Breaking the Rules of Fashion

As we all know (or, I hope we all know) the way fashion week works. First is New York, then Milan, then London, and to finish off the season is Paris. Milan is coming to a closing and London has officially begun. But what has become more and more common is that the designers like to break a few rules. For instance, Paris Fashion week does not officially begin until next week. Well guess what...tents are up, and shows have begun. Where was I this beautiful afternoon...? In the Jardin des Tuileries where I sat in the second row going goggly eyed over the Guy Laroche été 2012 collection where I met and spoke with Marcel Marongiu, and was photographed and interviewed by Paris' top fashion journalists asking why Guy Laroche, my opinion of fashion trends and the collection, and of course, who I was wearing (a combination of Versace, Michael Kors, and Armani. I know, shame on me for mixing Italian and American, but I couldn't help it. As Chloë from Now Fashion said, My outfit was FEIRCE with the combination of American and Italian classics with a touch of hand crafted Italian elegance to make a statement). For those that do not know anything about Guy Laroche, listen, or in this case, read closely. Guy Laroche was a French fashion designer (16 July 1921 in La Rochelle, France – 17 February 1989) and founder of the eponymous company. Laroche began his career in millinery and, from 1949, Laroche worked for Jean Desses and eventually became his assistant. In 1955, he visited the US to investigate new ready-to-wear manufacturing methods. 1956 or 1957, he founded a high-fashion atelier at 37 avenue Franklin Roosevelt, Paris. In his first collection that was favorably received, he reintroduced vibrant colors such as pink, orange, coral, topaz and turquoise. His clothes also featured plunging neck and back lines. Known as being humble and gracious—as opposed to the haughty nature of most Parisian designers—he designed haute-couture but practical clothing for women. And, for the American market, he was one of the first to create separates. In 1961, he moved to larger quarters, a townhouse at 29 avenue Montaigne, Paris; opened a boutique there; and introduced his first ready-to-wear collection. In 1966, Laroche introduced Fidji, his first women’s fragrance; designed men's ready-to-wear; and opened the Guy Laroche Monsieur boutique. He created other fragrances as: 1972 Drakkar 1977 J'ai Ôse 1982 Drakkar Noir 1986 Clandestine 1993 Horizon 1999 Drakkar Dynamik. Laroche died in Paris on 17 February 1989. In November 2007, franco-Swedish designer Marcel Marongiu took over as Artistic Director of Guy Laroche.

