Jumping Competition in NY

This is great. Bill Cunningham from the NYT just released his weekly Fashion On the Street video.
You can watch it here and see what I was doing when walking around NY with my heels.
The title of the video is The water dace, in my case : "the water up to your knees dance".
Enjoy

Snow in NY (and ode to Ferragamo shoes)

After a delicious dinner at the HCNY, I went back to Chelsea where my friends apartment is. I fell asleep immediately after reaching their place, tired, full and with a bit of chill from the walk back.
This morning I woke up at 5:30 (ok, ok, I am jet lagged) to find NY covered in snow. The view from the apartment was beautiful, but I was dreading going outside eithout appropriate shoes.
I had a breakfast appointment at Balthazar and had a bit of walking to SOHO..what to do?

I ventured out, with my 5 inch heels and no socks. The snow was already turning into slush and I was fearing for the worst. My feet stayed dry all the way to Spring street (where I walked into a puddle) and I started believing in the divinity of Salvatore Ferragamo. Who else can design a shoe that looks beautiful, feels great and keeps you dry in the snow???

After all the walking, Balthazar felt like a warm blanket on a cold night..I had Eggs Benedict with home fries. The best eggs benedict I ever had (but don't tell Mr.R)!

Paris-Rome-Frankfurt-Philly-New York

I am no jet setter, but in the last four days I have moved across five cities, four countries and two continents.
Surprisingly I am not tired, nor jet lagged. I went from Paris to Rome, where I spent two wonderful day relaxing.
On monday morning one of our cars picked me up and took me to the airport. From there I flew to Frankfurt and then to Philadelphia. The gods of air travel must have kept an eye on me, because the flight was not only extremely smooth, but also I had a row of seats all for myself! I slept, read and overall had a good time.

I arrived in Philly, where I was greeted by my friends P, L, their lovely kids and my favorite dog in the world. After less than 24 hours, I am on the road again. Heading to NY to meet some other dear friends and enjoy a meal at the Harvard Club

More tomorrow

Packing..

after a lovely weekend at home, with my family, I am on the road again.
Leaving tomorrow morning for Philadelphia, NY and Boston. I will be attending the NYT Travel Show on Feb 6-8. It will be a fun, exciting but also exhausting experience.
I will see friends, business partners and clients. I am looking forward to it!

Packing business suits and nice shoes, along with running gear and warm clothes.

America, here I come!

An homage to Mr Lenotre

The day we arrived in Paris, a couple of weeks ago, the papers announced the death of Monsieur Lenotre. Pastry chef, and head of the homonymous food empire, Gaston Lenotre died at the age of 88.
He was jolly looking man, as chefs often are. The first Lenotre boutique opened in 1957 serving bavarois, charlottes, mousses and macarons. In 1971 Lenotre opened a cooking school for aspiring chefs. As many French magazine and newspapers said, Lenotre will not be forgotten. In order to commemorate Mr. Lenotre's death and his legacy, we went to buy a box of macarons from the Lenotre shop near our house.

They were incredible. They made me wish I could write a letter to Gaston Lenotre and thank him for such a wonderful work of art. I am sure many people feel the same.
I think David Lebovitz wrote not long ago that there were too many macarons around, and that everyone in France was making them.
While I agree with David ( I had some in Fontainbleau that were to say the least, unremarkable), I also think it great to have such wonderful variety at hand. Lenotre, Laduree and Pierre Herme' all within 30 min walk from each other.. Vive la France!

Weekend in Fontainebleau

Last week we decided to celebrate my birthday outside of Paris. we wanted to get out of the city, travel to the country side, spend time with our friends and relax.
The opportunity came when the lovely J & A invited us to spend a couple of days with them in Fontainebleau.
The town is famous for its beautiful castle, a royal residence for many centuries, for its forest (thre times the size of Manhattan) and for INSEAD.
The lovely J, who happens to be one of the smartest persons I know, is a student at INSEAD. Here she is learning how to save the world from the economic crisis and how to be even smarter than she is.

Incidentally, the day before we left for Fonty, the NYT featured an article on the town, making us even more excited about the weekend getaway. On saturday morning, Mr. R and I walked to Gare de Lyon (10 min ) and got ourselves some return tickets (16 E each). We found the train (it was leaving from a side platform, not the main ones) and started our journey.
In 40 minutes we were in a different world, far away from the temptation of Parisian Soldes and close to a forest, wild animals and fresh air.

A picked us up at the train station, and after dropping our bags at home we went straight to the Jardin of the chateau.
We walked on the icy path, reached the castle, saw the swans that were gathering up by the view visitors in hope of some food. We loved it. The light was incredible, and it felt like we were miles away from Paris.

After a yummy lunch, we headed to Barbizon, a lovely artsy village nearby. Barbizon was the home of artists Théodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet.

The roof in the picture is in fact the chapel where TR is buried.
The weekend was lovely, the food incredible and most importantly, the company ideal.

We headed back to Paris in the late afternoon, as soon as we got back we opened our computers and started working..home sweet home they say.

More pics here: Fonty weekend

Paris: the Park

I just loved the light..also it's rare to see snow in Paris.