L’Art de Vivre – To Be Sure There is Nothing Quite Like French Glamour – But Do You Know Your French Eco-Glamour?

What does Chanel #5, the world’s most famous perfume and Catherine Deneuve, one of the world’s most beautiful women, have in common? The answer is French Glamour.

And what of Limoges Porcelain, Gobelins Tapestry, Louis Vuitton Handbags, Savon de Marseille, Aubade Lingerie, and Fine Jewelry and Watches handmade by Van Cleef & Arpels all have in common? The answer is French Glamour – Yes, also synonymous with ‘LUXURY’.

And what of Monet’s Water Lily Paintings, and Claude Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’ and the Musee du Louvre itself, one of the greatest museums in all the world have in common? ‘GREAT ART’ – True! – But the answer, once again, is French Glamour.

And finally what do you think of when you hear the brand names – Givenchy, Christian Dior, Pierre Cardin and Yves St. Laurent? –Yes, ‘HAUTE COUTURE’ truly! – But once again the imagery that these great houses of fashion can evoke is much like the Palace of Versailles, the Castles of the Loire Valley, and the Vineyards of Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne – a sumptuous collection of French Glamour at its very best.

My introduction to French glamour had its roots in both its language and its cooking style as it developed over the centuries – for I am the product line of a mad dash of 10th century Dukes of Normandy, a sprinkling of 12th century Counts of Poitou and Provence, a splendiferous mix of 13th century Capetian Kings and Plantagenet Kings and an unshakeable pinch of 17th century Huguenot craftsmen. But that is not why I and 80 million other tourists go back to France each year making France the world’s most visited country. Have you not heard? France is undergoing a ‘Green Revolution’ and its leading image is now that of Style AND Sustainability – in essence – FRENCH ECO-GLAMOUR!

You can see it in their development of glamorous green tourism businesses, (‘camping ecologique’) now taking France by storm – in moderately priced eco-campsites like the ones being offered by Celine Bossane’s ‘Huttopia’, which offers eco-camping in Versailles, Rambouillet and Senonche, Font-Romeu in the Pyrenees and Rillé in the Loire Valley – to luxury-priced eco-yurts in the Dordogne county of Aquitaine in southwestern France. Perhaps the most glamorous of these five-star eco-campsites is my favorite – ‘Camping Les Moulins’ – whose tents were designed by Cartier no less and are located on the lovely beaches of Ile de Noirmoutier in the picturesque Vendee region of West Central France. You can also see French Eco-Glamour in their sustainable farming techniques – my favorite being the production of ‘French Rabbit Wines’ by the Boisset family in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France – and in their eco-glamorous cutting-edge ski resorts – my favorite being Kalinda Village at Tignes les Broisses, the first and biggest eco-village in the French Alps.

You can also find French Eco-Glamour in their ‘Reversible’ brand-named eco-handbags made of recycled materials and Katell Gelebart’s transformation of food packaging into eco-chic dresses, jackets, and aprons and ‘Iroisie’s’ eco-beauty products for women, an organic skin care line of ‘cosmetiques biologiques’, founded by Anne Bontour whose source of inspiration came from her summers spent with her two grandmothers – countrywomen who lived by the sea in France’s northern Brittany – ‘Mer d’Iroisie’. How romantic-sounding is that? Not to be outdone by such eco-inspirational beginnings are the forests of France which have now doubled in size since 1950 making France the third largest forested surface area in Europe after Sweden and Finland. In particular seven miles west of Nice beyond the glitz and glamour of Cannes on the French Riviera, perched high above the medieval village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence in southeastern France, are the glamorous cedar wood lodgings of ‘Orion Treehouse B&B’ – the very definition of charm and excitement.

But not all that is French eco-sophistication and eco-glamour is new – indeed the conceptual birth of “Eco-Museums” originated in France back in 1971 – the brainchild of George Henri Riviere and Hugues de Varine – an idea which promoted special places whereby communities could actively participate in the preservation, interpretation and management of their own cultural heritage for sustainable development thru both indoor and outdoor exhibitions. As a result half of all the three hundred plus ‘Eco-Museums’ in the world today are in France.

And then there is the eco-glamorous ‘Paris Flea Market’, locally known as ‘Marche aux Puces de Saint-Ouen’ – the most renowned flea market in the world which covers 17 acres and welcomes 70,000 visitors per week with rows of discarded shards of civilization – bits of ‘distressed couture’ saved from bulging landfills and dumpsters. Opened in Paris in 1885, the Paris Flea Market offers shoppers with ‘upcycling’ talent – everything from hand-forged antiques to vintage clothes to decorative curiosities to playful kitsch and outright castoffs at bargain prices. Today, there are now customized ‘junk picking’ tours operating out of the USA to visit its 3000 plus stalls which gives ‘couture cycling’ new meaning – a sense of eco-glamour – which again is worth repeating – there is nothing quite like French glamor whether it be on the Avenue of the Champs-Elysees or your own repurposed French patterned pavers.