Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Post cards from Paris part one "Streamlined Elegant Simplicity"

A variety of architectural styles layered with elegance creates an ever-classic Paris vista
A beautiful breezeway just down from our hotel- love the ornate urns paired with simple clusters of daffodils
Simple yet striking display outside of a garden store using a highly decorative statuette and the humble but classic tin watering can and window box planter topping a simple metal table
Clean and neat order within a flower stall offering up a bevvy of wonderful potted plants
The avenue area leading up to the Eiffel Tower where I'm enjoying its tree-lined elegant sparity
Pink and Green as interpreted by Parisian cafe' styling: pink seating and green shrubbery with very clean, spare structural lines

Paris in the Spring is a truly beautiful thing! James and I are so enjoying this week of all-things-Parisian-elegant...the food, the wine, the chocolates, the fashion, the architecture, the language, the arts and so forth. Most striking to me right now is the elegant simplicity and neat-styling glimpsed all around this city.

Turn any corner, stroll down an avenue, peek into a shop window or espy a little tucked away garden and what I'm noticing is an oh, so elegant paring-down as to what is essentially elegant and not a smidgen more. This is so refreshing to experience coming from a cultural norm in America where if something's pretty, hey, it's considered even better super-sized, collected in mass amounts or layered n' layered. And I completely understand this layering impulse with coming from a family where things-layered such as clothing, chintz fabrics and sterling picture frames on a side table are just standard modus operandi: the proverbial English Country Home look reinterpreted through the ages as an integral part of what is Southern Preppy.

However, I am finding myself really inspired by this more-streamlined and orderly Parisian lifestyle elegance. I've been streamlining, and "opening-up" our household here on the island gradually over the past couple of years but after this time spent in Paris, I may amp it up a bit more upon returning home.

Here are some quick photo snaps taken while James and I have been sauntering around Paris that illustrate this elegantly spare and clean-lined Parisian lifestyle ethos... tres' jolie oui?

6 comments:

  1. Hey girl! So glad you are having a good time. Have a safe trip home.

    Jen

    ReplyDelete
  2. I forgot to mention that I picked up a copy of Alexandra Stoddard's Living a Beautiful Life. I'm excited to start reading it! Thanks for the recommendation.

    Jen

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Jen! This is such a wonderful place and I hate to hafta' leave it soon but I'm fast gaining a baguette-belly, haha, despite all of the walking. It's a very good thing that there's not a French bakery anywhere near where I live...

    Best, Lachlan

    ReplyDelete
  4. You are so welcome and I know that you'll just fall in love with her books :) Alexandra Stoddard writes of things-French throughout her books and I'm going to pay better attention to this when I get home.

    Best and happy-reading, Lachlan

    ReplyDelete
  5. WOW great pics!!!! I have never been to Paris--i am insanely jealous. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Elizabeth! I thought of you yesterday when we were walking through the Jardin des Tuileries because there were runners everywhere :) I've seen in various guide books about great places to run in Paris...

    One day you'll get over here and I can't wait to see posts of your pics on your blog, fun! I'm such a wuss- walking's about done me in these past few days but I guess it's rather that I'm jogging since it takes three quick steps of mine to equal just one of James' steps. And he loooooves to walk quickly and constantly; I could barely get him to slow-down in the art museum yesterday, haha.

    Best, Lachlan

    ReplyDelete