Hidden In France

A gift from France

Nutella, a French bloggeuse whose name has the singular power of making me salivate uncontrollably. ( Plus I’m on the diet, trying to lose a couple of kilos off my winter-enlarged derrière. French Women don't Get Fat, ha! Maybe so, but that's until you bring them to the U.S and feed them a steady diet of Pinkberry and orange chicken from Panda Express and all bets are off. But I digress.)

Nutella (slurp) needs help. She needs a gift idea for American friends.
The budget is about 300 Euros (about $ 415)
The gift must easily be brought back in the friend’s suitcase.

Sorry, but food is out of the question (my first thought, was of! course! bring me back 300 euros worth of macarons from Ladurée But what if the macarons are stopped at custom and eaten on the spot by unholy mouths? Besides, haven't i already forgotten the diet?

Oh! I know, I know… Everything was NOT destroyed in the Deyrolle boutique incendie. I’d LOVE to get a parakeet for 290 Euros.

But something about this would be so... i dont' know... wrong?

Oaky, false birds then? With this fun little lamp by the talentedMathieu Challière.

And because spring is right around the corner, and because i indulged in a second guilty watching of Marion Cotillard in A Good Year.

Irrestible Marion (the guy's not bad either)

in irresistible provence

In A good Year, Marion wears espadrilles the way they are meant to be worn, and suddenly, I crave espadrilles. The bonus: they are not fattening. The not so good news: 300 Euros would only buy me a couple of pairs.

But my tastes are not for everyone. Too sweet, too girly.. what? Did i hear someone say garish?

I was wondering if someone could lend Nutella a hand.

Imagine that you live somewhere in the United States and a friend offers to bring back something, anything at all form France. What would it be? What is the one thing quintessentially French object you would most desire?

I can’t believe it’s not sugar!

No, it's furniture, silly.

It’s acrylic as a matter of fact, with loose powder pigment and the creation of multi media artist Elisabeth Paige Smith whose work I discovered while strolling down Abbot Kinney a few years ago. (she has since moved her studio and it is now appointment only) Beside acrylic she uses resin, fiberglass and wood and I just love those stark lines mixed with powdery colors. It’s Zen minimalist meets cotton candy. I’d love to see what that fluffy-pink table would look like in my home.

Prepare to be dazzled...

But not by me. No time to write today. (But there is always plenty of time to plagiarize. )

Here are the day’s blog posts that gave me that delicious shiver.

All Things Bright and Beautiful nearly killed me with this:

Purple Area who can read my mind posted this:

and Desire to Inspire posted images with that awesome blue (green?) that is so hard to define but has me weak in the knees.

Now I have done such a sloppy job, especially with photo credits, that you must run to the blogs above for the full story.

No Country for Good Movie

I am flabbergasted that No Country For Old Men won best picture, while the best movie of the year, at least in my eyes, did not even get a nod.

I speaking of course of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution. An absolutely masterful movie that broke my heart in dozen pieces while wildly turning me on. (yep, it’s highly erotic, though I should not admit it, cause it’s kinda… well, not traditionally erotic I guess.) Lust, Caution is slow but as charged with energy as the interior of a pressure cooker. My breathing was altered for almost three hours, and the visuals, the story, the characters stayed with me for weeks afterwards.

Wasn't No Country for old Men was just gratuitous violence with no story? I mean if you absolutely must see people blown to bits, then watch Shoot Them Up. At least you’ll get to see Clive Owen as a carrot-eating bizarro James bond and Monica Belluci as a lactating prostitute.

As I write these words I can already see how this post is going to attract the wrong kind of crowd. Yikes! Good for traffic. Bad for reputation!

Here are photographs from the movie taken from the Focus Features website.

Now the oscars weren't entirely off course. The hopeless patriot that i am was delighted that fellow French woman Marion Cotillard won the academy award for best actress. I didn't see the movie, friends had warned me against the erratic editing and the general sense of gloom, so i passed. Everyone in France knows the movie could not have ended well. Just like the The Alamo. Doomed from the start.

If you want to get a sense of Marion Cotillard's appeal, click here and fall in love. I know i have.

