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Paris people

Fishing for compliments

When Philippe first sat down here on the Quai d’Orléans of Ile St-Louis, people thought he must be crazy.

Culture

She was a star in France long before her second husband, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, made headlines: Anne Sinclair is her name. And whatever happens to him, she is standing behind him. She is backing him, walking at his side. A beautiful woman, proud and betrayed.

Culture

The mystery of Ève Matel

Ève Matel is the author of this book – that’s her pen name or should we more aproppiately say her “nom de plume”?

Paris people

First Baby

These are tough times for the French who follow horror-struck the fate of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. They desperately need some good news. Here it comes: the First Lady is officially pregnant.
We knew that already? Of course we did.

Paris people

The fatal blow job

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a womanizer, everybody in Paris knows this. And any keen observer of the political scene in France would always have been alarmed about the one big risk in DSK running a presidential campaign: his uncontrollable and overpowering dick.

Paris people

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy pregnant?

There have been a lot of rumours lately, that France’s First Lady might be pregnant. And despite there having been no official declaration, there can no longer be any doubt: Carla Bruni is three months pregnant according to reliable sources.

Paris people

"My beauty was my handicap"

A complexion like milk, the blond hair flowing on her shoulders, July Delpy hated how the French media saw her at the beginning of her career: she looked like an angel and they saw her as an angel. Her beauty, somehow, was a handicap...

Paris people

The unavoidable warrior

Mention his name, and people will react with delight or disgust. People either adore or detest him. But recently, the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy became a key figure in France’s foreign affairs. He’s the one who led President Sarkozy to war.

Paris people

Meet Mr. cheese

Yves Cremmer is not the kind of guy you would suspect of roaming the streets of Paris. He looks like lhe leads a secluded life in a remote village of the French Alps, right?

Paris people

The latest must-have is a book

Ask Karl Lagerfeld who “la Parisienne” par excellence is, and he will tell you: Inès de la Fressange. She has the effortless chic of the Parisian that everybody envies her for. Here is her style guide: a must have.

Paris people

The King of Cobblers

Recently, when I read about new Japanese ventures of Parisian luxury cobbler Massaro, I had to think back to the day when I entered his workshop at Place Vendôme for the first time. Raymond Massaro was still there, an amicable gentleman in his mid-seventies dressed in a smudgy white blouse.

Paris people

Fast Fashion Victim

Just in front of “La Perle”, pasted to the window of a phone box, I spotted some posters, sketches of a man, a crown on his head, a fallen king, John Galliano.

Paris people

The Come Back of Serge Gainsbourg

There was a national outburst of emotion when Serge Gainsbourg died of a heart attack on March 2, 1991: the country was in state of shock. Twenty years on and France still misses him.

Paris people

Latest Blow to Bad Boy: Dior fired John Galliano

The Paris fashion trade show is starting today, but this time there will be no red carpet for John Galliano. Worse, there will be no Dior show. The British designer just lost his job.

Paris people

Such a French Head

She is beautiful, she is brilliant and she is probably the most French of all American actresses: Jodie Foster, Oscar-winning actress, will preside over the 36th Cesar Awards tonight.

Paris people

Escape to a better world

After his painful goodbye to fashion, French designer Christian Lacroix is busier than ever. Not only is he designing costumes for opera houses, he’s curating the exhibition “L’Orient et les femmes” that has just opened at the Musée du Quai Branly.

Paris people

A man and a museum

It used to be Fauchon's warehouse, a famous grocery shop on Place de la Madeleine, but since January it’s been a museum. A new one. A private one. Behind this miracle: a single man, Marc Restellini.

Paris people

"Politics is not my business"

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has jus finished her forth album which could be released in September. But breaking-news sounds different. What about this: she doesn't feel left anymore.

Paris people

Stéphane Hessel's praise of indignation

There is something in the air at the moment: a smell of fire, a perfume of revolution. 93 year old Stéphane Hessel published a small essay which in a few weeks became an editorial phenomenon.

Paris people

A medal for Mireille

Do you remember Mireille Mathieu, the “sparrow of Avignon”? Well, she is still there, 64 years young, the same Joan of Arc hairdo as in the sixties. Nicolas Sarkozy just promoted her from Chevalier to Officier of the Légion d’honneur.

Paris people

Cécile de France goes Hollywood

Cécile de France is the most Belgian of the French actresses. She has a difficult part to play: being everybody’s darling. Her name is so French. But her passport is Belgian. Her attitude: just very cool.

Paris people

Two stars and a baby

They are the most successful couple of French cinema. Their slightest touch turns everything into gold. Now Marion Cotillard (35) and her boyfriend Guillaume Canet (37) confirmed that she is pregnant with their first child.

