Interestingly, I’m not sure most people make the connection between the gloomy weather and their lives. I find that after all this bad weather, married women friends are complaining about their husbands, and how difficult and dreary they are, and even questioning their marriages and choice of mate. Unmarried ones are fighting with their boyfriends, children with their parents, everyone suddenly hates their jobs or their apartments, and I finally gave up wearing spring clothes, and climbed back into my dreary grays, somber blacks, or army greens. It really is depressing living with gray, cold, rainy weather day after day. I think it affects our mood, our outlook on life and everything seems so much worse when you’re cold and wet and haven’t seen the sun in weeks. And worse, I think we all think that our bleak mood is real, and don’t realize that we’re just suffering from a lack of sunlight, blue skies, and warmer weather. It seems obvious, but I really think that consistently bad weather really brings us down, and for some even causes serious bouts of depression. Of course a sunny day, or a string of them, will change of everything. Our partners will seem infinitely more agreeable and appealing, our children better behaved (even my dog is crabby and hates going out in wet weather in whatever city we’re in), our jobs will seem more tolerable again, our homes brighter with a splash of sunshine in them, and we’ll even look better when we look in the mirror (I’m so tired of my own pale face!!).

There’s not much you can do about bad weather, but I decided to declare war on this wintry spring a few days ago, and decided to pretend it was spring. Yesterday I wore bright orange, with matching high heeled sandals. A few days before, I wore screaming yellow (and probably looked like a canary or a banana, in a big bright yellow sweater), and today I wore red and royal blue (together). I just couldn’t stand looking so dreary anymore; I looked as depressing as the weather. And maybe I looked ridiculous all decked out for spring, but wearing ‘gloom gear’ wasn’t doing it for me either (my worst old sweaters with holes in them that I wear when i want to crawl into a corner or under the covers when I’m sad). And I find that I’m happier today, and people have commented on how cheerful it is to see someone wearing colour. I think at times like these, when everything seems ‘off’, it’s good to remember that a down outlook may just be because of the weather, your partner, job, kids and apartment may not really be so bad, maybe you’re all just sick and tired of lousy weather, and who could blame us. I hope it lets up soon, but until then, I think I’m going to try and remind myself that life isn’t as bad as it seems, the crappy weather won’t last forever, and if you see me wearing wild, crazy colors, you’ll know why!!! love, Danielle

I had lunch at a totally magical place today. There is a small lake in the park here, the Bois de Boulogne, with an island on the lake. And I’ve always heard about a restaurant on the island called “Le Chalet des Iles”. A friend invited me to lunch there today, and you have to take a boat to cross the small expanse of water to the Island. And once there, there is an open terrace, where you can have lunch and sit in the sun, which is exactly what we did. It was absolutely fabulous, so relaxing and peaceful, looking out over the small lake, and baking in the sun as we ate lunch. It doesn’t get better than that!!!  I’m going to go back there again!!! It makes the good weather even better, and there is something wonderfully whimsical about having to get there by boat, even though it’s only a short distance.  And tonight I am having dinner at a restaurant that specializes in souffles, which I love too. So I am having a very fancy day in Paris, in the heavenly springtime sun. It was so pretty at lunch today that I had to share it with you.

Other than that, when I’m not being lazy, soaking up the sun, I am starting a re-write of a book tomorrow, will work on some of my song lyrics next week with the composers, and I am thoroughly enjoying springtime in Paris. Wherever you are right now, I hope Spring is on its way to you too!!!

Love, Danielle

I missed Balenciaga (which is always one of the best shows) because I was sick with the flu, and I told you about Dior. On Sunday night, on a bitter cold night in Paris, the whole flock of people in Paris for fashion week turned up at the Lycee Carnot, to sit on benches in a school yard, where Givenchy hold their fashion show almost every year. The show is worth sitting through a blizzard at the North Pole, but as I sit there shaking with the cold every year, I wonder how they talk us into it again. I’m not sure who looks more frozen, the audience or the models, but as soon as the show begins you forget how cold you are. The show was absolutely fabulous, and the clothes were gorgeous!!! There were a lot of Sarwell style pants in leather and fabrics, some great tops and blouses, a few gem colored and black really sexy pretty dresses, and some really fabulous jackets and coats, many of them short in front with a longer panel in back, some encrusted with jewels, and others in fur, and there was a multi colored fur coat. The show was striking, and really beautiful, and despite the freezing cold weather (it’s still very much winter in Paris!!), I was thrilled to have been invited and that I went. My daughter and I loved it, saw some really wonderful clothes, and warmed up when we got home.