‘’
Here is Marion in Men's Vogue.

.... and in case you wondered, here is Monica Belluci as a Lactating Prostitute (no really, it's important to the story) found in ibdm

Tales of botanical woes redux

Maryam in Marrakech has a story of frustration and landscaping in her beautiful today. She calls her post, Marrakesh: Peacock Pavilions and a tale of botanical woes.

I found myself commenting feverishly on her post, and then realized after 1200 words or so that I too had a story that wanted to be told.

Oh I feel your pain Maryam!

Landscaper con artist I too am familiar with! Please allow me to tell you how I learned massive amounts both about landscaping and the infinite gullibility of the human spirit.

We had thought of landscaping our garden in phases. We had a little money now and wanted to ‘a little bit of this and that’. We, of course, gleefully signed on the one landscaper who said he could do not only ‘a little bit of this and that’ but our ENTIRE landscaping within our small budget. We will call the man Landscaper from Hell, or LFH in short. (Though in truth, we were the big idiots. When something sounds too good to be true, it invariably is. )

Like for Maryam and the Peacock Pavilion landscape, our LFH asked for a LARGE advance, which we were all too eager to pay. From there on, things went incredibly fast. At first. It took LFH no time at all to dig out, rip out, and tear out the existing grounds, leaving us with a pile of rubble and mud of cataclysmic proportions. The backyard, pool, even driveway became unusable. They would remain that way as things slowwwwed down and streeeetched over fifteen! months!... until things finally came to screeching halt with all the usual accoutrements of unreturned phone calls and missed appointments.

We then had to pay cold-hard cash, to a hard-core pro to do the hard-scape, and believe me, that broke the bank, because with everything torn up there was no more doing things ‘in stages’.

But take heart Maryam, Sometimes you don't see the silver lining of a bad experience until much later.
Because we ran out of money. I ended up doing the plant selection and the planting all by myself. I learned that I loved gardening and that gardening loved me back. In the end we SUED Landscaper From Hell and WON (small claims court but that was sooo validating.) Three years later, I don’t know what I’m most proud of: that each thriving plant in my garden was planted and nurtured by my own dirt-encrusted hands, or that my marriage survived the ordeal.

Here are pictures from last spring and summer. Because I'm always digging out, pulling, replacing and planting, the garden looks entirely different from one year to the next.

Here is the backyard.

This is the front yard. We created a courtyard with a fountain and fishpond in front to hide the house from the street and the street from the house.

My new best friend:

Also I received the latest issue of Sunset Magazine (if you live in the West, you know The One.) This issue did not disappoint. From seven (hidden) wonders of the West, to a fantastic green house, the issue is really awesome.

I also noticed in very fine prints on page 62 that Sunset’s 2008 dream garden Awards are underway. There are several categories and I’m thinking of submitting my garden in the incredible makeover categories (The deadline for home gardeners is April 16th).

What do you think? Here are some before pictures of the front yard. I balk at posting those but...

And the award goes to...

Work WORK is holding me by the throat and not letting go. That’s good right? My new business is taking shape in new and wonderful ways but shhh… I’m not telling yet. In the mean time my solution has been to grow a couple of extra hands so that I can write twice as fast (albeit half as well). Now I need an entirely new wardrobe.

First, as an award preshow, here are fantastic pictures, found via Smoke and Ochre, from MissKittykata Flickr photOstream.

If this doesn't feel like summer in Frebruary, I don't know what does.

But I have things to share. An award! Given to me by Liberty Post. I "make her day" she says. I’m stoked. Or should I say gobsmacked?

So now I get to award it to bloggers that make MY day.
Here are the rules:

1. Write a post with the links to 5 blogs that "make your day".
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Tell the award winners they won by commenting on their blogs

Right back at you Liberty Post. Hers is a smart blog where I get to post comments about politics, something I’m hesitant to do on Hidden In France because mine is a pretty blog and politic is anything but.

Then there is mackin ink. The woman is the new Dooce I’m telling ya. She is hilarious in a fierce way. She’s a great writer who doesn’t use capital letters. Break the mold whydontcha. She lives in Jordan with her three lovely daughters and she is wonderfully human. And did I mention FUNNY?

