How to be chic and un-chic in Paris this summer

It's almost Bastille day and Paris has started the holiday shutdown so it's a good time for a few tips on being cool in the French capital this summer. 

 The style of the season is called nouveau modeste 

Le look for women: retro and slightly ethnic. The Sarouel (left picture) is tendance again this year, along with white everything and creole loop earrings. Footwear: espadrilles Castaner [below]. My teenage daughter and her western Paris friends also carry big hand-bags permanently on the crook of their elbows [picture: Parisienne teen look]   

 

Sunglasses (men and women). Persol only. Classic Italian marque long ago adopted by French. Never, of course, to be perched on top of the head

 

Men: Anything as long as it does not include any of the following offences: sneakers/trainers, sandals, shorts, trousers with big appliqué pockets, t-shirts with logos or slogans, back-packs, shoulder bags, or, heaven forbid, man capris [criminal offender on Champs Elysées in picture below]. Simple rule: Paris is an elegant northern city not a Med package resort 

Dog: English bulldog, known as le bouledogue anglais. The Jack Russell terrier is ending its reign as favoured four-legged accessory. 

Car: Toyota IQ. Replaced the Smart as chic Paris wheels. Do not be seen near any 4x4 (SUV).

Parking: give your keys to one of the hundreds of voituriers (valet parking attendants) who have multiplied around hip cafes and restaurants. You don't have to be a customer, just tip well.

Top transport: bicycle. Le Vélib, the city's self-service bikes are great but very 2007. An electric Solex is chic but a fixie [below] is better. The fixed-gear bicyclette is now fashionable even for women.

Public transport: The municipal autobus is to be preferred to the smelly Métro, especially in light summer traffic. It's a more pleasant conveyance and you see the city.

Films: Any with late comedy stars Louis de Funès, Jacques Tati or Bourvil [Picture: de Funès and Bourvil in le Corniaud] 

Places to be seen: La Réserve (rare book collection) at the Bibliothèque Nationale. The terrace of Le Café de l'Alma on the avenue de la Bourdonnais [those two cited as top snob spots in Figaroscope]  Sunday brunch at the Neuilly-sur-Seine market.   

Places not to be seen: The Champs Elysées, the Eiffel tower, the Fifth arrondissement, Paris Plage or anywhere along the central Seine banks. Any cafés and brasseries that display English-language menus or claim to have English-speaking waiters.

Where Parisians holiday this year: Inland rural regions like Picardy, Lorraine, Ardèche and the Cévennes. Provence and the Mediterranean coast are to be avoided like la peste.

Parisian pastimes on holiday: Fishing, bicycling, jeux de société (board games), listening to vinyl records, barbecue.

Comments

[NAMALEX]

Sarouel again???? Only in Paris for sure!

[azloon]

[Le look ...... retro and slightly ethnic] CB

are those 'things' that woman is wearing in the top photo 'ethnic.' they look like something one would wear over adult diapers/nappies (and she's got one that needs changing).

Cevennes now the place for hip vacationers? what would a house rent for down there, for a month? maybe worth staying in Paris?
[I threw in the Cevennes for fun. The post is meant to be a little tongue-in-cheek. CB]

[Mauvezin]

"Parisian pastimes on holiday:...listening to vinyl records..."
**********************
...seulement pour ceux d'entre nous possédant l'electricité !!

[thinknoworpaylater]

Fashion and style (tongue in cheek) - fine but trivial. Places to be seen indeed! Holidays? But I live in Provence (southern Drome/north Vaucluse). In fact Valreas, which is part of PACA but inland and rural (L'Enclave des Papes) with loads of good Cotes du Rhone wine, high temperatures and less rain than the Cevennes and the Ardeche. Parisian pastimes? I just go down to one of the bistros and have a chat with local French friends. The fact is, there is a lot of unemployment and inflation and the French are putting up with it, but it's not popular, though they are very courageous. Parisian mores have no meaning here. But chickens will come home to roost. I find it odd that, at a time when the FN is rising in the North of France and there are problems (racial economic, etc.), we have to discuss Parisian "style".

[modessentielle]

bien vu, peut etre plus les spartiates que les espadrilles!!

http://modessentielle.blogspot.com/2009/07/le-k-des-spartiartes.html

[azloon]

[I threw in the Cevennes for fun]

yeah, but you're hip, so at least one of you down there.

i was just trying to come up with some ideas for your unfunny sterling problem. :)

while there, will you 'barbe-a-queue' un marcassin?"

