In our second installment of the Expat Top Ten, the chic lady Gentry Lane will make you all drool with the desire to drop everything and move to Paris. To be consumed at your own risk!
Gentry Lane is a writer and champagne-swilling fashionista from SF, but has lived in Paris since 1998 and plans to stay put. She’s the creative genius behind the internet sensation DoYouThinkHesCute.com, and writes about fashion and cosmetics for too many magazines to name here. Her hobbies include spending beyond her means and stalking Jean-Paul Gaultier.
Gentry’s Top Ten Favorite Things About Paris
10. Feeding the ducks at the Jardin Luxembourg.
9. Daddy sugar cubes that come shaped like little hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs.
8. Buying and eating “nougaatine stephanoise de St. Etienne” a delicious and difficult to find regionally-produced candy that’s green on the outside and toffee and chocolate on the inside.
7. Being able to buy Prada shoes that you can’t find in the US.
6. The impeccable, white linen-suited waiters at Mariage Freres Salon du Thé and the desserts they serve.
5. “My morning coffee, croissant and conversation at my neighborhood boulangerie. They always remember my name and interest in 18th-century French history.”
4. Eating at Georges (the Costes brothers restaurant on top of the Pompidou Center), it has the best view in Paris — both for scenery and celeb spotting.
3. Summer evening picnics on the Pont-des-Arts.
2. Occasionally saying something clever or making a pun (in French).
1. “My box seats at the Palais Garnier. I hope heaven will be half as lush and beautiful as an Opera de Paris ballet.”
Paris and Art: Two Sites Reviewed
Michael Going Michael is an accomplished photographer with an impressive resume, but forget about that and take a look at his beautiful enhanced Polaroid works of art! There are quite a few categories, but go directly to Paris under the Fine Art section and you’ll see the Eiffel Tower and other Paris scenes like you’ve never seen them before. They capture the city in all of its romantic and mysterious glory. Lovely, I want to buy a print of every single one…
Café Guerbois I like this site because it’s a simple and thoughtful collection of stories and images from 19th century French artists, put together for educational purposes (don’t you dare try copying those images!) out of the author’s own personal interest in the subject. A great place to visit if you still get your impressionists mixed up with your post-impressionists. Also provides some good art links.
This article is one of the 78 original “Secrets of Paris” articles published between September 1999 and July 2004. After disappearing into the internet graveyard for almost 15 years, I’ve republished them in autumn 2019 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Secrets of Paris: “1999-2019: Twenty Years of the Secrets of Paris” Broken and dead links have been updated or deactivated, but otherwise the article remains unchanged.
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