I love LOVE. Need, in fact, Smoke and Ochre for inspiration. This is the first blog I run to in the morning lately. That’s the magic of blogging. She in South Africa and me in L.A are often wooed by the same colors. The pictures above are one her find, MissKitikatFlikr world

And the next award goes to Di Overton from Designer’s Block. Because she is funny and full of life, because she is better than I am at discovering French designers, and because she is unconcerned with trends, only her own inimitable voice. Here she posted about a cardboard art from British artist Chris Gilmour.

Last and not least Leah at More Ways to Waste Time makes my day all the time. (If anything else the name of the blog is genius.) Also Leah has been very generous in helping me out with a blogging issue of mine. Thank you Leah. Today you can visit one of her house voyeur tours, where the British Columbia owners have painted entire walls and doors with chalk paint to awesome result. Look:

Voilà mes amis. Have a great week-end!

J'accuse!

Sometimes it is better to leave well enough alone. The idea was to revisit the series of pictures taken by Bert Stern 46 years ago. Hmmm. Raté like we say in France.

No amount of booze can make Lindsay look less than her fresh, gorgeous, 22 year old self, Marilyn Monroe was a goddess. But what to make of these pictures, then? Am I the only one who thinks that Cate Blanchett looked hotter as Bob Dylan?
I blame the photographer.

I spy, with my little eye.. a tail?

The prop department mistakenly brought a Andy Warhol wig. The wig's the silent killer I think.

Okay this one's not so bad.

But this one's awful of you ask me. First the original shot.

and the remake.

No dolphins were harmed in the making of this picture.

Look Ma! No lips.

Hot.

Not.

Now this is just plain wrong. Look at the wig-line. Come on, should I photoshop it out myself?

Read the New York article for all the picture and the full story.

Charlotte Liddle

Lori Marie of Pretty Little Things (and my favorite owl-maker) is gearing up for the photographers to come and take picture of her tiny house. I can’t wait to see the photographs. Meanwhile she posted about the delightful textile creations of a Charlotte Liddle, a British gal young enough for her resume to showcases a stint as waitress in 2001, but who already proudly runs her own design company. Charlotte Liddle's press release defines her style as “fun, frivolous and predominantly about fantasy and fairytales. The vivid colours are reminiscent of her fondest childhood memories of long hot summers, tea parties and ices cream sundaes.”

Oh I love that word: frivolous. And I adore the collection.

Wow! no?

and look at those... aahhs, to be eighteen again and wear a size six shoe...

I want Kathryn Ireland's house!

Could you define your decorating style in one word? In two? I was attempting to do just that the other day and I was at a loss. Who wants to make that kind of commitment you might ask? Who wants to narrow themselves to a single word?

I do suddenly. Ardently.

I can't possibly narrow my taste to a color scheme, a design period or a style. It isn't about the price tag either, as I’m not much onto brands or status. Definitely not about the architect/ designer/decorator and other powers that be, though some make me swoon more than others. So what is it I like? Who am I? DO I EVEN HAVE A PERSONALITY!?

Then I saw the pictures of textile designer Kathryn Ireland's home in House Beautiful.

"That’s IT! That's what I like! Exactly" I exclaimed to myself on the verge of an epiphany (or an embolism, I was that excited.)

The house is located in beautiful Ojai and if you haven’t yet you MUST go there one day. The light, the air, the scents, this is as close as you’ll ever get to Provence in this country.

Here is what Kathryn Ireland says about her house: “ This is classic Spanish architecture, but with a sense of bohemian fun, comfortable and loose. I get everything I get in the South of France, just 90 miles from L.A. But what I like most about it are the barnlike elements. When people design for animals, they do a better job! It's not about perfect moldings or perfect floors. It's about massive space and amazing flow. I love the way this house moves from the kitchen into the living room. And then these massive iron door handles everywhere. I love to lift them. It's downright medieval.”

Isn’t that cool? The opposite of taking herself seriously. Read the entire article. I just love the way she expresses her style.

And then it hit me.
Here is the word that best defines my decorating taste: “playful.”

What about you? What’s your word?

