Members Sylph Posted August 4, 2010 Author Members Share Posted August 4, 2010 Cat, dearest, your favourite arrondissement in Paris is...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted August 5, 2010 Members Share Posted August 5, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted August 5, 2010 Author Members Share Posted August 5, 2010 Mine's the 7th. Though, Auteil, Passy and Neuilly have their charm too (albeit a bit too nouveau riche-y). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted August 5, 2010 Members Share Posted August 5, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaytimeFan Posted August 7, 2010 Members Share Posted August 7, 2010 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sheilaforever Posted August 7, 2010 Members Share Posted August 7, 2010 This quarter is just stunning, so lively and close to everything - Le Marais is my personel favorite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted August 9, 2010 Members Share Posted August 9, 2010 Did you by any chance go to the restaurant "La Fontaine de Mars," also on the rue St. Dominique? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr. Vixen Posted August 9, 2010 Members Share Posted August 9, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted October 6, 2010 Author Members Share Posted October 6, 2010 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted October 6, 2010 Members Share Posted October 6, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted October 6, 2010 Members Share Posted October 6, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted October 6, 2010 Author Members Share Posted October 6, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted October 7, 2010 Members Share Posted October 7, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sheilaforever Posted October 7, 2010 Members Share Posted October 7, 2010 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted October 7, 2010 Author Members Share Posted October 7, 2010 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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