And the last show I went to is always one of the most impressive: Chanel. It’s at the Grand Palais, the spectacular old glass structure with its elegant domes, and enormous expanse inside. Chanel must have the largest group of spectators, I think there were probably three or four thousand people there. The vast area in the middle was covered with fine gravel, and there were what looked like enormous spikes of crystals in various shades of gray, white and purple sticking straight up in the air as part of the decor (the models walked around them). And the usual excitement filled the air in anticipation of the show, which began with the precision typical of Chanel, and it was a beautiful impressive show. The clothes were elegant and wearable, the most frequently seen style/silhouette was of leggings with a matching tunic and a short jacket over it, all three pieces of the outfit in the same fabric, either sporty or dressy depending on the fabric. I thought it was really a ‘cool’ look. All of the shoes in the show had Lucite heels. The first model in the show was my favorite, a very famous English model named Stella Tennant, a beautiful tall woman with short black hair, and another 35 models followed her. The outfits were elegant and beautiful, and the designer/Karl Lagerfeld adds a new twist, feeling, and element to every show. He continues to be an absolute powerhouse and Icon in fashion. At nearly 80, he is vital, energetic, brilliant, a real genius in fashion, he designs Chanel Haute Couture and Ready to Wear, also collections for his own label, and Fendi as well. And he is a talented photographer as well. He came out at the end of the show, always in his high white collar, snow white hair pulled back in a pony tail, and fingerless gloves, among his personal trademarks. He is a man of endless energy, creativity and talent, and it’s always a thrill to see what he does, whether for Haute Couture a few weeks ago, or Ready to Wear.

Paris Fashion Week ended with Miu Miu and Louis Vuitton today, and by today, the buyers, editors, and various spectators at the fashion shows were looking somewhat frazzled and exhausted, after four weeks straight of these shows, first in New York, then in Milan, London, and Paris. It’s a grueling schedule for anyone, and it sounds like fun to you and me, but four weeks of it all day long, in order to write about it for the fashion press, or order clothes for their stores, must be overwhelming and exhausting to see that much in four weeks. But for me, it’s always fun, just hitting the high spots in Paris, usually with one or several of my daughters. I had two with me in Paris this time. And I’m always sad to see it end, as my children leave to go back to work in their cities. It is sooooo much fun for me to go to these shows with them, and hear their take on what we’re seeing, and how it compares to the other shows they’ve seen in New York. It’s an intense business (which represents a huge volume of money, serious business and a major industry), and there’s a Cinderella quality to it when fashion week is over. The excitement dies down, the pretty clothes and beautiful models have vanished,the movie stars who came to see the shows have all gone home, tomorrow the halls and exciting locations we saw them in will be empty. The clothes will be ordered now, and photographed for magazines. They will appear in stores six months from now, and by then, another series of fashion weeks will be taking place in the same four exciting cities, and the magic will start all over again. But tomorrow, as I go back to ‘real life’ in jeans and an old sweater, the glamour of fashion week will be a memory……until next time….it’s a fun time and a very exciting week while it happens, and I feel lucky to be able to see it!!!

Love, Danielle

It’s that time of year again!!! (Ready to Wear) Fashion Week in Paris. As I’ve told you before, the Haute Couture shows used to be the Big Event in French fashion, with presidents’ wives, major movie stars, and famous socialites at every show, making it a really big deal. Now with most of the big Couture designers gone, the only two big Haute Couture shows left are Dior and Chanel. Givenchy does Haute Couture and no longer does a fashion show, although they make beautiful clothes. But nowadays, there are few familiar faces at those shows although I saw Cameron Diaz at the recent Chanel Haute Couture show, and she looked absolutely gorgeous, just as pretty as in the movies!!

