15 Parisian things that inspired me this week #18

Boonjoour everyone! Paris has officially entered fall mode, which I realized after intuitively throwing my blazer on top of not one, not two, but THREE layers of cotton tees while having a drink by the Canal Saint-Martin. Sézane’s rebrand didn’t hurt either—their anticipated fall collection JUST launched this morning and I can’t get the luxurious color palette and dreamy knitwear out of my mind:

I do feel ready for it this time, and I think my recent trip to Normandy is partly to blame. We had just gotten out of an unexpected fifth heatwave in Paris and an expectedly hot summer in Greece and I can’t tell you what a relief it was to step into this little medieval village, with its perfect breeze and unpredictably changing Norman skies. Maybe if you live there year-round you eventually get your fill of the wind and grey sky, but for us, right then, it felt like exactly what we needed. I’d already visited Normandy a few times as a tourist, exploring historic towns like the insanely beautiful Deauville with its gorgeous néo-gothique style seaside villas and of course, Mont-Saint-Michel, which looks like a little slice of heaven on earth sans the tourists.

This time, we stayed tucked away in the countryside about an hour from the coast at a friend’s family country house. We called it a “work retreat” which was supposed to mean working alongside our friends rather than in isolation from our Parisian apartments. In practice, though, it manifested as all sorts of excuses to procrastinate disguised as intellectual pursuits, which I’ve come to realize is a very French thing to do: long breakfasts, lunches and dinners, followed by equally long sessions of Scrabble, collaborative crosswords, card games, and passionate debates over art and politics. We were still working our brains, I guess!

We were welcomed by our friend’s grandmother, who owns the property and was mind-blowingly fit for an 85-year-old. She had a very elegant French bob and bright red nails, and alternated between jeans and a floral shirt for pottering around the garden and the cutest A-line cotton dress with a parsley print for lounging around the house. My theory is that she’s still powered by the memories of her particularly fascinating après-guerre life, which included a very cool job as an editor for the Guide Hachette des Vins, one of France’s oldest and best-selling wine guides. The job involved lots of traveling around the world for undercover visits to vineyards (she never accepted free wine to preserve her integrity—fashion people would be horrified), but it also led to friendships with some pretty extraordinary figures in the creative and literary world, including… Milan Kundera! Apparently Kundera loved this house and after the huge success of The Unbearable Lightness of Being would come here to work on his next books and enjoy some peace and quiet.

Well, as you can imagine, I tried very hard to contain my excitement when I found this out, limiting myself to JUST three pictures of the desk where Kundera used to write (you will find one under the paywall) while resisting the urge to mentally catalogue every piece of furniture he might have touched for basically the whole stay. (I still never found out whether we slept in the same guest room.) Fangirling aside, we also got the chance to wander around Bernay, a tiny Norman town known since the Middle Ages for its weekly market and froc—large pieces of woolen cloth used to make everyday garments for the general population. Bernay’s froc was even exported as far as Spain in the 12th century, which feels like a pretty impressive fashion legacy for such a small town. Rest assured, I did conduct my little street-style investigation while wandering around!

Now I’m back in Paris and officially in rentrée mode, with my mind buzzing with different color combinations to try with last year’s knits and a few new pieces I already have my eye on (Sezane I’m looking at you). The streets of Paris are basically my personal Pinterest board so I had to get back out there and see what is catching my eye! And as usual, I’m taking you along for the ride. Are you ready? On y va!

In this week’s list: my favorite fall color combos spotted on the streets, the It bag I keep seeing on Parisians, a clever way to rework your office outfits, a Parisian making high heels look perfectly casual at 10 a.m., the lushest golden knit spotted in the Marais that sent me straight to Sézane’s new collection, a great Céline bag found for a steal on the second-hand market, the very French way to wear denim overalls, more snaps from our Norman escape and a little street-style investigation into what Normandy is wearing (featuring a very elegant way to travel)! Plus, the one fashion item to pack for Paris right now, my new favorite ballet flats and my French beauty staples that are so good I had to restock.