Other people's children

Mirror Mirror made me laugh today with her post instant contraception where she talked about the visit of friends and their three little kids and pondered on the ratio cute / versus / odious of other people’s children in general.

I don’t crave babies anymore. What I still crave are the pregnancies. Maybe it is all these years of infertility but I still long for a round belly, the anticipation, the dreams. If I were able to get pregnant on my own I’d probably do it every couple of years. Then go 'oopsy, doopsy! What do I do now?'

But God gives you what you can handle and made sure to give me a malfunctioning woumb.

Then Dooce posted this. Over six million viewers can’t get enough of this video, and neither can I. I watched it maybe ten times and laughed every time. I kinda could use a Charlie or two, but they'd need to come with the accent.

Benjamin Lacombe

Found on the French blog couleurs doudette, the wonderful world of illustrations of a young French artist I didn't know.

Benjamin Lacombe is only 25. Wow!

Who needs diamonds and pearls on Valentine' day?

When you can get this:

Crazy or sweet? After twenty years he still does both equally well.

He also rose well before dawn to bake cupcakes for breakfast. And he cleaned the dishes.

One fine day

Drop off kids to school.
Target run. Buy Easy-Off. Arrive at home. Experience acute case of buyer’s remorse.
Clean kitchen, put two sets of sheets in washer, put groceries away. Look at dirty beyond repair Viking range with dread and disgust.
Clean desk, pay bills, pick zits, pluck eyebrows, do ten push-ups, answer e-mails.
Select agent, almost send query, end up rewriting it. Waste an hour. Send. Regret query changes.
Take stovetop apart, put parts on newspaper in garage, spray Easy Off, and choke on noxious fumes, experience terrible guilt.
Rewrite and translate business brochure.
Fold two baskets of laundry, answer e-mails. Try VERY hard not to surf and blog. Rinse off stovetop. Oh my god it worked. Stove top looks like new. Feel giddy.
Make lunch and eat with husband. Argument over illegal use of Easy Off.
Pick up third grader. Spend an hour in conference with teacher. Teacher deplores third grader’s interest in things third graders should not be interested in, such as heavy metal and Bush bashing.
Pick up high-schooler. Mumbles that his day was fine. Tone indicates the contrary. Make choc. Chip cookies from scratch. The day demands it.
Help with homework, surf a little. Find exciting thing to blog about, write a post, feel suddenly very good.
Same day response from Agent mentioned above: Thanks but no thanks. Feel very bad.
Take kids to guitar/bass lesson. Walk around the block for half an hour. Music teacher very complimentary of children’s progress.
Put chicken in oven, help with homework. Third grader’s vocabulary test included words such as nebulous, lapse, aplenty, reiterate and abides. (Gimme a break) He spelled them nonulus, lasp, oplenty, ritreat. Abides is spelled correctly but the teacher has rejected the sentence “The Dude Abides.”
Look at the bottle of delicious wine with longing.
Remember with horror that bed sheets are in dryer!! Make two beds from scratch, at task that nearly brings me to my knees.
Come to the computer. Finally read everyone’s blogs. Wish I could comment on each one. Just to say thank you for the lifeline.

Girlhula on Flikr

New FLikr favorite. Seriously, some people have such effortless talent. Girlhula for example. I love the way she looks at colors. These seem like the work of a happy person, who is able to notice beauty in the mundane and capture it.

Celle la est pour to Isa:

The first picture was found on BeachBungalow8, a fantastic blog I’m all excited about.

My favorite:

I know who that girl is!

This is like a webisode or something. (A blogisode?) Actually, I think I could post about this topic all week. Quand on aime on ne compte pas, like we say. The mystery girl from my last post aka Orrietacat was kind enough to enlighten me. This is what she wrote:

Q: Where do you sell your prints?
A: I mainly sell them here in Australia at a small print gallery. As they are one offs its fairly hard keeping up with demand. I do occasionally ship them to international people as well, just when they see something they like on my lj or flickr.
Q: Do you have a blog? An Etsy store?
A: Not yet on the blog front, but one is coming, its about half way to being done. The etsy store is half way ready as well, I am starting up a separate line of prints that I will have mass copied and sell for a cheaper price than the originals. Im just waiting till I have ten prints I really like then I can send them off to the printers and start things up.