Paris people

Memories of a father and his child

I remember exactly the day François Mitterrand died: It was on the 8th of January 1996. 15 years ago exactly. A couple of years ago, I met his long hidden daughter.

Paris people

Patrick Poivre d'Arvor: about the art of copy & paste

If you’ve never lived in France, you probably don’t know Patrick Poivre d’Arvor. In which case I feel very sorry for you. You’ve really missed something.

Paris people

A private lunch with Alain Ducasse

Alain Ducasse has radically changed the dining at Plaza Athenée. He calls his new style "sober Gothic" - and it's almost shockingly delicious. When we had lunch together, he shared his insights about food, love and life.

Paris people

Carine Roitfeld walking out on high heels

Here you can see Anna Wintour and Carine Roitfeld, chief editors of American and French VOGUE, at a dinner party, looking like best friends: skinny, smiling, everything perfect? Well, the devil always wears Prada....

Paris people

The man who lives in the Louvre

Who’s the man behind the Louvre? Good question. Here he comes: His name is Henri Loyrette, he’s 58 years old, nearly two meters tall, six foot six, and he’s a true Parisian.

My Paris Stories

"The man to shoot"

An aging heiress, an angry daughter and a society photographer, those were the ingredients of a legal family clash that France has never seen before. But it’s all over now: Liliane Bettencourt, the heiress of L’Oréal, the wealthiest woman in France, finally reconciles with her daughter.

Paris people

The happy face of Jewish vengeance

Jeanne Moreau once said that there are two kinds of actresses: those who know to walk and those who don’t.

Paris people

Sophie Marceau: The girl from next door

Sophie Marceau is an early riser, her agent explains, unless he meant that as an excuse.

Paris people

Andrée Putman: War against symmetry

She is tall, she is straight, she has allure. Andrée Putman, one of the contemporary world's leading interior designers, looks a bit as if she had designed herself.

Paris people

Eric Woerth: Good cop or bad cop?

The consideration that Paris is a huge and shiny scene for more or less devoted actors is especially true for the realm of politics.

Paris people

Philippe Starck's Wake-Up Call

“I’m not an architect and I’m not a designer”, says Philippe Starck, the enfant terrible of French design. Yet if he’s none of the above, how could he become so incredibly famous? It might be an easy guess:

Paris people

Liliane Bettencourt: A Zen Lady

Liliane Bettencourt, richest woman of Europe, was the discretion in person. Until one day everything brutally changed.

Paris people

Clotilde Courau at the Crazy Horse

Can you imagine a Princess at a Parisian Cabaret? Can you imagine, to be a little bit more exact, Princess Clotilde of Savoy, the Princess of Venice & Piedmont, on stage at the famous "Crazy Horse", naked or nearly? Do you?

Paris people

Goodbye Beau Claude!

He seemed like the ogre in the fairy tail, like the guy that would never die, but he’s gone for good: Claude Chabrol died today, on Sunday morning, at the age of 80 years.

Paris people

Bad Boy is Back

The Bad Boy of French literature is going descent and then dies
Even if you’ve never read a book of Michel Houellebecq, you certainly have heard his name. An unpronounceable name, I’ve to admit.

Paris people

The Beauty and the Beast

Ask French actor Gérard Depardieu what he thinks about his colleague Juliette Binoche and he will not go to mince matters: “She has nothing. Absolutely nothing.” That’s what he literally said to Profile, an Austrian magazine. _{Photos:
Suki Dhanda}

Paris people

Marion Cotillard

Parisians always do what they want to do. At least they pretend. Freedom stands above everything else. The other day I saw a guy nosily bumping in somebody's car. He tried to park his car into a space that obviously was too small for it.

Paris people

Sophie's World

he’s young, she’s beautiful, she is at least 1,75 m tall and she never goes to bed before three o’clock in the morning. Does that sound exciting? Well, the truth is that Sophie’s life is pure discipline. Sophie is one of the 60 female dancers of the Moulin Rouge.

Paris people

A coquette Lady

I’ve been sitting on a bench at a small place of the Marais reading the newspapers of the day, the kids where playing football, when suddenly Yvonne arrived. She sat down next to me asking if the news where good. “News are never good”, I replied. “Tonight President Sarkozy will talk at the television”, I told her.

Paris people

Charlotte Gainsbourg

I can't think of a more burdensome heritage than this: Charlotte Gainsbourg is the daughter not of one, but of two icons. Her mother, the British singer and actress Jane Birkin, was a sex-symbol during the Seventies and is still performing on stage.

Paris people

Jeanne Moreau: "They called me a whore"

The other day I had tea with Jeanne Moreau. You are probably thinking, I’m kidding. But I’m not. Believe me. I’m just the lucky one who, from time to time, has to interview for work somebody others would die for to meet.