[I've never put sanglier on the barbecue. It's best well-marinated, I gather, though best of all when well disguised in thick stew -- la daube -- rather than BBQ. CB]

[Daniel Strohl]

Very funny article from CHARLES :).

The sarouel mode is really awful!

[Mauvezin]

Je partage l'avis d'Azloon en ce qu'il parle d'un marcassin tout en préconisant l'usage de la broche afin d'avoir une cuisson égale et dument arrosée grace à la lèchefrite.
A défaut de marcassin un porcelet fera l'affaire surtout préparé à la croque au sel.

[Rick]

CHARLES, you are a dreadful tease. Brilliant!

[Lex Stevens]

"I find it odd that, at a time when the FN is rising in the North of France and there are problems (racial economic, etc.), we have to discuss Parisian "style"." --TNPL

It seems to be a constant in modern, western civilization that, no matter how bad things get, Parisian style continues to be discussed. Given that historically perfume sales rise in war zones, maybe discussion of Parisian style increases in direct proportion to social and economic suffering.

Make a note to address that issue in the re-education camps after the revolution.

[Mike]

Well, theres also a lot of Parisians here on the Atlantic coast as well. La Baule has long been a French stalwart. Funny how it wasn't mentioned on either side of the place to be debate. Nor the Vendee, La Rochelle, Biarritz, Ile d'Oleron, Belle Ile.

Shall I stop now?

[Depends what kind of Parisians, Mike. The Atlantic's out now, over-run by ploucs citadins after a decade of magazines saying it was chic ... CB]

[dot king]

...seulement pour ceux d'entre nous possédant l'electricité !!

MAUVEZIN

RIRES!!

I guarantee not to be seen in any of those places this summer, even the "hip" ones.
However I still have the possibility of playing vinyls - such a bore, darlings, turning them over - can't get the staff :)

[Dominique]

As long as every one forgets to mention my beloved Auvergne and Périgord...i'll be happy.

[Tom C]

This is getting very difficult. Add this to Jeremy Clarkson's instructions to us middle-aged gentlemen .....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article6688804.ece

quote: "the only thing in the world worse than a middle-aged man whose T-shirt is tucked into his trousers is a middle-aged man whose T-shirt is black and tucked into his trousers" unquote

I shall be obliged to stay indoors all summer.

[do-re-mi]

Charles,

Persol is Italian, looked good on Steve McQueen and George Clooney.

The " I have crapped in my pants" look is back on then.Crap, I am old.

The " Chic" Parisians look no different than any other Chic specimen from other major capitals.

[azloon]

Thank you Mauvesin for addressing the pig/sanglier v. piglet/marcassin issse.

CB, the animal may not require the same amount of marinade if it's younger/more tender.

but, your tender-heartedness may prevent you roasting a 'baby.'

"Marie avait un petit marcasssin, petit marcassin, petit marcassin...."

if that's drilled into you as a kid (pardon the pun), it can dampen your appetite for them later.

Speaking of little pigs, I had a Chinese-American friend, who told me he was bartending his way thru college when a woman walked into the bar, sat down, and asked for a 'Stoli with a twist.' *

He replied: How about 'once upon a time, there were four little pigs.'

(groan -- sorry, you have to know how many Chinese pronounce certain English letters to get this one, and even then, you might not)

a reality-fantasy take on the usual fate of cute little pigs (particulary if they build their houses of straw) and fleecy little lambs:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3339578575878502608

* stoli' = Stolichnaya vodka, twist is a lemon twist

[edmund]

Charles,
Since when have you become a style reporter?

Offences: shorts? Shorts never go out of style and have you been to Le Marais yet? & what about sneakers/trainers? COME ON... every Parisian guy owns and IS wearing AT LEAST ONE pair of sneakers/trainers so maybe you've been reporting from the wrong city...

[Not at all, Edmund. I knew the Marais before people wore shorts there. One does not wear shorts in Paris. Of course everyone has sneakers. I wear them every day to the gym. Maybe you see people wearing sneakers in public but they are either very young or foreigners (that's a deuxième degré answer of course) CB]

[Rick]

'I guarantee not to be seen in any of those places this summer, even the "hip" ones.' [DOT KING]

As if...

[Leopold Schonbach]

Charles,

I did not know summer blogs also had their "marroniers". Maybe you are starting a trend.
(For those unaware of French journalism lingo, a marronnier is a summer story published when there is nothing else to report. Like the Loch Ness monster).
I must say that as they go, this one is top notch: everybody can chime in with an authorized opinion. To the dissenters and as a (quite) old Parisien, I stand with Charles. He is right on almost every point, of course except most. But his is a difficult job: everything that is not yet passé in Paris will be tomorrow. Hard to follow.