But in recent years, now the Main Event are the ready to wear shows, in October and March. It’s an International Event, with American Designers showing their future collections in New York, the Italians in Milan a week later, the British in London the week after that, and finally the French designers showing their wares in Paris. And every year the ready to wear shows gain momentum. Long ago, they were only for retailers and store buyers and the fashion press, now EVERYONE goes, and is it a Wow!!!! Movie stars, famous people of every kind, royals, it is an incredible scene, with hundreds of press focused as much on the audience as the runway show.

Today I went to the Dior show, which is probably one of the biggest. They are showing the clothes for fall, and in theory these shows are still meant to show store buyers what’s coming so they can place their orders for next season. But in addition to the buyers, there are just hordes of people there. I went with one of my daughters who is a fashion editor, and we always have fun when we go, nudging each other and pointing, watching the people, and enjoying the show. Dior is a little less dramatic on the runway, without a head designer at the moment. They have not yet replaced John Galliano, whose presence always added flair and drama to the show. But there was plenty of flair and drama in the audience. My daughter and I tried to guess how many people were there, and we figured it was somewhere between 2 and 3,000, in any case it was a LOT!!! The show was held at the beautiful Rodin Museum (part of the fun is where these shows are held), on the Left Bank, on the rue de Varenne, just down the street from where I lived as a young girl in my teens, when I lived in Paris. Just getting into the show was a mob scene, with hundreds of photographers shouting the names of anyone they recognized, and jostling to get photos of them. There was lots of pushing and shoving, and then we were finally in the museum, sitting on bleachers on three sides of the runway. There were flocks of Asian movie stars I didn’t recognize, but who got a lot of attention from the press, famous magazine editors, French, American, Italian movie stars, Spanish royalty, famous fashionistas, the head and owner of Dior was there, with both his adult children who work with him. Photographers combed the crowd for famous faces before the show began. And then the show began.

Approximately 50 gorgeous super models walked down the runway in approximately 75 or 80 outfits, impeccably put together, with sleekly combed hair, wearing impossible to walk in, very very very high platform shoes (runway shoes always look impossible to walk in, and once in a while a model stumbles or falls though none did today). The girls are usually much younger than they look in their sophisticated outfits, and most of them are in their late teens. The clothes were lovely in muted tones for fall, and we had fun watching the show. The shows usually start about half an hour late, which gives you plenty of time to ogle the crowd and get in some good people watching (there are always some crazy outfits there, on both men and women). And the show itself lasts about half an hour, and goes off with remarkable precision. So an hour after you push your way into the show, you are back on the street again, heading for the next show. There are 5 or 6 shows a day for the entire week, and parties given by the design houses at night. (My daughter went to two tonight, and I happily stayed home. I had enough pushing and shoving for one day!!!). I will be going to more shows this week, and will tell you about them.  For me, this week is always a fun event, it’s fun to see the clothes, and to just enjoy the whole crazy fashion scene with all its intense atmosphere, and the people who take part in it. And it’s not a ‘girly’ thing, the spectators are evenly divided between men and women, although probably half the people there are involved in the fashion business in some way (buyers, press, editors, stylists, whatever). And most fun for me, it brings my daughters who work in fashion to Paris, so we get some time to be together….it doesn’t get better than that!!! Stay tuned!!! More to come!!!

Love, Danielle

It’s that time of year again, time for the ‘Haute Couture’ fashion shows in Paris. It still always amazes me that not so many years ago (maybe 10??) it was an all week affair, running from one fashion show to the next, sometimes in some very unusual locations (swimming pools, a train station, the polo field in the park). Before that, the very serious Haute Couture shows were held in hotels, with the models going down the runway in elegant ballrooms. And now, instead of seven days of many shows a day, there are only two of the long established fashion houses left that still do Haute Couture: Christian Dior and Chanel. (Givenchy still does haute couture as well, but fewer pieces, and they are shown in a showroom, and there is no runway show).And now haute couture fashion week is only two days long (with many unknown designers who will never achieve the stature of the famous designers of the old Haute Couture, like Balenciaga, Balmain, Mme Gres, Yves St. Laurent).