Creme de la Creme a Paris

I participated on a wonderful food tour throughout Paris, and let me tell you, spending the money to experience a true French delicacy is worth it. We started our walking tour with a stop at the wonderful Eric Kayser Artisan Boulanger bakery which is celebrating 15 years of business. Eric Kayser is a master French baker, world renowned for quality and innovation in the field of baking. With over 80 stores worldwide, his products are a household name. As a fourth generation master baker, Eric Kayser was born into the field. His great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were all traditional French bakers. He quickly realized his calling for baking at a young age, and decided to pursue his passion. At the age of 18, he became a companion of the prestigious Tour de France of baking. In 1994, together with fellow companion Patrick Castagna, Kayser invented the Fermento Levain. This piece of equipment allows for the continuous use of liquid levain, a breakthrough in the field. Eric Kayser also worked simultaneously to train young bakers with the INBP, the French National Institute of Baking and Patisserie. On September 13, 1996, Kayser opened his first bakery at 8 rue Monge in Paris. It was an instant success, garnering much critical acclaim. The opening of many more bakeries in Paris and in various countries abroad followed very quickly. Eric Kayser is widely regarded to be one of the world’s best bakers. He is commonly referred to as the “ambassador of French bread to the world”. Today, there are over 80 Maison Kayser locations worldwide. With 18 in Paris alone, more locations have opened throughout Greece, Russia, Japan, Ukraine, Morocco, Senegal, South Korea, Lebanon, and the UAE. The products and services in the bakeries vary from country to country, each adapting to the local tastes and flavors. This dynamic touch has helped the growth of Maison Kayser throughout the world. Each Maison Kayser location produces its products on-site daily. After purchasing some bread, we needed someing to go along with the bread. What goes perfect with bread? Cheese! Our next stop was Fromager, which had a very large selections of cheeses ranging from 3€ to 150€, and cheeses that were as young as last week, or as old as my grandmother. We selected Three cheeses, one was a nutty gouda style from 2007, a salty cheese that had a perfect contrast with the sweet dates in the middle, and some funny looking cheese that looked like someone sneezed on it. I passed on that one. We found a quaint park next to one of the many ancient romen bathhouses here in Paris while we enjoyed the atmosphere, perfect weather, breads and cheeses, and a large amount of birds and pigeons attempting to steal our food. Afterwards, we ventured to a chocolatier, called Patrick Roger. In the “magic laboratory” where Patrick Roger fashions his life-size cocoa creations, everything is handmade, right down to the fork-sculpted decorations. And for the artisan chocolatier, it’s a source of pride — not shame — that it takes him about a year to produce what large companies like Mars or Hershey's might produce in one day. In 2000, Roger was named "Best French Chocolatier" for creating "Harold," a life-sized cocoa farmer wearing a wide-brimmed hat and seen squatting on tiptoe while handling a cocoa bean between his fingers. The chocolate statue, later sculpted into bronze, is based on a real farmer he met in Colombia in 1999. He offered beer chocolate for St. Patrick’s Day and chocolate sardine cans for April Fool’s Day (The holiday is known in France as poisson d’avril — April’s fish — and calls for attaching a paper fish to the back of an unwitting victim). Inspired by a recent trip to the Galapagos Islands where he dove with seals, Roger created proportional representations of the mammals in chocolate to display with the sardines. Seals eat fish. But the form is only one appeal of Roger's chocolates. He offers truffles or chocolate bars made with cocoa from prime locations such as Sao Tome or Papua New Guinea, and he mixes them with such eclectic flavors as citrus fruit, ginger root, jasmine and beer. For Christmas, Roger's shop windows displayed giant chocolate polar bears to call attention to the public. Speaking of large animals in his window...when I arrived there was a giant gorilla hand sculpted out of chocolate. For those of you who fallow my blog, you will understand the irony of seeing this. (for details, read my post, "Monkeys at the Eiffel Tower?!") Dying and going to heaven over and over again as I savored over 5 different chocolates, we took a stroll down the street to Un Dimanche A Paris: L'Art Gourmand Chocolat. Even though it wasn’t Sunday, I decided to go to Un Dimanche à Paris anyway. This sleek showcase of chocolate is located in an under-utilized arcade on the Left Bank, near where the saleswoman told me has become “The quartier of chocolate.” The owner of the shop is Pierre Cluizel of the famed French chocolate family, but he’s striking out on his own. Un Dimanche à Paris features a large chocolate shop, and exhibition kitchen, a tea salon, and a full-scale restaurant. And that’s just on the first floor. Climb the stairs and you’ll find a state-of-the-art teaching kitchen and enormous tasting area, with comfy sofas and a cocktail lounge manned by a barman (with the world’s slimmest waistline), mixing up elixirs and potions designed to help you appreciate and understand chocolate to its fullest. And if that’s what it takes to cut a silhouette like his, I’m sold! settled into the salon du thé for some chocolat chaud and a pot of tea, along with a little selection of pastries. The hot chocolate, served in a pitcher with a wooden stirrer anchored inside, was rich and a bit on the sweet side (the chef confessed to adding a pour of heavy cream and a pinch of cinnamon), and the Korean green tea was presented with a timer so you would be sure not to over infuse it. The line up of little pastries were lovely. A small, gooey chocolate disk topped with a moist puddle of ganache, a petit éclair filled with chocolate, a pistachio macaron (made by someone a little too enthusiastic with the food coloring), and a perfect, tangy little lemon tartlet topped with a kiss of crunchy meringue. Like the name says, the shop is open even on Sundays and there’s a full roster of cooking classes and a swank lunch and dinner menu, which I’m looking forward to trying. Because I had a generous slab of brownies waiting for me at home, I passed on the boxes of truffles, the various chocolate spreads, les orangettes, and the sleek tablets of chocolate with crushed hazelnuts and cocoa nibs rubbed into them. But it’s good to know that I can always go back, any day of the week, including Sunday.

