Francine Gardner - Art de Vivre: Art de Vivre

Showing posts with label Art de Vivre. Show all posts

Monday, June 10, 2013

Swimming pools...La piscine

Romy Schneider and Alain Delon in the french movie La Piscine

I live for the warm days and nights of summer. I live by the pool. By the pool, I sleep, dream, read, entertain, be with friends, my family, and swim...mornings and nights...I swim. It is my therapy, my relaxation, my time out, my reward for all my hard work in the garden.

So many styles, shapes, sizes of swimming pools can provide endless pleasure.

Mine is my retreat, hidden from the house, surrounded by stone walls and my favorite scents of Rosemary, lavender and roses. Scents of my childhood summers, on the hills of Eze village above the Mediterranean.

My summer pleasures

Enjoy a great swim!

A Bientot,

Francine

If you would like me to create your personal and ideal home, contact me about our Interior Design Services

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Designing Greenwich Show

Our latest design, The Ariane Chaise

Last summer, I was approached by Mimi Sternlicht owner of the Loading dock and Meg Wendy to participate in a new type of trade show, an exhibition of sorts of designers' vignettes, art, antiques and furniture.

The show, to be held at the Loading Dock in Stamford, was to be high end and intimate, reaching out to an upscale local audience of Greenwich and other Fairfield County towns.

At the time, I thought it might be a good venue to reach this specific audience, as I live in the area but my showroom and my work are in New York. I would love to have an office in Greenwich or Stamford and build a local clientele.

Of course, you can have the best plan in the world, but in life , as we well know, there is no guarantee... Mother nature played her trick, first a hurricane two weeks prior to the show which made it impossible for some of my artisans to work, as their lower manhattan studios had no electricity, then scrambling to get furniture ready on time within the few remaining days, and finally a perverse coup de grace of a wild nor-easter snowstorm that made moving furniture pretty close to hellish! It took my wonderful electrician 10 hours to get home to New York when it would normally be an hour ride. I forgot to add to the equation the search for gas as most gas stations were depleted and huge lines guarded by local police were to be found at the few open gas stations. My husband and my son saved the day, by renting a huge rattling truck, picked up the furniture at various locations under torrential rain snow mix and helped move everything into our booth.

Opening day: Exhausted but thrilled to have pulled it off, I really had no idea of what to expect. Very interesting lectures were taking place throughout the day, Vicente Wolf spoke and stopped by my booth where we chatted for a while, I listened to a great talk by Forence de Dampiere about French Chic...(I had to brush up on my french style...)

The day dragged on. My only experience with shows is crowds of people bombarding you with questions... I panicked a little, all this energy, time and financial investment... and I am standing idle in my booth with Jennifer my associate. But to day is a new day, I look at this as a new experience, Mimi and Meg are wonderful, I met a couple of interesting designers and who knows what tomorrow will bring?!?

Our booth 15x15 facing the entrance

I painted the booth with Benjamin latest paint collection

In lieu of a canopy , Jennifer and I resorted to chicken wire to install the Simon chandelier

Installing a chandelier...

Furniture delivered

Out look for this show was to go "modern glamour, eclectic"

Our new wing chair design: Jeanelle

Ariane sofa with To Turn You On table

Wide view of our booth

The Ariane chaise

Getting home after a totally exhausting day of picking up the furniture in different new York locations, installing the booth, spending hours hanging the Kadur chandelier (which sold ) I was ready to go home and collapse.Instead I was a raging woman with a broom, trying to save my trees whose branches were collapsing under the heavy snow.

Friday, May 13, 2011

A stroll through Paris...a personal journey

image: flicker

I was very honored when Christina of Greige Design suggested that I could be a guest blogger while she enjoys time away. Blogging has become a very personal journey as I am able to share ideas, design inspirations, travel stories via words and images, an electronic common place book of sorts. My blog Francine Gardner Art De Vivre is a synopsis of who I am, someone who just loves family, life, nature, far away cultures and brings all these experiences into my design work.
I left the South West of France at the age of 18 to study in United States (Boston), a country that has fascinated me to the point that I am now a US citizen. But I will always love PARIS. I believe if there is a "place one must see before you die", please make it Paris.

Paris through the eye of Henri Cartier Bresson

You may, if you wish, follow me on my stroll through my favorite part of this extraordinary city.
Arrive early morning at the small Lenox Hotel on Rue de l'Universite in Saint Germain where I always stay, shower, clean clothes and off I start my free day before meetings, shows etc.. breakfast at Cafe Flore where wealthy locals and tourists meet to chat , see and be seen. Then a long magnificent walk along the Seine to my favorite museum, Musee du Quai Branly.

image:images.businessweek.com

Cross the Seine and heads to the Musee de l'Orangerie where all walls of two large rooms are covered with massive canvases of Monet Water Lillies. A profound beautiful experience not to be missed.

Monet:WaterLillies

Keep walking through gardens and enjoy a well deserved lunch on the terrace of Cafe Marly, overlooking the Louvre.
Then on to some shopping, all Streets of Saint Germain are filled with art galleries and boutiques but I always end up at the Bon Marche, their food emporium is a treat to all senses, their hip women's fashion department irresistible, let's not mention the shoes....there, you see french women at work...shopping.
Back to the Flore for a chevre chaud, dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, alone or with friends, then, my nightly walk, through Place de Furstenberg, magical at night, getting lost in the small streets of the quartier latin and crossing the bridge to Isle Saint Louis. Along the way, I spend hours browsing the shelves of the bookstores which stay open until midnight. The french love to read... I usually end up buying boxes of books that I ship back to New York.
My free day is over, off to sleep.

My dear friends Monique Duveau, food critic and style editor at Cote Sud, and artist Jose Esteves have introduced me to their favorite restaurants, numerous memorable diners that still tease my taste buds.

Lily-Wang, designed by Jacques Garcia. Simply superb Asian fusion dishes.

40 Avenue Duquesne, Paris 7th # 01 53 86 09 09

Casa Olympe: Olympe is one of the most celebrated chefs in France, fresh breads, inseason truffles, cheeses from Corsica, crayfish...her dishes are an inspiration and a delight to the senses.