Me, delighted: Can't you just hear that most excellent australian accent!

But the delight of all delights came in the form of her flickr address. She is Flickr member Jamfancy. And since I'm always the last one being told anything, you probably are quite familiar with her work. I wasn't

And now I'm totally in love:

Oh s#@t,! I burned dinner.

Who's that girl?

Who is Oriettacat? And why should you care?

Because she is a lovely artist that’s why. If don’t know her name, or her nationality it's only because I don’t now how to navigate LiveJournal to find that information (and/or I’m too lazy.)

Aren't you glad you don’t rely on me for the facts.

I am so totally charmed by her work, though. So kawai, so cûûûte I can hardly stand it. But smart too, take a look.

I know she answers to the name of Christina. She also creates dolls (Some Blithe and some made from scratch) that are adorable and for sale on the Japanese online art gallery and store JunieMoon. Orrietacat, if you read this, tell us more about you. The world needs to know.

life on a barge

Maybe it's a pipe dream, and it's probably not all it's cooked up to be, but I sometimes fantasize about living on the water, in a (beautifully decorated) barge or a péniche and slowly discover Europe, one river at a time. The following pictures have a lot to do with it.

They are taken from a book I love by Joanna Copestick called Family Home. A book published in 1998 but that doesn't bear a wrinkle. One of the homes featured is a barge in Amsterdam owned by Pauline Van Der Heijen and Goos Drenth. Does anyone know if the barge still exist today?

The boat has (had?) six small rooms, one of them Pauline's studio (she's an artist). I love the colors and the ease of this place. The kitchen is as cute as a button and it all looks so cozy. The beds make me want to curl up and be gently rocked by the water. It makes me want to slowww- dowwwn.

A baby! I miss babies.

To me, this is what happiness looks like.
To live at the rythm of a baby's pace, with no place to rush to, no agenda. Ahhh, the nostalgia.

Valentine's day dinner in Topanga Canyon

Here is a scoop for all you foodies. There is a brand new, nearly unknown French restaurant in my neck of the woods and the food is AMAZING. There are no other words for it. It's a small totally unpretentious place called the Canyon Bistro. It's tucked in Topanga Canyon, so hidden and out of sight no one knows about it yet unless they live there. I just received an e-mail featuring a special prix-fixe, five course dinner for Valentine's day. Here is the menu, and I'm telling you for 65 bucks and free corkage it really is a bargain. 'm going. And no I'm not paid to say this.

.. they had me at Amuse Bouche.

Bohemian Rhapsody

My favorite discovery of the week was via Absolutely Beautiful Things and decor8. It is the work of Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri, two women who grew up in Lebanon and run the company Bokja. (that means baluchon in French. Anyone know the English word for baluchon? Maybe ‘bundle” ?)

Following their passion for textile and travel, they create modern furniture using ancient textiles mostly from the Middle East. The precious embroidered or printed textiles are recycled as modern patchworks, which are then used to upholster antique and modern furniture. I think the result is stunning. (Et très, très cher.)

In the US, Bokja’s creations are sold exclusively at abc carpet and home in New York, which has to be the most wondrous store I've ever been in. (Et très, très chère aussi.)

Here is some more modern designs: the terrible cropping is of course intentional. Kidding. I'm just lazy. It's Friday.

All pics borrowed from Bokja.

before and after.. the photographer

If your house or appartment doesn't look like in the magazines, it might be because you're missing a crucial element.

Things That Inspire has a post that is not to be missed. She was clever enough to notice that one house for sale in Atlanta was actually the same one that has been circulated around design blogs. There is such a stark difference between the professionally styled and photographed house and the photographs taken with a regular camera by a regular person.

Read the entire post, it's quite illuminating.

Now you see the entrance stairwell photographed by a pro:

Now you don't.

With a pro:

Without:

With:

Without:

It doesn't even look like the same room.

The house was decorated by Suzanne Kasler. Now I find no info on the name of the photographer. He or she is the one who made the magic happen if you ask me.

