tres scary

This Spring there was a piece in theguardian called "Terrifying French children's books-in pictures" about blogger Jenny Colgan's take on the books for kids she was seeing in France.
If these book covers make you chuckle and your kids quake, you must see her commentary- so very funny.

All images: theguardian

Paris vs New York

I might be late to the game, but I LOVE these prints by French graphic designer Vahram Muratyan in which he cleverly compares Paris with New York. So vibrant. So cool.

(I do, however, have to admit that I would love to see someone do something like this with a non-glamorous town and make the locals proud. Fuquay-Varina, NC anyone? Can I hear it for Hoboken, NJ? Even with other - less popular - world capitals would be awesome).

Images via Paris vs New York blog and shop.

Isabelle Arseneault

I'm really crushing on the work of French illustrator Isabelle Arseneault right now. Anyone with me?

all images via the artist's website: www.isabellearsenault.com

Sophie

Image courtesy of google

I am sure you have seen her. She seems to be everywhere. I did not know a thing about her until my daughter was born, but now Sophie Giraffe is a familiar, much loved, face around here.

In case you have ever wondered, as I did, why this 40-year-old teething toy is so wildly popular (and pricey!) -I did a little research. According to Sophie's site, she is a longtime favorite because she is the first baby toy to stimulate all five senses. She is smooth and soft, with contrasting light and dark coloring from food paints- she squeaks and the distinctive smell of the rubber from the Hevea tree has proved to be pleasing to babies everywhere. In other words....this little giraffe is perfect.

If you are looking for something sweet and practical for that next baby shower- look no further!

Image courtesy of google

Manon Gignoux

via antler magazine

There is such a dreamy and other-worldly quality to Manon Gignoux's aesthetic that I just adore. If you haven't heard of her - she's a French stylist, designer, and artist and everything she creates from jewelry to surreal fabric statues to her own workspace seems to reflect a meeting of reality and fantasy. She sees her own work as existing "between art and fashion" and I love how she explains her influences:

"The origins of my work can be traced back to my last year of study at France’s Duperré School of Applied Arts when I carried out a photographic study of the clothes worn by workers in the early 20th century and explored the "traces of wear and tear" on clothes. Starting with details of a hundred or so photographs taken from books, I filled research notebooks and ended up with four themes: the "carpenter" or the traces of alteration, the "washerwoman" or the imprint of repeated movements, the "inside-out suit" or the dynamics of (de)construction, and the "woman shopkeeper" or the encounter between work clothes and everyday life and the way an object that is worn fits the body."

- from Manon Gignoux's "creative approach" statement

via Bloesem

via sam's notebook

via Facteur Céleste
via pia jane bijkerk

To see more of Gignoux's work go to her blog: Manon Gignoux
To see more pictures of her amazing studio go to: pia jane bijkerk

Fall in France

Though I'm in North Carolina and not France - these gorgeous pictures taken in and around Montpellier's Botanical Garden by Sonia of CozyMemories feel very right to me on this rainy fall day in NC...

Reason to love rain (#1)

One of the prettiest films I've ever seen is the French musical "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964) directed by Jacques Demy (I just the other day made the connection that Demy was married to Agnès Varda). Rich with yellow and pinks and constant rain. Is there anything more romantic?

"Selecting A Reader"

First, I would have her be beautiful,
and walking carefully up on my poetry
at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,
her hair still damp at the neck
from washing it. She should be wearing
a raincoat, an old one, dirty
from not having money enough for the cleaners.
She will take out her glasses, and there
in the bookstore, she will thumb
over my poems, then put the book back
up on its shelf. She will say to herself,
"For that kind of money, I can get
my raincoat cleaned." And she will.

by Ted Kooser

A sampling of "Umbrella" posters:

I like these as a pair. Because of the blue and musical notes.

Hello yellow. Notice how 3 of these posters are of the exact same image? Her umbrella, his arm.

I love the vertical lines, as rain, in these two.

And why not make it a double feature with that other soggy, but vibrant musical - "Singin' in the Rain" (1952)?

"If you opened people up, you would find landscapes; if you opened me up, you would find beaches." Agnès Varda

"Cleo from 5 to 7" (1961) by Agnès Varda

This past weekend was the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, NC. Last year I saw "Man on Wire" at Full Frame which then went on to wide release and to win an Oscar for best documentary. However, at the time, I knew nothing of the movie and, though I found it to be such a profoundly beautiful and moving film, what made it even more so was that I went on a whim to see it. I stumbled upon it with no expectation and discovered one of my favorite films.

This year I saw "The Beaches of Agnès" by French filmmaker / photographer / conceptual artist Agnès Varda who tells the story of her life as (her words): "a kaleidoscope, a collage, a fantasy."
And not only was it such a tender and compelling story about an 80 year old woman looking back at her fascinating life, but to see her create and be creating, here, in this film, was inspiring.

Some of my favorite images include: a pair of grown men pushing a cart loaded down with a projector and screen projecting a film which starred their father (a man they only remember in photos), the director in a giant blue whale, the director cleaning herself "like a cat" before eating a giant "American breakfast" of pancakes the size of her face, the use of mirrors, of nets. And wouldn't it be fun to go through her film catalogue backwards, as a type of homage to the scenes of Varga's own physical representation of remembering? The stepping backwards - away from the camera, carefully and slowly - such a lovely, lovely image.