Higher Education in France

France has a dual university system : the "Universités" and the "Grandes Ecoles". Grandes Ecoles have no equivalent in the USA. After High School, some students (among the best) apply to be admitted to a "Classe Préparatoire": these classes (located in some High Schools) prepare students (in two or three years) for a very competitive admission test to Ecoles d'Ingénieurs (Sciences), to Business Schools or to a few other kinds of schools. In these classes, students work like dogs (40 hours courses a week + constant tests + personal work, no week-end, etc..) to be admitted to the best possible school. The "Grandes Ecoles" are not part of the rest of the University system : they are smaller, they have much more money (they get 30% of the national university budget with only 4% of the students), they are kept apart from the rest of the educational system, they are based on fierce competition of the students among themselves and the schools between themselves. The tuition is almost nothing (except in Business Schools where it is around $8 to 10,000 /year). This organisation in 5 years is common to all European countries. It is called LMD (for "Licence, Maitrise, Doctorat"), with Licence in 3 years, Maitrise in two years and then Doctorat. The most prestigious Grandes Ecoles are Ecole Polytechnique (called "X"), Ecole Normale Supérieure ("Normale Sup") and Ecole Nationale d'Administration ("ENA", a post-graduate college), whose initial missions are to train respectively military engineers, university professors and high ranking state officials. They are followed by Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC), Ecole des Mines, Ecole Centrale, Institut d'Etudes Politiques, etc. France is practically run by people who graduated from X or ENA (sometimes both) :the President of France (until 2007), and the Prime Minister, most of the cabinet members, most CEO of major companies (more than 30 out of the 40 companies of CAC-40, the index of the Paris Stock Exchange)..

Monkeys at the Eiffel Tower?!

My first real weekend in Paris where I could venture out alone and really see Paris for what it is. I took the metro 9 train to Trocadero, weaved through all of the tourists and found myself sitting in the grassy fields of Champs de Mars, layer out my blanket, took my shoes off, and snapped a few pictures of the Eiffel Tower. Within the first few minutes I was attacked by countless Indians trying to get me to sign bogus potations, people trying to sell me chinky Eiffel Tower keychains, and then something happened I thought would never happen. I was minding my own business reading "Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin" (which I must add had me laughing up a storm aloud every two lines. If you are a fan of Kathy and are familiar with her comedy and her two time Emmy award winning tv series, "My Life on the D-List" then this is a must read book for you!) and all of a sudden this person in a gorilla suit creeped behind me, and stole my hat! At first I didn't believe it happened, but then it began to dance around with my hat, looked at me, and noticed I didn't think it was funny after I said some profanity and luckily my hat was returned. I guess being a heartless brutal American gets you your way when something goes wrong. ;) I then spent time pondering as to what places I wanted to visit throughout Paris. Turns out I came up with a list with more than 40 things to do anywhere from visiting the Louve and le Jardin des Tuileries, food, wine, and cheese tastings, to visiting the tombs of Oscar Wilde, Edgar Degas, and the famous tomb of Jim Morrison covered in shades of red lipstick. Living here without my wonder mother to make me diner every night has dedfinetly tested my ability to basically live on my own. What am I making for dinner tonight? PLAIN PASTA AND A GLASS OF WATER! mmmm, I can already feel myself finally loosing all of my baby fat! YES! ;) LOL C'est tout!

A new beginning...

Everything doesn't always end up being the perfect fairytale ending, or in my case, beginning. To keep things simple, let's just say my host family turned out to be a flake. Moving in with a new family this weekend...hopefully things will turn out! Other than the family situation, Paris is fantastic. After classes at la Sorbonne, my entire day and night was spent with a friend from the GAP year program who i have grown quite attached too. All of our time was spent cafe hopping looking like every other "bird" on that wire. Next time you walk by a cafe anywhere in Europe, look at the seating outside. They say the French, specifically the Parisians are very to themselves and private...you wouldn't think that when walking by these cafes. These tables and bistro chairs are so close you can barely fit a tooth pike between them. Also, they just to happen to be in a long line along the street. Just to add to that "bird" factor, everyone wears black. We also ventured over to the shakespeare & company book store later on finding a cafe for a few drinks (where I experienced my first fish bowl...21€!!!) that over looked the Notre Dame. The view was breath taking...just imagine, sitting outside with a cool autumn breeze kissing your skin and you look up and see the Notre Dame with a full moon which lite up the sky from behind and the sound of an accordion playing in the background. Definitely a moment I will never forget. Viva à Paris!

