Divamensch
MONDAY NOV 12
WIW: black turtleneck, muted brown trousers.
WRW: purple V-neck sweater, argyle zippered cardigan, jeans.
Breakfast in the hotel. The shower was working right, it felt so good. Our first stop was the Grand Palais, where we saw an exhibition of photographs by Karl Lagerfeld, called *La Petite Veste Noire*, or *The Little Black Jacket*. He took about a hundred black and white photographs of people wearing the same Chanel little black jacket. Sarah Jessica Parker, Tilda Swinton, Lauren Hutton, Uma Thurman, Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst, Ines de la Fressange, Charlotte Gainsbourg, her mother Jane Birkin, Dakota Fanning, her sister Elle Fanning. A few men, looking really sexy. A film of Yoko Ono moving around being strange, I guess you could say she was dancing. My favorite photograph was of Anna Wintour, who had her back to the camera, but there’s no mistaking that it’s her, with that hair.
​
We walked to Les Invalides, a French military museum. We took the tour - - lots of gorgeous armor, heavily decorated, even for the horse. We finished with Napoleon’s tomb. Opulence bordering on camp.
We walked over to our meeting place for our lunch date with Christina - - we had time to burn so we walked through the supermarket, always an amusing experience in another country. It was fun finding American products being sold with slightly changed names, and saying them in French. Like Frosted Flakes is known in France as Frosties. Fraw-STEEES.
And there was Christina. She’s a dear friend of my brother Howard’s, she met him at the record store where he worked in La Crosse, Face the Music. She lived in Madison for a few years and we saw each other occasionally there. She met her husband Philippe in Madison - - the last time I saw either of them was at their wedding, nearly twenty years ago. I was wearing my three-piece oatmeal linen Gatsby suit and my hair was in a braid. Christina was wearing the most elegant wedding gown I’d ever seen. Whenever a woman I know is getting married and says anything to me about buying a dress I always tell her about Christina. She’s petite, with short black hair. Her dress had a bateau neckline and short sleeves, was sequined on the top, with an empire waist and a straight satin skirt. Basically an evening gown in white. Incomparably chic, and most important, a perfect expression of Christina and her personal style. I told Christina about this at lunch and she was amused.
She chose a cute place down the street, Le Petit Cher, she goes there for lunch every Friday with her girlfriends. She and Philippe lived in Boston for a little while, and have lived in France for eighteen years, Paris for fourteen. They have three kids, between twelve and six, who I’ll describe when I write about our dinner date at their place. I had an omelet with ham, cheese, onions, and mushrooms, Richard and Christina both had the vegetarian salad, which was a warm salad with greens and carrots, tomatoes, lots of other veggies. Richard and I had a glass of white wine, Christina had red. This might have been the first lunch of my life when I had a glass of wine.
Christina talks a mile a minute, she’s a scream.
ME: Did you know Johannes Fofopoulos?
HER: Johannes Fofopoulos! Oh my God I can’t believe you mentioned him. Yes, I knew him.
ME: And didn’t he have a brother?
HER: Yes, Alex. They were both after me, how lucky was I.
She told a hilarious story about a car accident she had a couple years ago.
HER: I got in a car accident here in Paris, with two cops. Have you ever heard of such a thing, of course it would happen to me. But it wasn’t my fault, it’s too stupid to explain but these cops ran into me and they had to fill out an official report. They asked to see my paperwork, so I gave them my registration, and my insurance information… They asked to see my license and I had to tell them I only had an American driver’s license! So they said, “In that case we have a problem.” And they took me straight to the police station.
ME: They took you straight to the Place de la Concorde!
RICHARD: And the crowd started screaming GUILLOTINE!
HER: You guys are great! So I’m there on the sidewalk trying to call Philippe and Hugo is with me. He was eight years old and he was so stressed out he started vomiting on the sidewalk. And tourists walking by were filming it with their phones! So me, who had never been in an accident and never even had a speeding ticket, I’ve gotten into an accident with two cops and my son is so freaked out that he’s throwing up, and we’ve all become the hottest video on youtube! But we got it all straightened out. They gave me a stern talking-to and now I have to get a French driver’s license, which is a huge pain in the ass and costs a fortune. I think one of the things that got me off without too much trouble was the fact that I said, “I feel really bad that this happened. The officers who were in the accident, are they OK?” And the guy in charge said, “You know, that’s the difference between Americans and the French. Americans have a respect for authority.”
It was a whole lunch of stories like that, it was such a blast. We got the pot de crème in three flavors for dessert - - vanilla, caramel, and chocolate. She had to run to pick up her daughter from school, so we kissed her goodbye and said we’d see her Thursday. We had a little time to waste before our reservation at the Eiffel Tower, so we went to a little café and got coffee.
RICHARD: That old woman at that table over there - - it that Ann Miller?
ME: Ask her if she thinks it’s too darn hot. If she jumps up on the table and does a drop dead tap number, there’s your answer.
On to the Eiffel Tower! We got the tickets with elevator access, I’m so glad we did. We went up to the second floor first, lovely views of the city. A windy day, I might even say blustery. It was interesting seeing how the city is pieced together - - like a building is triangular and it’s next to another triangular building, and another, and they form a trapezoid. That trapezoid is next to another trapezoid and a triangle, and they form a huge triangle. And there’s another huge triangle right next to it, and the whole thing is a ginormous triangle. It was also interesting to see how many buildings in Paris are the same color - - a beigey grey that Mrs. Vreeland would call greige.
We went up to the top. Eiffel had a little apartment at the top of the tower, where he would entertain guests of note. They had a little diorama in the room, showing Eiffel, his daughter, and Thomas Edison.
RICHARD: Eiffel’s daughter is looking longingly at Mr. Edison. The words going through her mind are, “Meal ticket! Get me outa this rat trap!”
The sun started going down, and some lights started flipping on around the city. We went back to the second floor, which is the view I prefer, over the top floor. The city looks prettier, seems more intimate. We had a fun time watching the (other) tourists, of course.
Back to the hotel. We stopped at a flower shop and bought a tiny rose bush. The clerk at the store was so cute, and I could tell he enjoyed speaking French with non-native French speakers.
We took two trains and a walk of medium length to Philippe and Jean’s apartment. Jean is very handsome, a sweet face and a fab head of real blond hair. He said right off that he speaks almost no English, so I said I’d try to speak in French. I was amazed at how well I did. Richard spoke mostly in English, with Philippe translating.
We had Champagne in the living room, then moved into the kitchen/dining area, where the table was outfitted with adorable antique table linens and china. First course: paté and toast. Second course: mussels and mushrooms in a divine creamy sauce, served with rice. I asked Jean what was in the sauce and didn’t understand his answer. If we understood Jean correctly, the mussels were from his home region, Normandie. Richard pointed out that the coral part of the mussel is something you never see in the States, it’s always cut off before it’s sold. It tastes just the same, and I think it’s kind of pretty. We had a sweet white wine with the second course, I loved that and had two glasses. Third course: salad, lovely greens and a light dressing. I asked Jean what was in the dressing and didn’t understand his answer. Fourth course: two kinds of cheese, with bread. Final course: a lemon tart, so delicious. Jean served it with an apple brandy made with apples from his family farm. Richard loved it, it was a little too boozy for me. It takes twenty years between the time they pick the apples and you drink the brandy. Jean gave us a bottle to take home with us, what a darling.
We moved into the living room and talked some more, made plans for the theatre on Wednesday. We were seeing two one-act plays, one at seven and one at eight - - I suggested we meet for dinner at 5:30 and was met with riotous laughter. We’ll have dinner AFTER the show.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
