After-Holiday Sale, New Years at Estoublon

Holiday decor is now 50% off and clothing is discounted 30% at the Christmas Market at the Chateau d’Estoublon, a magnificent 16th-century estate near Fontvieille where wines and olive oils are produced. This is the one market my friends and I never miss; each year the selection of food, decor, toys and tableware grows more elegant, eclectic and whimsical too. The items for sale come from all

I Love Paris When It....

Isn't this great? This Paris Snow Globe print by artist Clare Owen is $20 plus shipping from her shop on Etsy. For more about Clare, see her website  and blog.

Love Where You Live?

Cute, right? This "I Love My Town" tee is 100% organic fine jersey cotton, with a silk-screened logo in red or pink. It's unisex and comes in sizes S to 2XL $22 from Basic French.

French Vintage on Sale

Jill Mitchell is offering discounts of up to 50% on the French vintage items in her two online shops. (This mid-century French school poster, for example, with North America on one side and Asia on the other, is now $60 plus shipping.) To see Jill's shop on Etsy, click here and use the code word "holidaysale" to get a 30% discount through the end of the year.  To see Jill's Ebay store click here;

Can You Ear Me Now?

Now you can dress up your cell phone and all your other electronic devices with reproductions of classic paintings such as Van Gogh’s Starry Night. (And none too soon, I might add.) Van Gogh painted Starry Night (and close to 150 other oils) while hospitalized in St. Remy in 1889, following the cutting-off-of-the-ear incident in nearby Arles. (By the way, two German art historians recently said

Remembrance of Breakfasts Past

I've known the photographer and painter Carol Gillott for many years and have always loved her work.  When we first met in New York, she was a was doing a lot of portraits of chefs, which found their way into top food magazines and onto many restaurant walls. A passionate Francophile, Carol now travels to Paris three or four  times a year and is always always painting, her

Major Antique Fair Starts Tomorrow

More than 200 exhibitors are expected at the 89th International Brocante and Antiques Fair, running tomorrow through Sunday in splendid L'Isle sur la Sorgue. Arrive early to get parking, especially on Sunday when the village holds its regular weekly market as well.  


With hundreds of shops, stalls and vendors, L'Isle sur le Sorgue is considered the third most important antiques center in Europe

For Your Favorite Dirty Francophile

How cute are these soaps? So sweet and pretty, in fact, that I'd find it hard to use them. Based in Clarksville, Tennessee, Kasey Hachler makes these goats milk macaron soaps by hand, scenting and coloring them in Brown (Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcake), Yellow (Pineapple), Pink (Black Raspberry and Vanilla), Blue (Blueberry Delight) and Green (Almond). The 3-oz. soaps are packaged in a

Candy Land

With Valentines Day just around the corner, I've been thinking of chocolate, of course. And I remembered my chef friend Andy Floyd telling me about a chocolate maker he loved near Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Andy has a superb palate so when he likes something, I know it's gonna be good. Based near Boulder, Colorado, he's been a culinary instructor for 12 years. For ten years, he brought students to the

Buy Art to Help Haiti

Photographer Chuck Anderson is donating 100 percent of online sales to Haiti earthquake relief. This print for example, called Lights for Drowning, is 18" x 24" and costs $45 plus shipping. See all the work for sale here.

Rafael Soldi of Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York has organized the Haiti Relief Benefit Print Sale, which you can see by clicking here. Emerging photographers have donated

One Size, One Price, Four Artists

For one more week, four well-known St. Remy-based artists are showing original works together at the lovely Galerie des Cypres on the Place Hilare. They've all created square oil paintings of the same size (20 x 20 cm) with the same price: 250€. The painters participating are Claude Boutterin, Jean Marc Peyer, Yann Rebecq and Jean Louis Serie. The show ends Jan 15th. Galerie des Cypres is at #3

Success and Savoir Faire

Mireille Guiliano, who wrote French Women Don't Get Fat, is one of those women who just do things with more grace and style than most. Lucky for us, her newest book divulges more than a few of her secrets.
The author of the bestselling French Women Don’t Get Fat and French Women for all Seasons, Mireille spent more than 20 years as the CEO of Clicquot Inc., the American division of the

Macaroons: The New Cupcakes?

Remember how, a couple years back, cupcakes became the new new thing? Just last month, in fact, I spent $5.25 on one in a tiny and very posh cupcake boutique called More in Chicago because I just had to know what a bacon-and-maple-syrup cupcake would taste like (answer: good).

But now, in terms of foodie lust and adulation, I'm seeing cupcakes being nudged aside by macaroons. Have you noticed?

Postcards from Provence

If, like I am, you're a fan of the work of Provence-based artist Julian Merrow-Smith, you can now own a lovely 160-page book containing 140 full-color plates of his paintings.

Merrow-Smith is a British artist based in Bedoin (near Avignon), whose still- life paintings are inspired by objets trouvés, pottery and seasonal produce from local markets. His landscapes, meanwhile, represent scenes

Feel The Love

Jynell St. James is a Melbourne-based artist and designer who creates small highly graphic posters and sells them through the online retailer Etsy. (If you don't know Etsy, it's great fun--check it out here.) Jynell says France is her "favorite place in the whole world" and you'll see many French-inspired designs in her collection. This poster, called Paris City of Love, is available 8" x 10" (

What is it...

...about these little drawings and captions by Andre Jordan? To see his website, click here.

Man Shops Globe, Starting With France

Keith Johnson has the job everyone wants. He travels the world for the American retailer Anthropologie, buying beautiful antiques, art, decor and textiles for the stores to sell or use as display. He also commissions original pieces or finds the perfect one-of-a-kind for the company to knock off. Keith travels half the year, scouring antique fairs, flea markets, artists' ateliers, tiny shops,

Tour d'Argent Cellar Sale

The landmark Parisian restaurant La Tour d'Argent, which dates back to 1582, is cleaning out its 450,000-bottle wine cellar, considered one of the best in the world. The Associated Press says the Michelin three-star is putting 18,000 bottles up for auction in December and that the event "has captured the imagination of French wine lovers." Tour d'Argent is selling mostly wine but also some very

Gorgeous Antique-Filled Home for Sale

It's always fun to see someone you know in the paper, right? I met antique dealer Thomas Kerr in cooking class at La Mirande in Avignon...and later found we have mutual friends. Now I see he's selling his spectacular home near Isle sur la Sorgue--and everything in it--so he can move on to other projects. (I've been there, I've seen the house. Trust me...you could do worse!) This is an amazing

Sweet!

Have you seen these new stamps yet? Aren't they great? They're .56€ each or 5.60€ for a sheet of ten and--wait for it--they're chocolate scented. If you're in France, you can get 'em at La Poste or you can order them here.