French Flair

While modern design often neglects cultural and artistic heritage in favor of minimalism, Siraudeau demonstrates that it isn’t necessary to forgo tradition to create a fashionable home. With his eye for idiosyncratic details, Siraudeau has an exceptional flair for finding homes characterized with vintage style, where antique objects invoke nostalgia and time-tested quality. French writer and musician Boris Vian declared, “Any object can be an objet d’art once put in a frame,” and that innovative spirit shines through in the one hundred properties featured here. From 1960s mannequins to antique books to a salvaged Parisian streetlamp, any kind of paraphernalia can define and enrich the personality of a home by giving it a history. Styles and periods don’t need to match because French design is about integrating the unexpected alongside unconventional details to make a modern home unique. The reader is guided through some of the most remarkable locations in France, each abounding with features that characterize the unique French flair for home decorating. From delightful rural guesthouses, exquisite townhomes, and charming seaside retreats to the best of France’s antique shops, Siraudeau reveals how an extraordinarily diverse range of ambiences can be achieved by integrating the simplest of decorative touches. His ideas and advice are astute to contemporary comforts and the practicalities of modern living, and his exquisite photos, flooded with the soft light of a French summer, make this an invaluable volume for admirers of French style.

Which words of French unlock a warm welcome? What should you expect in hotels? Taxis? In cafe restrooms? What is the code for getting great customer service? What is all the fuss about food and French restaurants? Do you know how to charm French waiters? How do you entertain business contacts, intrigue French women and French men?

An intimate tour of quintessential Provencal style, featuring chic homes and interior details inspired by this picturesque region Thirty years after the publication of Peter Mayle's bestselling memoir A Year in Provence, the sun-drenched southern French region continues to excite home decorators with its combination of rustic charm, elegant details, and historical influences. Provence Style showcases the best of the region, with Shauna Varvel's quintessential 18th-century Rhône valley farmhouse--Le Mas des Poiriers--as its centerpiece. Named for the working pear orchard on the grounds, the property was reimagined by noted local architect Alexandre Lafourcade, who transformed a rough structure into a luxurious expression of the Provençal aesthetic, referencing historical influences, rural traditions, and Parisian taste. Set amid a garden of allées, arbors, and terraces designed by the architect's mother, renowned landscape designer Dominique Lafourcade, this exemplar of Provençal style is the starting point for exploring the region's characteristic interior details and exterior features. The book includes chapters on the public spaces of the home, from entrances to living rooms, the private realm of bedrooms and bathrooms, and outdoor areas including patios and kitchen gardens, transporting the reader on a captivating stylistic journey.

Sick of striving? Giving up on grit? Had enough of hustle culture? Daunted by the 10,000-hour rule? Relax: As the French know, it's the best way to be better at everything. In the realm of love, what could be less seductive than someone who's trying to seduce you? Seduction is the art of succeeding without trying, and that's a lesson the French have mastered. We can see it in their laissez-faire parenting, chic style, haute cuisine, and enviable home cooking: They barely seem to be trying, yet the results are world-famous--thanks to a certain je ne sais quoi that is the key to a more creative, fulfilling, and productive life. For fans of both Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life, philosopher Ollivier Pourriol's The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard draws on the examples of such French legends as Descartes, Stendhal, Rodin, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Françoise Sagan to show how to be efficient à la française, and how to effortlessly reap the rewards. A PENGUIN LIFE TITLE

This book examines the construction of national, regional, and group identities in the football journalism of five European countries: England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Notions of the respective national stereotypes are explored in each of the countries studied.

The 10 pieces in every woman's wardrobe that will give her that iconic French look, and the style history that makes each piece important.

Packed with thousands of verbs and verbal phrases conveniently grouped by theme and subject. It's better than a thesaurus, and is your guaranteed ticket to a richer French vocabulary!

In this invaluable reference work, the world’s foremost authorities on France’s political, social, cultural, and intellectual history explore the history and meaning of the French Republic and the challenges it has faced. Founded in 1792, the French Republic has been defined and redefined by a succession of regimes and institutions, a multiplicity of symbols, and a plurality of meanings, ideas, and values. Although constantly in flux, the Republic has nonetheless produced a set of core ideals and practices fundamental to modern France's political culture and democratic life. Based on the influential Dictionnaire critique de la république, published in France in 2002, The French Republic provides an encyclopedic survey of French republicanism since the Enlightenment. Divided into three sections—Time and History, Principles and Values, and Dilemmas and Debates—The French Republic begins by examining each of France’s five Republics and its two authoritarian interludes, the Second Empire and Vichy. It then offers thematic essays on such topics as Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity; laicity; citizenship; the press; immigration; decolonization; anti-Semitism; gender; the family; cultural policy; and the Muslim headscarf debates. Each essay includes a brief guide to further reading. This volume features updated translations of some of the most important essays from the French edition, as well as twenty-two newly commissioned English-language essays, for a total of forty entries. Taken together, they provide a state-of-the art appraisal of French republicanism and its role in shaping contemporary France’s public and private life.