Haute Couture is almost a lost art, with each garment made entirely by hand. There can’t be a single machine stitch anywhere on an Haute Couture garment. The people who work on the clothing, and make the gorgeous creations by hand, have to do a twelve year apprenticeship before they are considered full-fledged seamstresses and tailors. It is truly a dying art. And the clothes in Haute Couture often/usually include amazing details, like intricate embroidery and beading. The clothing itself is staggeringly expensive. An Haute Couture wedding gown (usually for royals, Arab princess, or the brides of mega billionaires) starts at $500,000.  Hard to imagine!!  And there is always a wedding gown as the grand finale of any runway show.

There are very, very, very few buyers left for Haute Couture clothes. Mostly, the shows are put on as important publicity for the house, so even though the number of buyers is dwindling, these last two remaining shows are still put on twice a year. In January, to show summer clothes, and in July to show winter clothes. And it takes three or four months to complete a garment for an order, which includes many, many, many hours of intricate, minute work, all by hand.

Typically, there are about 60 to 70 outfits in a show, and somewhere between 40 and 50 models (the most famous supermodels at any given time), and some of them change outfits during the show. And even if you’d never consider buying an Haute Couture dress in your wildest dreams, it is still an incredible art form and worth seeing. The French consider it an art, and take it very seriously. And it’s a thrill to see the shows. The decor and setting is always amazing, and there is palpable tension as people wait for the show to begin. There is music playing. The people who come to see the show are seated in the audience at hotels around Paris, or at a beautiful antique glass building called the Grand Palais. The shows are by invitation only, and invitations are hard to come by and considered a prize. The fashion press is there, editors of important magazines, like Vogue, movie stars (Cameron Diaz was at the Chanel show and looked absolutely gorgeous, and just like she does in the movies!!), and potential clients, who attend the shows beautifully dressed, perfectly made up, and often wearing jewels. It’s exciting to see!!!

The first outfits on the runway are usually more sporty and casual, pantsuits, suits with skirts, simple daytime dresses. Everything is put together as an outfit: the dress, shoes, sometimes a jacket or coat, jewelry. Makeup is sometimes wild and hair extreme, or the reverse: very sleek and simple. This time at Chanel, most of the models had hair teased straight up sky high, kind of like Bride of Frankenstein. And sometimes shoes are almost impossible for the models to walk in, the heels are so high. This time there were very pretty high heeled mostly sparkly pointed shoes with ankle straps. (And I have to say the models were terrifyingly thin, and often are, too much so. Normal humans just don’t look like that, and it’s a tough example to set for young women, and not a healthy one for their self-image. As the mother of five daughters, it worries me to see models that thin!!).

After the more casual outfits come short cocktail dresses, then long evening gowns, and finally THE wedding gown which is the finale. And after the wedding gown, there is a pause, and then the designer comes out, walks down the runway to the audience’s applause. In the case of Chanel, it is Karl Lagerfeld, who is German, 80 years old, and an unbelievably talented, legendary, energetic designer. He not only designs Chanel’s ready-to-wear and couture, but also for his own label, and another line of clothing as well, and he’s an active and talented photographer. His hair is snow white, he wears it in a ponytail, wears high collars, interesting clothes, often tail coats, and gloves without finger tips. He is surely a legend and one of the most talented designers today. Truly a remarkable person!!!

In this case, the setting for the show was fantastic!!! It was at the top of the Grand Palais, and an entire set had been built that looked like an airplane, with the audience sitting in rows, with video screens of clouds passing by the portholes and above. It was amazing!! And carts were rolled down the main ‘aisle’, which then became the runway, offering mango juice or champagne. It put everyone in a festive mood instantly!!!

The clothes themselves were very lovely as always, with some very simple, beautiful daytime clothes, some striking evening gowns, and lots of razzle dazzle in the audience, and some beautifully dressed women.  (You can see the show and the clothes on Style.com)

Chanel is the only show I go to now. I used to go to many of the shows, when there were many, and always to Dior. But although I respect John Galliano’s talent, when he began designing for Dior, the clothes were too dramatic and not really what I like, and I eventually stopped going to the Dior Shows. Mr. Galliano is no longer designing for Dior, and they haven’t yet hired a new designer, so the clothes were designed by their design studio this year, which interested me less as there is no real ‘signature statement’ by a great designer, with no big designer creating their clothes. So I didn’t go to their show. There has been much speculation in the last year as to who will take Mr. Galliano’s place (there was talk of Ricardo Tisci at Givenchy going to Dior, but he didn’t. Marc Jacobs, Phoebe Phylo (of Celine), and Alexander Wang. But no one has accepted the job yet, and the guessing continues).