Jane Schouten's home

We interrupt our scheduled blogging program to link to Smoke and Ochre whose post made my heart beat twice as fast today. She posted amazing pictures from the home of artist and graphic designer Jane Schouten from the Netherland. Read Smoke and Ochre blog to discover the house. For me it was love at first sight.

Here is my selection. That house killed me. really.

I still haven't recovered...

Here are a few things Jane made. Youcan find more example of Jane Schouten's talent on her Flirk page.

By the way, what the H@#ll are those things that keep appearing below my post? Do you see them too?

Traveling to Provence

It is the norm for French citizens to take at least four straight weeks of paid vacation in the summer, usually the entire month of July or August. Most workers get a good six weeks of paid vacation, which they have to take. (They can’t legally choose to work and get the cash instead.) When the French travel to France they often rent homes in some of lesser known French regions, one more bountiful and beautiful than the other such as the Gard or the Vaucluse. Here is an awesome link I discovered called coins secret or secret corner. A secret corner in France? Need I say more? The site has translations in several languages and is very easy to navigate to rent a 'mas' provençal.

This is a six person gîte or (apartment) inside a large mas, my favorite for today. The stone work on this mas is to die for.

and a taste of Provençal life in Gourdargue. Have you packed your bags yet?

This one is very beautiful but might be a blow to your wallet. It's a fancy “maison de prestige" in the Vaucluse region in Provence. A week will cost under 500 Euros per week.... per person (as long as you bring 12 friends, the house sleeps 12, yes, that is a total of er.. 5,000 euros a week)

This one is situated in the heart of vineyards in Cairanne, has a pool and sleeeps 12 as well for 1659 Euros a week.

Applegate Gallery group show

An exciting art exhibition (and one hot opening ) are going on this week-end at Santa Monica’s famous Applegate Gallery.

"The greatest gift of all"

The Applegate gallery is opening a group show of wonderful contemporary artists, including blogger’s darling Camilla Engman (who is apparently living la dolce vita in Rome at the moment), Rober Palacio, Judy Ragagli, Rick Reese and best of all Isabelle Bryer, who was kind enough to let me preview of her latest work right here on Hidden In France. Yeeaah!
All of Isabelle Bryer's paintings are acrylic on canvas.

"Leave if you must"

"I Love You To Pieces"

"Bird grower"

"We shall sail into the night"

"Tree house"

Here is some of the other artists featured:


Rick Reese

Robert Palacios

Julie Ragagli

Camilla Engman

If you're in L. A., here is the invitation opening for the Applegate gallery show, which lasts through March 8. Everyone else: there might still be time to get a plane ticket.

cold + rain + superbowl

= call for drastic measures:

Mykonos as designed by Belgium architect Marc Corbiau, via Elle Décor Italy.

Friday's cool mishmash

Sometimes as I surf and surf I find stuff that makes me google.. er... giggle, but is impossible to classify, and I'm hesitant to post about it because it might not be immediately pretty. And I like pretty the most. Oh well, it's Friday so I'll share it anyway:

Via Leigh's Blitherings, a website that made my jaw drop (and everything else) . But please tell me what do they sell?

Astier de La Vilette's website makes me want to click all day long.

Laura Florand, the hilarious writer and blogger, author of Blame it on Paris posted these pictures of a French supermarket's chocolate's ile. Americans are sooo deprived chocolate-wise.

Yeah, thank you Laura for rubbin' it in.

Spooky good. You'e probably seen it, it was viewed two million times: Doll Face from 23 year old L.A. director Andrew Huang.

Hey guys, do you see this below, this advertising thingy? I did NOT put it there and I do NOT know what it is and I do NOT know how to take it off.

Creature comforts beautiful links

Look at what Ez at Creature Comforts has created: instead of the regular blog roll she has put together a montage of images that she feels represent best the blogs she likes. Of course I am delighted with the montage she created for yours truly.

But I can’t get over the amount of work this must have represented. All in all a brilliant idea, cause… ya know, a picture is worth a thousand words. Rush over to Creature Comforts to admire what she'd done with your blog, or discover a few new ones. On Ez's blog, clicking on the picture will lead you to the actual website. I don't know how to do that yet.

Here are some pretty one