Walking through Paris

My biggest trouble concerning looking fashionable while traveling is comfortable footwear. When I travel I invariably end up walking a lot: Exploring a city, going to a museum, browsing a boutique...so I knew before I left for France that I would need comfortable footwear but they had to be cute. No sneakers for me.
Well that plan went out the window the day I arrived in Paris. Before the trip, I bought Cole Haan flats with Nike Air "technology" meaning there was a lot of support on the sole like a sneaker. Unfortunately, after hours of searching for my hotel, my bones from my foot up my leg felt like they were breaking. I didn't care how cute they were, I felt like I would permanently damage my feet if I kept wearing them. So I went to a shoe store and bought the first pair of comfortable sneakers I could find and wore them for the rest of the trip. My feet had never felt so good, fashion be damned!

But besides the shoe debacle, I thought I picked out some cute outfits. The weather was perfect, not too hot or too cold. Sunny. I could wear whatever I wanted. During my stay in Paris (I also was in Annecy for a week) I went down the Champs Elysées and visited the Louis Vuitton mothership, the Chanel store on Rue Cambon, Yves Saint Laurent on Rue George V and the Hermes flagship store on Rue Faubourg. It was heaven.





Louis Vuitton flagship store on the Champs Elysées. Three floors of amazing luggage, bags, clothes and shoes.







Hermes flagship store at Rue Faubourg. The theme for the windows display is Indian Summer.




I spot a fuchsia croc Birkin


Alligator Birkin

How I missed the Yves Saint Laurent funeral

President Sarkozy, his wife Carla, Saint Laurent's partner Pierre Berge

When I learned that Saint Laurent's funeral was going to take place on the day I would arrive in Paris, I swore to myself that I would attend to pay my respects to the masterful fashion designer and of course to see other fashion legends that would attend. Alas, it was not meant to be. My boyfriend and I arrived at Charles De Gaulle airport at 7 a.m. and we took a bus that dropped us off at the Arc De Triumph. I pulled out a map I had printed of the hotel we were staying at. Or so I thought. I figured we would walk to the hotel to pass the time since check-in wasn't until 1 p.m. So we walked and walked and walked. We finally got to Rue Saint Honoré where we thought our hotel was (well, that's what my map said) and we continued down the street searching for the right address. As we passed boutiques such as Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Prada, Hermes, Chanel, Galliano and Gaultier I briefly wondered how we managed to get a two-star hotel on such an obvious high-class street. Maybe we lucked out. Although I should have been in paradise, I was so tired from being up for almost 24 hours that I barely glanced at the stores. I couldn't even drag myself into Prada to look at the fabled Fairy bag.
So we passed a large church and I barely noticed that there was a lot of hubbub around it. We must have gone up and down the street five times searching for our hotel. Then I read a little note I scribbled on my map. It said "This is where Yves Saint Laurent's funeral will be." Ahhhh...my boyfriend was not pleased. We had spent more than hour passing Eglise Saint-Roch where we thought our hotel was. So that's why there were a bunch of boxes that said "Y Saint Laurent" on them. So we took a cab to our hotel which turned out to be only a couple minutes away. After waiting another two or three hours to check in, we finally got the key to our room and promptly fell asleep. The funeral was at 3:30 p.m. I woke up at 4:30. I missed the funeral but at least I got to see the church.

And by the way, remember the flats I bought for the trip? Turns out they really aren't made for "European walking" as the Cole Haan SA told me. My bones felt like they were dying. Thankfully my boyfriend bought me runners which I wore for the rest of the trip.

(Photos: nytimes.com)





Valentino

Claudia Schiffer

Catherine Deneuve

John Galliano

I'm back from France

and I'm jetlegged and need to unpack and upload photos. Will do that sometime...maybe today or tomorrow. But it was amazing! Vive la France!

A bientot!

I will be in France from June 4 to June 15. First stop, Paris!