So it was an exciting day. There was a press show at 10 am, and another one for clients, celebs, and ‘important people’ at noon, and I was invited to that one. It is always an honor and a treat to be there. I sat in front of the previous First Lady of France (Bernadette Chirac, and she’s a lovely woman I’ve met before), and also Daphne Guinness, fashion icon from London, in towering platform shoes, black and gold lame leggings, with jet black and platinum hair teased and swept up, and a ring on every finger. It’s almost as exciting to watch the audience as it is to watch the show!!

And no matter how remote haute couture seems from our daily lives, and even if one never owns a piece of haute couture clothing, it is a fantastic experience just being there, seeing it, and being part of it for a moment. The show takes about an hour, and I was back on the street (like Cinderella after the ball, but in this case with both shoes on) at one o’clock, having experienced the magic of it yet again. It is always exciting to me, it never fails to thrill me, whether I like a particular collection or not. For all of my childhood and adolescence I wanted to be a fashion designer (and went to design school, but got into writing instead), and I feel like an excited kid again when I see it.  It’s an amazing experience and a thrill every time!!!  Afterwards, I went about my life, did some errands, bought shampoo, and did some work at home. Back to real life…..but for one extraordinary hour, I was transported by the world of Haute Couture again. There is nothing like it!!!!

Love, Danielle

I usually go back to Paris after spending the holidays in San Francisco with my children. I stick around for a week or two after they leave, do some work, and then head back to Paris, to enjoy some more of the winter there. January is kind of a dull month everywhere, the weather is lousy unless you live in a tropical country—it’s miserable everywhere else, people are tired after the holidays, partied out, broke after buying presents, and nothing very exciting is going on. For me, it’s a great time to work. I work hard all year, especially in winter, so I can take time off in the summer to be with my kids.  But as wintry places go, Paris is a nice place to be in January. Often, it snows, which I love, the big sales are on, which is fun if you want to find a bargain, and the big Haute Couture fashion shows are at the end of January. Many of the big designers have closed and no longer do Haute Couture, and there are only 2 houses left that do couture, Chanel and Dior, other than some new designers that have appeared. And I go to the Chanel Haute Couture shows twice a year in Paris, so I’ll be going to that and am looking forward to it. They’ll be showing their summer clothes in January. And I love to comb through antique stores, and go to my favorite auction house in Paris, all good winter pursuits. And I enjoy winter evenings with friends, over quiet dinners. There is something very cozy about winter evenings, and I like staying home too, catching up on work, or puttering around the house. I always have a million projects, things I want to move or hang. Or change in the house. So I manage to keep busy on long winter nights. And mostly, I write in the winter, and will be working on outlines, and new books.

I haven’t gone skiing in the winter for a couple of years, as my children are spread out and no longer go with me, and it’s no fun to go alone. But that was fun too, for a lot of years. And I might go to the snow this year with some friends. It’s fun to go on long walks in the snow. I’ve always been a cowardly skier, and was never a great one, and hurt my back years ago, so I don’t ski, but am an enthusiastic supporter. I do après-ski extremely well, and have the wardrobe for it!!! I look like the real deal, even if I’m not. I took my youngest son to a place called Courchevel in France a few years ago, so he could ski (he’s a fabulous skier!!) and we had a great time. But he doesn’t have time for ski holidays anymore.

So I’ll be busy in Paris in January, and am sure I’ll find lots to do between bouts of writing. It’s a good time to catch up on things at home, and even curl up and do some reading (which I do in summer, when I’m not writing!!!).

I hope your January is off to a good start, and I’m looking forward to a good year ahead. Last year was challenging, and I hope that this year will be easier for us all!!!

