Author: Sam Growdon

The most romantic guy in Paris is 2cm tall!

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The other night I came across this fabulous and ingenious Instagram account, @Legocentric, and was totally amused by it. This may have something to do with our apartment being held hostage by these miniature “personage” or Lego men – Their best form of attack is crushing your bare feet in the dark! I caught up with the creators of these cutely curated images, couple Nicolas and his girlfriend Jen who he credits to having great ideas. Nicolas has been in Paris for 14 years after growing up in France’s south-east region and declares his love for the city. By day he’s a project manager for a consulting firm and so uses his photos as a creative outlet. He tells me that, “The original idea came to me almost 2 years ago in January 2013, a snowy day in Paris. I thought it would be funny to do a photo with mini figurine feet in the snow on my balcony. I used a mini Playmobil man but then I realized that the Lego men allow more creativity than …

The Original Bag of Bling

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I was first introduced to Whiting & Davis during Paris Fashion week two years ago. It’s not like I hadn’t seen these blingy meshed handbags before, in fact I had owned a gold high street version a few years back when they along with anything metallic became a huge runway trend. Little did I know that this mesh bag dates back to 1876 and is the oldest handbag company in America. Whiting & Davis was the very first company to create these uniquely crafted handbags using brass metal. It was Charles Whiting who took the ancient art of chain mail, think knights in armour, and created an exquisite fabric that became a three-inch square purse with a delicate twist closure in 1892. Whiting partnered with Edward Davis and so the house of Whiting & Davis was born. A few years later the laborious process of weaving the links and rings by hand became mechanized allowing the business to grow rapidly and it became the powerhouse for mesh fashion and jewelry. The duo continued to create …

Christmas is a MONSTEROUSLY fun time!

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The department store windows are always a mini stage for visual creativeness in Paris and never more so then at Christmas time! This year my favourite favourite has to be the windows at Galleries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussman. They are freakishly fun and less outwardly commercialised than some of the others, in fact not a logo in sight. Giant luxurious red velvet curtails flank a stage of fuzzy monsters in a rainbow of bright neon colours, collosal fluffy fiends trapped in over-sized glass baubles – perfect for my little people who squealed in delight at the the one-eyed, long-eared monsters peeking out of top hats! Seriously, you won’t believe your eye! (Okay bad Monsters, Inc movie joke).

Inside Mademoiselle Coco Chanel’s private home

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Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s apartment on Rue Cambon is like walking through Alice’s looking glass… and I’m still pinching myself! On first entering, the apartment it is nothing like I expected. The clean lines and black and white aesthetic that is so synonymous with Chanel doesn’t appear at all and instead, everywhere you look is filled with keepsakes and memories. Highly lacquered Chinese screens, adorned Italian mirrors, antique vases and sculptures. It’s a real scrapbook of her imagination, a dark-red, east-meets-west-inspired memory box. It has been left as if she could walk in at any moment in her iconic white bouclé jacket and sit on the sofa; I’ve since wondered what we’d talk about. There is no bedroom, she used to sleep at the Ritz Hotel a few meters away on Place Vendôme, and only used the apartment to entertain guests, the likes of Dali, Picasso and Elizabeth Taylor. The space is deliciously decadent and opulent and would be a superb playground for my one year old who would probably be attracted to the dozens of animals …

All my favourites to primp & prime…

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I’ve got less time while juggling all the other stuff along with kids, so this is the stuff that sits in my bathroom cupboard to make it easy, fast and of course, pretty. Lancôme Soleil Bronzer – it’s a sun BB cream. Pretty much a 30 SPF sunscreen, moisturizer and light foundation all in one. Easy! I love it because it doesn’t flake like some others do and it leaves the skin protected and glowing. Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt cologne – I can’t say I’m a fan of all the Jo Malone Scents, I do find some of them a little “linen spray-ish” (Febreez jumps to mind!) for my liking but this new fragrance is the perfect mix of light with an edge. I love it so much I got the big one and two travel size ones. Clarins Shimmer Body Oil – I had orgionally bought this at the beginning of summer, imagining hot beachy evenings, my tanned body glowing with a glittering radiance, which did work of course. But I’m …

La Petite Poche (AKA The mini Bag)