The French will Never Forget

10 years ago to this day, the country's largest terrorist attack wiped out thousands of Americans in less than an hour. I ask for your prayers for those family members, loved ones, co-workers, and friends who passed on one decade ago. The world trade center use to be a place of death, silence and grief, and now will forever be more remembered as a place of joy and life as children's laughter fills the air with the surrounding trees and flowers. It takes a special kind of country to cope with this kind of attack, but it takes an even more special country to come together in unison to create something so positive that once was so negative. We finally have closure. God Bless. The U.S. will not be alone in commemorating the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. Memorial services are scheduled around the world, including in France. Many houses of worship will hold special events throughout France. Major print and broadcast media in France are publishing or airing special memorial programs. The day will not pass by unnoticed abroad. The main event of the day is called “The French Will Never Forget" and it occurs at Palais de Chaillot (Trocadéro) opposite the Eiffel Tower. Thousands are expected to turn out for a commemoration ceremony and vigil presented by a Franco-American nonprofit association with the same name. Charles Rivkin, U.S. ambassador to France, and François Delattre, French ambassador to the U.S., will dedicate the memorial event. A documentary film will also be produced in conjunction with the activities. Replicas of the two New York World Trade Center towers will be constructed at the Palais de Chaillot, each ten stories tall. A large white banner will be draped down the length of each replica tower; one lists names of those who died in the attacks and the other contains thousands of messages and signatures collected in the U.S. and elsewhere. Special U.S. and French flags made by the group will fly over the memorial. White was asked to be worn to the memorial as a sign of peace. Today's main event is to be from 2:15-4:30pm with the reveal of the memorial to be at the time the towers collapsed: which was at 9:59am EST. At 9pm there is to be a concert and laser light show on the Eiffel Tower.

Officially LOST!

Words cannot describe as to what happened today! Yesterday was a great first day of phonetiques et le course de langue français et littérature (French language and literature). We had a Parisian that works at la Sorbonne take us to our class so we were fine. Today was the REAL test. Changing the metro twice and having only 30 minutes to get from phonetiques to the classes at la Sorbonne and not be late...funny. Having another GAP Year student I thought it would be easy. WRONG! Our French class is 2 hours long...let's just say that we were so lost that by the time we got to the building we only had 10 minutes left of class. Not even worth going in and trying to explain as to why we were an hour and fifty minutes late...so what did we do you ask? Took a stroll through le Jardin de Luxembourg, had lunch at a lovely cafe along the gardens, and had a few drinks in the bar. Oh...might I add that my drink was equivalent to $15! Ohhh yes, I nursed that thing like there was no tomorrow. The bar tender came to take it from me and the claws came out. I drank every ounce of that piña colada until I made that obnoxious "there is clearly no more alcohol in this cup" slurping noise. now I know why every Parisians favorite alcohol is the cheap kind that comes in a box. Well, I'm off to bed saying a few Hail Mary's praying I will make it to class on time tomorrow! Jusqu'à ce que nous parlons encore! P.S. The iPad doesn't allow me to upload pictures to my blog...subscribe or send me your email and I will keep you updated with a weekly photo!

I never want to leave!

Just the past few days in Paris and I have already had so many adventures. I have been to many "soirées" which is French for a party. I have met so many interesting people at the CIEE student center and throughout Paris. I played a very popular French game called "times up" which is a lot like Charades. Hier, I spent the day walking around the 2eme area and found the cutest cafe. One great thing about Paris, no one is in a hurry and it is expected of you to be minimum 15 minutes late. Now only if it were like that in America! ;) later in the evening the GAP Year students discussed where we were going to enrich French students about the American culture. This should be interesting. Haha Well, I am off to La Sorbonne to take my placement test! Me souhaiter la chance!

La Premier Jour

Rule number one: you must save your blog if you do not attend to post it right away. Biggest disappointment this morning. So let's try this again, shall we? After a long 10+ hour flight across the pond watching Kung Fu Panda in chinese and listening to the best airplane satalite radio I've ever heard including but not limited to Britney, Beyonce, Lady G, and Pink. Knowing me, I was as giddy as a school girl jamin' and boppin' so much it probably looked as if there was something wrong with me throwing hand gestures in the air wailing them around like a bafoon singing aloud to every word. All of this was worth while as soon as I had seen my first sunrise in France, and is it just me or is everything prettier when in Europe...I woke up to the sky being the most magnificent hues of jeaune, orange, rose, et rouge as we floated 35,000 feet above. Finally, the moment hit me emotionally. Taking my first step outside of the terminal I was very excited to meet my host family. There was only one problem...there was a lot of signs with names...but none had my name on it. Becoming a little frantic I checked several more times. Running around like a headless chicken, I began to panic when all of a sudden a 6'3 black man asked, "you need a taxi?" With a sign of relief, I gave him the address of the CIEE center. 65 euros later (which is about $100)...I had been told that my family was at the terminal waiting for me. They said she was a 4'9" woman, and me being 6' was understandable that I saw over her head and she had not seen me behind the piles of luggage in front of me. We had spent the day with her daughter, Adele, who is twenty, doing what we all do best...SHOPPING! Oh, did I mention they speak very little to no English? Now is the time to see if 5 years of French with Madame Klingaman paid off...Here goes nothing! Bisous, Bear