AZLOON

There was also the Chinese Amercian who went to the eye doctor and was diagnosed with a cataract. He obejected: "No, I have a Rincon Continental."

[Natacha]

If you want to be chic in Paris this summer the best thing to do is not to go there. Try Antibes instead, Paris is empty for the whole of August and part of July, except for un-stylish tourists...

An article in the Guardian claiming Osaka is Japan's thrid city, now an article in the Times claiming Paris is chic in the summer.

Makes you wonder what they are turning out of journalism courses these days.

[DODO]

La Corrèze, also, seems to be very 'tendance' this year

[fred_of_paris]

Three cheers for la place du Marché in Neuilly sur Seine! (that's where I live) and a prime spot to watch today's bastille day air show...

[ros]

"Places not to be seen: The Champs Elysées, the Eiffel tower, the Fifth arrondissement,", sorry, but I happen to live in the 5th - true the rue Mouffetard is a bit scraggy now it's full of tourists but at Christmas it's quite enjoyable!
[Sorry, didn't mean to offend, Ros. I really meant the lower part of the 5th, round the Boul. Mich. and the quais. And it was just a joke. I love the rue Mouffetard. CB]

[dot king]

"the rue Mouffetard is a bit scraggy now"

ROS

Pity if that street is not being looked after as it deserves - it's a street I really like - especially for it's transformation at mealtimes from shops spilling out on to the pavements into restaurants representing la cuisine du monde entier. You don't notice the restos until the shops take their wares inside around midday and early evening.
I never thought of it as a tourist street, just a lively rue de quartier with, école maternelle, ordinary shops, bar/tabac etc. I hope it hasn't changed too much, seediness can be remedied.

[thinknoworpaylater]

I know I know Im being tedious but you are ignoring arespectable perspective on style pioneered by Pierre Bourdieu (sociologist anthropologist multi-prize winner in America France the U.K. etc - Im sure Charles has heard of him - smile) so my comment was not so arbitrary after all . His major work on the history and origins of taste and style is Distinction - came out in 1984 though I read it later. He suggests that * judgements of taste are related to social position * - that *taste functions as a sort of social orientation a sense of ones place*. Bourdieu believed that class distinctions are most marked in the ordinary choices of everyday existence such as furniture clothing or cooking (and we might add holidays!) The quotes are all taken from Wikipedia since I cant lay my hands on my original copy of the book - probably fell apart by now anyway! I know this is all too serious for some of you but I have taken Lex Stevens posts seriously over the last year and hope he at least will understand.

[azloon]

ThinkNow

French social thinkers have an influential and distinguished history, Gustav Le Bon (father of crowd theory?) coming to mind. Fun (for some of us bores) to read.

[Marguerite]

Vous n'avez pas parle des chaussures de Louboutin. Plutot pour les Femmes que pour les ados...Carla Bruni en portait , aujourd'hui, pour le defile du 14 juillet. On voyait les petites semelles rouges de ses escarpins -a tout petits talons- quand elle sortait de la voiture presidentielle, de retour a l'Elysee.
Quant au Cafe de l'Alma, il est a l'angle de 2 rues desertes et ennuyeuses et ce qu'on y mange n'est pas bon. Il vaut mieux aller au Cafe de l'Esplanade, sur la place des Invalides, c'est plus "branché"comme on disait dans le temps...

[ros]

"seediness can be remedied.", DOT: you're SO right, but Tiberi is still our Mayor -----

[dot king]

but Tiberi is still our Mayor -----

ROS

OMG! My sympathies! I thought he was in clink with suspended and had lost his right to stand for election. Does this mean he is still in office despite all the mud that stuck, or have I got it all wrong?

[Lex Stevens]

Think Now,

I think that I have read that book, or read through it.

I assumed that CB gathered his information while listening to his children and their friends. My son and his friends were always going on about Gramsci and Marx. They dressed a certain way, hung out in certain places, listened to certain music, and eschewed those who didn't. Such is youth.

An earnest defense of Juche Idea or why one wouldn't be caught dead in the Fifth. Tough choice, though both would elicit peals of laughter from me.

A little frivolity is okay, and laughter is good for the soul.

