Given the fame of this book - even at my local bookstore I had to pay 2 Euro especially for reading it - I was expecting something much more interesting. It is supposed to be a guide of of love, style and other (bad) habits of a Parisian woman, but it can easily suit, at least partially, other women too. Like from Italy, or Spain or maybe from Greece too. Anyway, it is an easy reading, with many glamorous pictures - sometimes much better than the text itself.
Trying to keep being on the good side of things, here are a couple of advices that are useful for any women, wherever they are:
- Find your perfume before you are 30 and wear it for the next 30 years - Seriously, with so many interesting perfumes around, it is a pitty to just stay stucked to one and only. Plus, you need to change for different parts of the day and occassions. Seriously, the life is more complex than it used to be...
- 'Too much Make-up, too many colours, too many accessoires. Breath deep - less is more'. This is something I agree with...
- 'You play the main role in your life'. I could not agree more and this is something not a Parisian should know, isn't it?
- Salt&Pepper belongs to the table not to your hair.
- The Parisian is ever happy. Like I tell you are the most beautiful woman in the world and you said it is not enough for you. Art, culture and politics are exactly her thing - To be very honest did not feel that this is exactly an advice to follow. Instead, learning to be happy with your lot is the best lifestyle lesson ever.
- Being original is not a compliment. - But we are unique, each and every one of us, isn't it?
- What you will not find in her closet: nylon polyester jogging pants, UGG Boots, free top, fake design bag, jeans with holes. - Except the UGG which are too comfortable to be left behind, I swear I do not own any of these items either.
- What she always has in the closet: black items, V-Pulllover, Pull marine. I knew it, I was always a Parisian...
- The Parisian often comes outside Paris, but she is born again there. - It goes for Berlin too, I think. Or NYC, nothing special about that actually...
- The natural look is the result of well kept secrets transmitted from a generation to another.
- What you will not do for your skin? - Here you got me, dear writers. I am so 100% with you that I forget everything I disliked about this book.
- She is by nature a melancholic being. - I don't think that this is necessarily something you should include as part of your to-be-to-do-list. Unless you want to spend a serious amount of money on therapy.
- Only the best wins - Kind of stock markets advices for the fashionable women.
- Dinner in Paris starts with Champagne. - I am too much wine-oriented to change now.
- Together with her children she can always find dream worlds to explore, where herself she would love to live for ever, when she does not need to return to her adult world where she can work for a salary. - Maybe this is just a literary trick.
- Being rich does not mean a design bag, an expensive car, a golden watch or a ring on every finger, but a newspaper under the armpit, talking self aware about Deleuze, her personality who is shining. Money versus intellectual richness. - #pleasegivemeabreak. This was on the time of Madame Bovary, isn't it?
What I also did not find great about this book is the structure of the chapters and the distribution of ideas all over the book. Practically, you can find many ideas about the same thing spread here and there.
The verdict: Read it if you do not have something to keep your mind busy while commuting or waiting in line. Otherwise, you better go to Paris to see the real world.
