountably happy. I love the 17th century -- it is not as fussy and as excessive as 18th century style.

*And the 4th is another corner of 17th century beauty -- Le Marais with its stunning hôtels particuliers and the Place des Vosges. And its night-life!

Reading all this back, it all sounds very "tourist guide." I don't know if I can accurately put into words the reasons why each of those places means something to me because they are so personal and would look quite random and anodyne written down.

[Sylph]

Mine's the 7th. Though, Auteil, Passy and Neuilly have their charm too (albeit a bit too nouveau riche-y).

[Cat]

Neuilly is Sarko's fiefdom. It used to be très BCBG but probably now the two B's stand for "Bling Bling."

The 7th is beautiful -- Rachida Dati's stomping ground. It has the best restaurants (in my view) and two of my favourite streets, the rue St. Dominique and the rue du Bac. And the Bon Marché.

Sigh! La rive gauche.

[DaytimeFan]

I stayed in the 7th in March/April when I had a fabulous vacation in Paris. In fact, my hotel was on the Rue St. Dominique. LOVED le Bon Marché, the food hall was fantastic!

[sheilaforever]

This quarter is just stunning, so lively and close to everything - Le Marais is my personel favorite

[Cat]

Did you by any chance go to the restaurant "La Fontaine de Mars," also on the rue St. Dominique?

[Mr. Vixen]

DO YOU SEE THIS MARIA BELL? THIS is what the Newmans and Abbotts need to be doing!!!

But anyway. Great story. Hope everything works out. I will be following this story.

[Sylph]

Bettencourt: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/01/liliane-bettencourt-paris-match-interview

While we're at the arrondissements and parts of Paris... Does anybody here like La Défense?

[Cat]

Eh. The mall in the center of La Défense is so dated. Hello 1977! Some of the newer buildings are impressive but Shanghai it ain't.

[Cat]

P.S.: That article is awesome. Can't wait to pick up this week's Paris Match now. What a fascinating relationship that must be between Liliane Bettencourt and François-Marie Banier. He was beautiful when he was young but he definitely courted and drained wealthy older women of their francs -- at times playing on his bisexuality. Love how LB makes out that she was playing psychological games with him just as much as he was doing with her.

I feel bad for her daughter, though. I don't think Liliane ever loved her child. I guess she just had to have a kid in order to produce an heir, and then she quickly palmed her off to nannies and boarding school.

[Sylph]

Absolutely stunnig, I have to have my copy too.

And as for not loving her child, I really think it's true. I didn't want to think so, but the reality just... Dunno. Part of me, I guess, still think she does a tiny bit, but you never know what happened between these two.

[Cat]

LB always said she was never a "maman gateau" which is the sort of mom who dotes on her kids, bakes brownies for them, helps them with their homework, etc. She said that her daughter was always much closer to her father. It may also be a clash of personnalities, too. LB was an aristocratic beauty who loved to go to parties and haute couture shows (her husband, by contrast, was notoriously tight with his money!) and laugh with her amusing high-society friends.

Her daughter was a highly-trained classical pianist, an intellectual who married another intellectual and who lives a cerebral, albeit extremely normal, life with their children in Paris.

I think her mother's disinterest probably was extremely hurtful and that's why the daughter fell into the world of books and music. Not only that, but parents sometimes lie to protect their children's feelings ("of course I love you, darling, but I was so young when I had you and never really cut out to be a stay-at-home mother, etc"). Not Liliane de Bettencourt. She has publicly stated that she never really felt anything for her daughter. At least she's honest but, even when you are an adult, that must really hurt.

[sheilaforever]

This saga continues to be amazing and rich of story.

It feels so out of place in Paris. I like the grande arche but bascially the whole area is atrociously dated and reaks of 1970s socialist constructing...

[Sylph]

You and Cat = hysterical. No. 1 - who goes to shop in La Défense?!

No. 2: out of place?! Socialist?

I must've been to another planet called Paris...