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Yes, the mini-bag, we’ve seen them everywhere right? The red carpet is one thing but we’re seeing celebs carrying them on their morning coffee run as they’re snapped with large shades and grande lattes in hand – damn that LA sun all year round! But seriously, do these A-listers have a secret handler carting the rest of their stuff? Where the hell does it all go, or perhaps unlike me they aren’t having to lug the snack, the water bottle, the juice carton, the toy Transformer, the cell phone, the nude lipstick, the lip balm, the red lipstick, the lipgloss .. really I could go on. Surely all these celebs with their miniature sacks are really just dashing to the convenience store for a loaf of gluten-free bread therefore just needing a few coins in there right? Or perhaps this miniscule bag is in fact carried around in their giant-size never-full and they whip it out with their essentials while leaving the big sack in the car/with the handler?! Yup! That must be it! Of course I’m …

Au clair de la lune

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As if Paris isn’t romantic enough without a full moon, but lucky for me a saturday night stroll to see the Christmas lights and the market on the Champs Elysees surprisingly brought with it a beautiful full moon over the famous city of lights. One of my favourite walks in the french capital starts from nearby our apartment. We cross over Pont d’Alma gazing at the Louvre in the distance and the Bateaux Mouches as they hug camera flashing tourists on their decks, we walk up Avenue Montaigne while window browsing the most famous luxury stores and meet the Champs Elysees. Turning right we walk along the busy avenue watching the crazy drivers while admiring the symmetry of the Arc de Triomphe as it mirrors the Place de la Concorde. The Grand Palais greets you on the right, it’s contemporary-looking glass roof juxtaposing it’s early Beaux-Arts columns. As you get closer to the Alexandre III bridge it’s hard not to feel as if you’re in a movie – the river beneath, and the glowing lamp posts make even the …

The devil on my shoulder

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A lot of my email box is full of spam! Yes, I know at some point it is me that has signed up for the spa/Groupon/cosmetics/fashion/sales newsletter, but I do spend a disproportionate amount of time deleting these annoying daily mailers. However, there is THE one that gets me all tingly when I hear the “ping” noise as it pops into my inbox. As soon as it arrives, it’s bold subject line taunts me until I direct that little arrow and press click… vestiairecollective. A site dedicated to buying and selling pre-owned luxury items from Alaïa to Zadig & Voltaire. It’s my daily drug, the devil on my shoulder, the solid-sugar-covered-in-candy-lollipop to my inner child! Erm… just got to go check on those red Chloe Susanna boots – wish me luck! Just click here… vestiairecollective.com

Move Over Choupette Lagerfeld, there’s a new Kitty in town…

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It’s not often I think about having a little girl, well unless I see them twirling in princess dresses with cute bows in their hair, or when a children’s book like this one comes along… This read has it all! Style, humour, striking illustrations, a beautiful ending and best of all, stunning handbags. I loved following Coco Le Chat, written by South African born Nadine Rubin Nathan, and her fabulous wardrobe of glitzy tutus and extraordinary fascinators to my all time favourite city – New York. The pampered Parisian pussy takes you around the Big Apple dazzling the paparazzi while visiting renowned hotels, shopping the finest department stores and even lunching with a famous Editor (Psssst, can you guess?) If you’re a mama of girls (I tried very hard with my boys, but they kept asking about the one sports car that appeared on one of the pages completely missing the point!) they will love the mix of real life photography and illustration. They will revel in Coco’s outfits, the bright colours, her rhyming adventures and my …

Splash out on him!

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Move over 50 Shades of Grey – seems I’m happy with the Orlebar Brown catalogue that was just slipped through our mailbox this morning. I know what you’re thinking and yes, obviously it’s the well-tailored swim shorts in this mini-mag that got me all warm and fuzzy and not the models sans shirts! Mom jeans, ill-fitting swimwear and thick rubber-sold shoes are on my list of worst wardrobe faux pas, the others are for another day but to help with number two on my list we applaud the British brand Orlebar Brown. The creation of Adam Brown, who noticed on a holiday with friends that all the women around the pool looked great but the men didn’t (I’m guessing a smorgasbord of speedos and down-to-the-knee over-sized boardies), so he decided to create a range of shorts that you could splash in but that you needn’t change out of when heading for lunch – Thank you Adam, the female population is forever indebted. The collection is a mix of plain colours, patterns and printed photographs that are unique, practical, trendy, cool, cutting-edge … I …