[thinknoworpaylater]

Thanks Lex. Of course you right - humour is great and good for the soul(smile). But I started blogging here 2 years ago at the time of the ewlection of Sarko. Everyone trumpeted it as a great victory but it was actually it was 6% difference - with only 2 canditates really only 3% - i.e. 3% difference would have made them equal and the voters only had two choices (mind you I must say she (Royal) didnt strike me as that positive . But nearly half the voters voted against Sarko (However remember the Bush elections - damn close and disputed ). So nearly half the voters voted against Sarko and conditions arent getting any better for people here in France (pace Charles). Not that Sarko is responsible for the New Depression but what he does and can do does matter and though laughter is healthy the more intransigent facts of life here arent going away soon and may last to the next presidential election. At least Royal might have behaved with more dignity as President and might have blocked some of the more reactionary propositions from the U.M.P. majority. Thanks anyway.

[Lex Stevens]

Think Now,

I do get your point that there are more important things that need to be discussed.

I was thinking again yesterday about the evenly split elections in the US the past several times, and what are the implications for a populace that seems to be ideologically split. I haven't come to any new conclusions.

As as American, I am well aware of the results of several (or many) years of neglect of pressing matters in the governing of a country.

Sarkozy seems to me to be problematic in many areas, but I have not followed his administration closely enough to offer any valid observations.

One commonality that France, the UK and the US seem to have at the moment is a bureaucracy that is weighing too heavily on the public purse, and is so entrenched that it is almost impossible to bring about any reform. Then there are the issues with the labor elite, the financial sector, and our elected, 'representative' bodies.

It seems obvious to me that all these parties are at an impasse, and that the rest of their (our) nations (societies) are being held hostage. It has become impossible to have a dialogue about what needs to be done to move forward, if for no other reason than people are barricaded behind their respective ideologies throwing stones at the others.

Last night over dinner, we were discussing the decline of American culture. I tend to shy away from conversations such as those, for it is all too simple. I do think that the neglect of public education in the US over the past thirty years has given rise to an increase in religiosity, anti-intellectualism, anti-feminism and increased xenophobia. All this at a difficult time in our history, when what we need is some critical thinking to navigate our way forward.

[ros]

DOT: "or have I got it all wrong?"
Yes, indeed you have - he's managed to make an "appel" which is going to last a long time - probably enough for him to stand again - well, well ----

[dot king]

ROS - that's one of those occasions when it seems there is no justice.

Give my love to Xavière - isn't she just your sort of woman? She is mine -

;D

[Christine Garcia Barbosa]

These Sarouel pants are terrbile. The two girls look very good and modern.

I lived in Germany (I'm actionally from Brazil) and even the germans find Paris expensive.

[badaude]

For Paris streetstyle:
www.badaude.typepad.com
ibid

[azloon]

[So nearly half the voters voted against Sarko] Thinknow

fortunately, or unfortunately if you are on the losing end, this is how democracy works. Someone always (or almost always) loses by what seems to be a small percentage of the votes. and, remarkably, they peacefully turns over the reigns of government to the slim winner. that's the miracle of democracy, not to be taken lightly.

Consolation for the losers?:

the winning party will eventually screw things up, by becoming arrogant, inept, or whatever it is that power does to 'winners.' The 'worm will turn.'

Sometimes this takes awhile. but happen it will -- to Sarko and his gang, to Obama and his gang, evermore.

amen.

[thinknoworpaylater]

Thanks Azloon - yes you are right in principle: Democracy is to be valued. But my problem is that France has a long history of extreme division and when the figures are that close it leaves a lot of people disgruntled as we have seen lately. It would have been better if they had been more like 60% - 40% something decisive even though I still wouldnt have liked the outcome (smile). Anyway we shall see at the next parliamentary and presidential elections. I just hope by then that the *Socialist* party has got itself together so there are real differences of policy. Democracy is about choice and if there is no real difference (look at Con servative and New Labour policies over the last 20 years broadly speaking) then there is no real choice. Anyway as you say keep hoping!

[Suzy]

Third picture down on right, the model is wearing silver ballet pumps/shoe with black grosgrain trim, can someone let me know the brand name of ballet shoe she's wearing thank you.

[PSF]

I have seen those awful baggy loons around the streets of the Marais for a while now. As for the Parisien chic it does not exist for men. For ladies it is about being slim and giggly and cool and maybe a bit fiery - if pushed - in pretty much any clothes. For the (straight) men it is about endlessly wearing Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger or Hackett (WHY?) and having floppy hair and a slightly effete manner. And here is one for all the gays both in (you know who you are) and around my home and the Marais - what is with the Fred Perry?

[Tom]

Ah, the poo-catcher. Tres chic.