Much love, Danielle

I really like contemporary art. I like abstract work and figurative, I love bright colors (I love red!!), and things with a touch of humor to them. I’m not good with very edgy art, or dark, depressing colors. I want art to make me feel good, and preferably happy!!! So I’m not very ‘avant garde’ in my tastes, and I am not a fan of ultra edgy art.  Buying a heap of sand as a conceptual installation always feels like the Emperor’s New Clothes to me (the children’s book where a tailor makes the Emperor an invisible suit, and he strolls down the street naked, while everyone pretends he’s wearing clothes…..oops!!). I always figure that if I want a heap of sand in my house, I don’t need to go conceptual, I can just haul it in off the beach. (And my kids used to do a fairly good job of that at our beach house). Similarly, I once went to an art exhibit with all white canvases with nothing else on them, blank in other words, and everyone was oohhh and ahhing about how “witty” the artist was, and how ‘profound’ his statement…..uhhh……excuse me, I just can’t play that game. I love abstract art, but staring at a blank white canvas leaves me flat, and doesn’t seem ‘witty’ to me. (Although I can conceive of the artist laughing at all the people talking about how ‘witty’ he is for showing a blank canvas) Okay, so I’m a drip. I want to see something a little more fun than that, and if I’m going to buy it, I want a lot more than a blank canvas.

So inevitably, my naughty kid side was activated at the art fair I went to this weekend, over three particularly challenging (for me) pieces of art. One looked like the contents of my bathroom cabinet, with bottles, medicines, and all the ordinary everyday stuff I jam in there. I know it must have been done by a famous artist, but it still looked like my bathroom cabinet at home (mine is possibly a little messier….but still….). And the price tag on that sample of everyday life was just under two million dollars. Oh. It gave new meaning to my Band-Aids and Tylenol. I went with a friend, and we muttered about that one, as we walked along, enjoying the art fair. It was a big fair, so we had a lot to see and enjoy. The other ‘aw come on’, was a bunch of fresh bananas sitting on a pedestal with a small color chart next to it, so you could see how yellow they were. Yes, okay. They were yellow. And looked exactly like the ones in my fruit bowl in the kitchen. At first I thought they were only made to look real, but nope, they were real (I touched). The price tag on that was the equivalent of $15,000, if I remember correctly—-or maybe $20,000?  Gulp. Now what happens when the bananas turn black next week, and go mushy, and you have to throw them away? Fifteen or twenty thousand out the window? Okay, I know its art, but please…….$15,000 for a bunch of fresh bananas that are not going to make it past next week? I’m sorry, I used to be an art dealer, but I still don’t understand. I’m sure it was witty, and the thought profound, and the artist respected and well known, but bananas are bananas. (It gave serious new meaning to the contents of my refrigerator). And the last piece I saw that provoked the same reaction in me was a stack of garbage bags in boxes, in that same price range. I make that kind of art every night in my kitchen. It is indeed using what you have on hand to make art. And I saw lots and lots of other works of art that were fascinating, intriguing, and that I would even like to own. But works of art like the ones I just mentioned always seem to me like they are pushing us—-for me anyway, buying a bunch of bananas at an art fair, at those prices, even with a color chart, is more than a stretch!!!! That, to me, is a definite “Awwwww, come on!!!” I’m sure there must have been some deep meaning to those pieces that I missed, or maybe not. Maybe it’s a sense of humor, or sensibility that I just don’t have. In any case, I did not buy the bananas, the garbage bags, nor the medicine chest.

The other two art fairs were much smaller, but fun too. They were both in tents, with many stalls of interesting art, at more reasonable prices than at the bigger art fair. And I succumbed to a miniature pair of blue jeans, in royal blue, under a plexiglass cover. They were inspired by an artist named Yves Klein, who is famous for the pigment he uses, in a brilliant royal blue. He uses models of famous sculptures, like the Venus de Milo, does them in varying smaller sizes, and covers them in a powdery royal blue pigment. I have always loved the color, but his prices are way out of my budget in the several hundred thousand dollar range, and he is a very famous, very respected artist. He uses primarily famous classical statues as his models and base for the blue color. In this case, the artist used something modern, the jeans, and did them in that gorgeous royal blue color—-and it was in my budget—–way way less than the bananas and the garbage bags, which I already have at home anyway. So I’m happy with my new sculpture, and had a great time looking at a lot of art….and I even got a chuckle out of some very incongruous pieces of art. That’s what art is all about, having fun with it, talking about it, and commenting on it…..and if you’re feeling artistic, head for your kitchen and see what you find!!!  Maybe you too can create a work of art with a head of lettuce, a cauliflower, or some brussels sprouts…..awwww come on!!!!!

