Men run off to the tanning booth looking for that healthy glow year round. They are plucking their eyebrows, getting facials, highlighting their hair, putting a little curl on those eyelashes and dashing off to the ObGyn. Ok, I made that last one up. The latest trend, thanks the Beckham underwear ad, is men having […]

I am no longer able to step into the Hotel Costes without thinking of David Rakoff. He came to Paris with an American magazine to write about the couture shows, which he recounts in the book Don’t Get Too Comfortable. He never mentions the name of the hotel he stays at, but it is so […]

My knife guy does everyone’s couteaux in Paris including the staff at Hotel Crillon and Le Meurice. He grinds many a galley cook’s knives to razor sharp precision – and he’ll be happy to do yours too. It’s a lot of fun to see his five-foot grinding wheel turning while he holds the blades against […]

In Paris tonight and looking for a little eye candy? Swing by the American Library tonight to hear the brilliant Thirva Vallois read and present photographs from her latest book, Aveyron, A Bridge to French Arcadia.
Of her inspiration to write on the Aveyron, Vallois says, "’It all began with a riot of wisteria’… round […]

Try to resist the siren song of this froggy variation of the insanely popular “Leave Britney Alone” rant.

In Paris, whenever you see a sign like this - or at least looking like this - you can be sure there is a drugstore underneath it. It’s called a Caduceus (Caducée in France) and it shows - culture time, everyone! - Hygieia’s cup (Hygieia, as you all know(!) was a daughter of Asclepius and […]

Today at 2:30 pm the famed auction house Hotel Drouot will be auctioning the clothing and personal effects of late French President François Mittérand. Shoes, slippers, hats, watches, business suits — all are up for grabs, at a price. Also to be included are gifts that Mittérand received as head of state, such as sets […]

OK, yesterday I had one of those experiences where I thought, “OMG, I actually live in Paris”. I went to a show at l’Hotel de la Monnaie called “Unbridaled- The Marriage of Tradition and Avant-Garde“. Get this: to promote “Crystallized”, their new product brand for all of their loose crystal elements, Swarovski invited over 100 […]

I ventured over to Belleville in search of an independent music store I had read about in Monocle. The store, called Ground Zero, a reference to the diminished state of affairs in the music store/CD buying business, recently moved into a space shared with Calif, the Club Action des Labels Independants Francais, because they couldn’t […]

My daughter came home from school today and showed me her backside. She had a flap of jeans barely covering her bottom. It seems she was leaning against a fence in the park at recess, and as she went to walk away, her pants caught on a piece of the fence. One of the older […]