Love, Danielle

Love, Danielle

First, I wrote some poems in French, then the composer showed me how to break them into ‘couplets’ (in French, which tell the story), then I added the refrain. The number of beats in each couplet, and the refrain, were very important. It was a whole new language of creativity for me, which made it that much more exciting to work on. Meanwhile, the composer worked on music to go with what I’d written (and I love his music!!). We’re still working on it, and I love all that I’m learning. I wrote the lyrics in French, and then translated them into English as well, and the composer created music to go with my words. And on the last song, he wrote the music, and I tailored the lyrics to work with it. This has been so much fun, and so educational for me. What a fascinating process, and whereas my normal work is so solitary, this is a real collaboration, and it’s so much fun to work on this together, and have company (the composer) while I do it. I hope the final result is good.

For now, we have a very rough version of one song, on CD, with both lyrics and music, in French. The composer still needs to polish up the music, and do the arrangements, and the singer needs to rehearse what we’ve done. In time, we will make proper recordings of all these songs, with full implementation of music and lyrics, in both languages. It is REALLY exciting for me. It has been a very exciting process, and a real joy to work in collaboration with two very talented people. We made 5 songs in all, and will do polished recordings of them. I try to take a break from writing in the summer, so this was a perfect time for me to work on it.

Anyway, I wanted to share that with you. The young composer spent hours with me, working on these songs. He brought a portable electric keyboard, and we sat at my kitchen table, working on all the songs.  I had an absolutely terrific time doing it—–and I hope you’ll be hearing more about these songs soon!!! The sounds of music were echoing in my kitchen this summer!!!!!!

Love, Danielle

Well for me, in a way, the summer holiday is over. I started somewhat early, in June, when I came back to Paris for almost two months, and it has been wonderful, seeing friends, having my kids here, doing fun things, and travelling to Italy. And the lazy summer days end all too quickly. For the first time ever, many of my kids used Paris as a base this summer, and travelled from there to other places (Holland, Germany, etc.), and some stayed in Paris longer than others, and we all went on holiday in Italy together, at a hotel, and on a boat, on our  annual boat vacation with the 5 youngest  kids. Each one brings a friend or significant other on the boat trip, but their friends stay at the house too. And it’s lively and busy while they’re here. All together, they stayed with me in Paris longer than any other summer, and some were with me for the entire month, which was great, and now I’m sad that it’s over.

It was a chilly June and July in Paris this year, which wasn’t so bad, though I didn’t get to wear my really summer stuff, and wore a lot of wool jackets and sweaters instead!!!!!!! I saw a lot of my friends, and enjoyed the time with my kids. And our trip to Italy was terrific, to Positano, Capri, Porto Ercole, and the fabulous day in Rome I told you about recently. We had great meals and conversations, played Scrabble, and relaxed with each other, spent time with each other and separately with our own friends.

Somehow, I am never ready to leave Paris. I love my home in San Francisco, and will be happy with another 2 or 3 weeks with my kids, each one for a few days here and there. But Paris is just a hard city to leave. It’s almost deserted in August, since restaurants and businesses close for the month, and the city is nearly empty. People take holiday either in July or August, and have a full month off. The whole country goes on vacation in summer in France.

When I go back to San Francisco, I will be curating an art show for a gallery (and owners) I love, which will be a lot of fun. Seeing lawyers, accountants, and catching up on work. It won’t feel like summer anymore when I go back, and SF is always cold. So I’m having a bit of nostalgia as I pack up in Paris, with the ‘spoils’ of summer, some things I bought to take back, mostly gifts for other people. I’m lucky I had the time off, the long visit with my children, the travel, and the time in Paris. But I’m sad to leave anyway. I wish the vacation were just starting and not ending, and it will be September before you know it. But my summer is about to end now. I hope the rest of your summer is fun!!!

Love, Danielle